I decided to dispatch before the 8 week dispatch date for several reasons. First, I had read that quail at 8 weeks, though a little larger, is tougher than 7 week birds. So I was going to shoot for the 7 week birds, until I talked to Robbie at JMF, which is where I got my eggs. I felt he would know my birds better than anyone. He told me that he dispatched at 5 1/2 to 6 weeks, which he did because they would be more uniform in size, which is what the restaurants wanted. Once they past the 6 week stage, the roo, though getting larger, would slim down in the breast area. That created a problem with the restaurants, which wanted uniform birds. My daughter brought some birds over last week, some were 6 weeks, and some were 8 weeks. I could definitely see a difference in the quail breasts of the larger birds. Robbie did say the birds got a couple of ounces larger, but that it didn't really warrant the extra week of feed in his opinion. I tend to agree with that.
When Robbie told me this, it solved another problem I was having, that I had no more room for another cage. The area where I keep my cages was completely filled, but I needed another 30x36 cage to take the birds all the way to 7 weeks. So the 6 week dispatch date really works best for me.
I am really just at the start of raising birds for meat. I've been raising them for the last 9 months for eggs, but that only required two cages. I'm finding that it is requiring a lot more work from me for the meat and I may not be able to continue. Besides my job I am running for County Assessor this year, so I have been overwhelmed with things that have to get done. I'm almost afraid that raising quail to 6 weeks is a little more on my plate than I can handle. I'll just have to wait and see...
