Should i get Quail? ~ LOTS OF QUESTIONS

[shelleyd2008]

Yes, 1 male to 5 females is about average, I wouldn't have less than 2 or 3 females. I had a roo in with 7 females, and he seemed to handle things okay. But 1:5 is a good ratio to ensure that the eggs are fertile.

Coturnix aren't loud, if they have enough females they won't crow much at all. Now, if you have them inside, and/or they don't have enough females, look out! The first two I ever hatched were both males, and in my spare bedroom. Talk about deafening!! Especially if I were in there cleaning

But normally they aren't too bad.

 

[shelleyd2008]

One other thing. Quail need to have a high protein diet. A game bird or turkey starter would be best as babies, then switch to a game bird maintenance/layer feed around 4 weeks old. This will help with the egg laying, and will also help with the fertility.

saddina~~ Are you sure yours are female? Are you sure they are coturnix? What feed do you feed yours, and how are they housed? Is it possible that they are eating the eggs? Try switching them to a high protein (20%+) feed, like flock raiser, gamebird starter/grower, or something similar. And give them some oyster shell for calcium. I feed mine oyster shells on top of their gamebird layena.

So far, I'm getting 17 eggs daily from 17 birds since I started the layena!!

ETA: and that's every day, with no one skipping

 

[saddina]

No I'm about to start incubating quail, my chickens are girls (and senior cocky) and the darn hens still won't give up an egg, meanwhile hubby has let me know with the price of grocery eggs, he expects me to keep hens for 13 years till the coop is paid off.

The long wait with the hens, and the city limiting me to 4, is why I started looking into quail (and now that I have a friend who manages a restruant wants me to grow them some).

 

[shelleyd2008]

Oic! That makes sense

I was thinking no way would a coturnix hen go that long, maybe a bobwhite, but that's it!

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

I have some friends that live in Louisville, they are limited to 5 chickens. I tried talking them into getting quail, but they went with the chickens anyway. I have no idea why!