My bf and I have been planning for a while to get a few coturnix quail for meat and eggs, but when I sent him off to get the birds (an hour drive) he came home with four Bobwhites instead. The breeder told him they were much better than coturnix for food-- obviously he was tricked. So now I have two boys and two girls of a breed I am totally not prepared for and looking for advice. We are no doubt stuck with them, and I want to make sure we do things right. Is there a lot of difference between them and coturnix? What can I do to make sure they produce at full potential? We have them in a 2 x 3 cage currently that I had prepared for the coturnix, with game bird feed we got from the breeder. I'm suspicious of it so we also got meal worms to supplement. I don't know how old these birds are, but they have a few remaining pin feathers on their butts and backs. They're insanely skittish so I put a towel over half the cage and am going to make a box for them to hide in tomorrow. From what I understand, they take a long time to mature and only lay eggs in the summer. Will keeping a light on a 14 hour timer help? Also, these will exclusively be indoors, around a 75 degree temperature. I'm also worried about the males potentially fighting. I had been expecting 3 female and 1 male bird. Should we cull one male, and when? I have an incubator on the way from Amazon so we can at least build a bit of a population.
Sorry this is a lot. I take raising animals extremely seriously.
Hi, as far as Bob's being better for consumption is a matter of preference, there's no difference in the composition of the muscle. The only difference in "taste" would be how they were prepared and cooked.
Bob's can be skittish if not handled or don't have a lot of human contact.
A 2 x 3 cage will work for 4 birds but the bigger the enclosure the better, less fighting for space.
You will want to feed them a high protein feed, 24% is adequate. No need for grit, unless your feeding grains. If you want too, you can give them "greens", small pieces of romain lettuce or kale will work just fine. Clean water is one of the most important factors in raising quail. Feces, debris and other contaminates in their water will lead to disease.
You can put a small pan of sand or DE in their cage for dust bathes, most quail love to dust bathe.
Bob's are seasonal layers.
They usually start in April - May and will lay until Aug - Sept time frame. Putting a light on them will make them start laying sooner but also "wears them out" sooner....I raise my outdoors but in the past, I've had them indoors. I didn't use artificial lighting to make them lay earlyer.
In that size cage, I would either cull the 1 male or have another cage for the other pair. They will all get along fine till spring, at which time the males will fight in competition for the females. In a larger enclosure, there may still be fighting but not to the point of being deadly.
Many Bob's can be raised in community pens with no difficulties if it is a large enclosure.
Sounds like your birds are in the 6 - 8 weeks old stage. By 10 - 12 weeks, they should be completely feathered out. Their mature at that time but won't lay until spring.
Personally, I prefer Bob's over Coturnix. Cot's are easy to tame but I prefer to hear the Bob's call versus the Cot's. HTH, if you have other questions, just ask! Wish you the best in your quail raising adventure.
