Some interesting "quail facts"

[mochicken]

I was perusing the internet for quail facts because I am starting my "quail breeding operation" and I want facts to give to potential customers in the future that want hatching eggs or birds for food reasons.

This is what I found, tell me if any of it is incorrect please

Quail: Birth to laying= 24oz of feed.
Laying to Full Size= 19.2oz of feed
Birth to Full Size= 2.7lbs/bird, which is about $0.97 worth of feed, @ $0.35/lb (Purina)

Chicken: Birth to laying= 770oz of feed
Laying to Full Size= 350oz of feed
Birth to Full Size= 70lbs/bird, which is about $16.8 worth of feed, @ $0.24/lb (Purina)

So for the time and space of raising 1 chicken to laying age, you can have 4 quail, laying for 17 weeks, yielding ~272 eggs. If you then ate all of the birds, they would yield 0.8lb of meat, containing 100g of protein, costing you $3.88 total in feed.

The single chicken would produce nothing in that time, cost you $16.80 in feed, and after all that, you'd get 274g of Protein out of your average 3.3lb chicken. (Dressed and cleaned. We'll fudge the bones for simplicity's sake)

So the chicken is winning right? Yeah, until you toss in the ~272 eggs, @ 1g of protein each. Add the 100g of quail meat, and you're @ 372g vs 274, or the quail are %30 more efficient @ converting food into edible protein, and cost you 1/4 the $$ in the process.

 

[JulieNKC]

Interesting, thanks!

 

[Orange Ribbon]

There go my chickens! Replacing them all with quail. Well, except for my Speckled Sussex. No way I can part with them. But that is some interesting stuff for sure. Thanks mochicken.

 

[mhwc56]

Quote:
HOWEVER....here are just a few other coturnix facts to consider as well before you get rid of the chickens ...pro and cons
1)Coturnix do need 12-14 hours of light a day to continue laying .
2)it takes 4-5 coturnix eggs to = 1 chicken egg by weight... they are healthier for you to eat than chicken or duck eggs
3)they cannot be free ranged ( at least not more than once..

)
4)They are best kept in raised cages covered in 1/2 " hardware wire all over(except the roof which needs to be solid) and require 1 sq.ft. of living space/adult coturnix
5)They CANNOT be kept with chickens as they are not immune to diseases that many chickens are carriers of ..and sooner or later ,if you do keep them with chickens anyway,you WILL find this to be true.
6)they tend to not be as friendly as chickens and mostly don't appreciate being cuddled or etc. if you like that kind of thing from your chickens.
they require GAMEBIRD Starter feed b/c they need a 26-30% protein level.

 

[mochicken]

Right, good points.

I have no intentions of getting rid of my chickens, I am just starting out with quail and thought the facts were interesting. I think a small quail breeding operation in an urban garage or backyard is a great idea because they require less space and make less noise, although the males are a lil loud when they are "courting" some new females lol.

 

[mhwc56]

They're a great little bird. i have found it to be much too easy to get "overrun" with them if you have an incubator...lol... but they are tastey so that's okay too!
the eggs are amazing. they're a pain to peel if you are doing a lot of them but i think they're worth it.

 

[mochicken]

I have read that some people poke a small hole in the big end of the egg when boiling them to get water between the membrane and the egg. Have any of you tried this?

 

[mhwc56]

no , i'll have to give it a try when they decide to start laying again...everyone's moulting right now. it looks like a feather factory here with enough feathers lying around to fill a couple mattresses! LOL

 

[mochicken]

Mine had a decline over the last couple days, I think the move has got them all screwed up, I got them in their breeding cages today so hopefully in the next couple days they will feel comfortable enough to start laying again

 

[mhwc56]

alot of the time it takes rearranged birds about 2 weeks to settle in.
do you have lights on them ? The indoor/outdoor LEDs for Christmas trees work well and are totally cost efficient