Rough estimate

[rrtimothy]

So, whadda ya think?

 

[rrtimothy]

This will only be for small-scale production.

 

[chrishel]

What is your goal? To sell eggs? The males are kind of useless for that. You could decrease to 1 male for 7 females especially if you just want the male for propagation reasons every so often (replace your hens as they age). Less boys make happier hens. Your fertility rate might be less, but if you don't care so much, you could just incubate more eggs.

Hens will lay about 1 egg per day. They will "skip" a day every so often, but you can count on maybe 6 eggs per hen per week.

Feed will vary depending upon how much your quail waste, but it looks like a good number there.

I question $5/dozen eggs. But the price depends on the market in your area.

 

[Bettacreek]

First of all, good luck making money on coturnix quail, especially a small breeding group like that. I had 8 (7 hens, 1 roo) about three years ago, and they didn't net me any money. However, they won't eat that much either. I believe my group ate 2-3lbs per week? HOWEVER, selling the eggs (or chicks, or POL groups) is not going to get you very much unless you find an awesome market. Some people get into Asian markets, however, they'll typically want an account for more than just two dozen eggs per week. If you look online, many people are trying to just give away coturnix eggs, because they really don't sell well at all. I got freebies that are in the incubator now. I wasn't going to get any, but took up an offer on the freebies because they were coming with serama eggs. I figure I can make the eggs up for the kids, and hatch a few out to take to auction when I have some other birds/eggs/chicks to send to auction to just get a few dollars more to make the trip worth it.

 

[chrishel]

Bettacreek, I agree.

I keep Cots for eggs for my own personal use, then for the fun of raising them, which precipitates a quail dinner or two. I purposely don't keep track of money because I know it's a loss in my case.

8 is a small number and that makes them pets which makes them harder to process. I have 26 now and although none of them have names, I can tell them all apart. I do the selection but my husband does the processing. It makes it easier for everyone.

I can't even give the eggs away to our friends. They look at them weird. I can't replace chicken eggs entirely (quail eggs are richer and cakes are heavier) so we still get about a dozen chicken eggs a month for baking.

 

[Bettacreek]

In all honesty, in quail, for making money, go with button quail. I had a small group of buttons who paid for ALL of my birds. I think I had about 10 or 12 of them. They ate a pound per week, and the eggs sold like hotcakes. Whatever eggs didn't sell, I popped into the incubator, and those I raised until they were fully feathered (6 weeks) and traded them in to the feed/pet store for 50lb bags of gamebird crumble. They reliably laid about 6 eggs per week per hen as well. The eggs aren't much for eating (much more worth it to hatch or sell eggs), and the birds wouldn't be worth much to eat either, unless for snakes (don't feed solely on button quail, or you'll have some NASTY snake poo), or a snack for a raw fed dog or cat. The nice thing about coturnix and buttons is that anybody can ship them. They take up very little space/weight in a shipping box, take very little of your packing materials, and you don't need to meet any special requirements to ship them (no forms to fill out, no permits to pay for, no testing).

 

[midwest]

First of all, good luck making money on coturnix quail, especially a small breeding group like that. I had 8 (7 hens, 1 roo) about three years ago, and they didn't net me any money. However, they won't eat that much either. I believe my group ate 2-3lbs per week? HOWEVER, selling the eggs (or chicks, or POL groups) is not going to get you very much unless you find an awesome market. Some people get into Asian markets, however, they'll typically want an account for more than just two dozen eggs per week. If you look online, many people are trying to just give away coturnix eggs, because they really don't sell well at all. I got freebies that are in the incubator now. I wasn't going to get any, but took up an offer on the freebies because they were coming with serama eggs. I figure I can make the eggs up for the kids, and hatch a few out to take to auction when I have some other birds/eggs/chicks to send to auction to just get a few dollars more to make the trip worth it.

Where do you find free eggs?

 

[Bettacreek]

I've gotten a few sets of free coturnix eggs from this forum actually. They also go for next to nothing on ebay. Just keep an eye out. You'll have to pay shipping for free eggs, but you can find them. You can even put up a post looking for eggs.

 

[rrtimothy]

What is your goal? To sell eggs? The males are kind of useless for that. You could decrease to 1 male for 7 females especially if you just want the male for propagation reasons every so often (replace your hens as they age). Less boys make happier hens. Your fertility rate might be less, but if you don't care so much, you could just incubate more eggs.

Hens will lay about 1 egg per day. They will "skip" a day every so often, but you can count on maybe 6 eggs per hen per week.

Feed will vary depending upon how much your quail waste, but it looks like a good number there.

I question $5/dozen eggs. But the price depends on the market in your area.

Ahh.you see this is why I put this on here. So you guys could show me the faults!
The market here is pretty high. On CL I saw a dozen go for $7 each.

 

[Bettacreek]

Seeing them listed for $7 doesn't mean that they're selling. Anyone can put an ad up on CL for any price they choose, but it doesn't mean that they'll sell. Even if one batch goes for that, doesn't mean it's consistently going to bring in that price. I rarely ever see coturnix on local classifieds anymore, and when they're up, it's typically $2-$3/laying age bird, and that's about what you'd get at auction here. Eggs, in the rare chance that they hit auction, are typically under a dollar per dozen. I have a buddy who used to raise them. He still does, but he hardly has any these days, because they just don't sell. :/ He had about 200 of them at one point, but downsized because of the poor return.