Starting up Coturnix Quail questions

[9d84runner]

We have decided to try raising coturnix quail for meat and eggs I suppose if they start laying them but I have some question I haven't been able to find answers too.

We are building their hutch and we want to get 30 birds. I understand it needs to be no larger than 12" tall but what's recommend length and width? I keep finding 2 answers for square footed per bird.

How many nest areas do we need? What do they prefer? I've seen boxes with straw or pine shavings, boxes with sand and pots on their sides with straw.

Last question is about how many females vs. Males ratio. We will not be breeding them so does it matter? Will I need to add sections?

 

[jvls1942]

I raised quail for awhile.
just for kicks and giggles, I figured out if you kept them all and let them rebreed and multiply for a year.
just one pair would end up being over a million in a year..
I agree, don't bother with building nests for them,. they just won't use them,,
Make a few openings in the top of the cages to make egg collecting easier.
do plan on hatching your replacement birds. buying eggs or baby quail is expensive..
If you are planning on really raising a lot of quail for sale. look into a battery box set up. it is just a bunch of cages stacked one on top of another until it is about 6 or 8 cages high.
kind of expensive initially, but will last a life time and make taking care of them much easier.
don't get syked out that it would be caged birds. that is the only way you can manage large numbers of birds. they are in the cages for only about 8 weeks ..
the cages take up only about a 3 foot square space on the floor compared to a large building if spread out horizontally ..

If you hard boil the eggs, soak them in vinegar water for over night and the shells will pop right off.
it takes 40 eggs to make a quart of pickled eggs.

........jiminwisc......

 

[jvls1942]

boil the eggs first, then soak them in vinegar over night.
the shells soften and you can squeeze the egg out like a grape..
it has been a long time since I did this. in the back of my mind I am thinking it was not pure vinegar.. just a strong mixture with water.

If you are not breeding the quail, you do not need any roosters..
.......jiminwisc....

ETA:
I set my brooder at 80F at all time. it works for all types of birds. No adjusting needed once it is set.
.

 

[jvls1942]

quail can run like the dickens soon after they hatch. not lethargic like chickens .. and they can hike under a postage stamp.
I used to take an incubator to a grade school with quail eggs. the waiting period for them to hatch is so much less than chicken eggs.
easier on the teachers' nerves..LOL

......jiminwisc....

Thanks for the reply. I'm gonna try that technique. I am breeding the quail, I already have 24 birds and I have 24 eggs in the incubator as we speak, they are due to hatch today.

 

[xcalibor67]

Im brand new @ Quail as well...The guy where i purchased my birds informed me that regardless of what nest box you build, or where you put it is futile. He had several large pens, coops etc and the eggs were scattered everywhere. He said some may nest/sleep in straw filled boxes, but as a whole, they laid and slept where they took a notion..This may not hold true always, but he showed me the eggs scattered, and napping birds throughout the coops, pens etc.. I am thinking of meat birds as well, but i noticed you said "We will not be breeding them"..How will you sustain your birds without breeding?

 

[9d84runner]

Well I suppose they would breed until we butcher them but I know some people will incubate new eggs, hatch them and start over. We would just go back to the farm and purchase new ones.

 

[DK newbie]

The usual recommendation for coturnix is 1 sqft per bird. Usually 2 ft deep will allow you to reach the eggs easily from the front of the enclosure and the length will then depend on the number of birds you want to house.
The males tend to start fighting, chasing the girls and so on at around 6 weeks, so from this point on there should be at most 1 male in each enclosure that has females. If you gather all the males in the same enclosure and make sure it has no females, that should work too - they are much less likely to fight when there are no females around.
Some people simply butcher the males at 6 weeks to avoid the trouble and let the girls grow out for a few more weeks.

 

[xcalibor67]

We would just go back to the farm and purchase new ones.

That would get a lil expensive around here, @ 2/3 per bird, i am def. going to try an breed/incubate my birds, hopefully to be self sustaining.

 

[feedman77]

If you keep 12 to 15 hens and a couple of males. That will keep you in more than enough fertile eggs.

If they laided daily for the most part 12 eggs a day. You could fill a Styrofoam incubator with quail turners every 10 days. Figuring an 80 percent hatch rate usually higher. After you get 2 trays set you could theoretically hatch 96 quail a week. If you did that for 3 months you could have over 900 quail and the first trays would be starting to breed and lay by the time the last few trays hatched.

It's pretty easy to get over run with lots of quail just off the Initial run of birds.

Pretty easy to self sustain with cots.

 

[9d84runner]

Thank you for answering all my questions. We are going to give it a run. We picked up 42 quail that are a week old (some look less than a week) and so far 6 have died... 2 looked like they all of a sudden got wry neck and tried vitamin water which didn't work and the others just seemed lethargic. I'm assuming we will lose more but hopefully not. Sounds like it's sort of common to loose some.