Thinking about raising quail and have Q's

[jmofaustin]

Well, I would like to get the breed that lays the largest egg, does anyone have an opinion on that? What is the normal lifespan? Is it feasible to only have about 6 hens for eggs for my family of three? Has anyone ever raised quail in a bird cage in the house? My husband would never let me, just curious. If I were to raise them for meat also, I would need more I know, how difficult is it to process them? TIA - Jacky

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
Three to five quail eggs = one chicken egg. Quail can be pretty stinky, so you wouldn't want very many in the house in a cage. Maybe in the garage if you were VERY careful to keep the cage clean, but even then it will get somewhat odorous in the summer.

Cotornix are the type traditionally raised for eggs. 6 would not be enough for a family of three unless you only planned on having eggs one or two times a week.

I'll leave processing questions to someone else. That's not my area.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
when I process them I like using latex exam gloves I trap and I am used to using them to skin my catch with because most days during hunting trapping season I am skinning something the processing of quail normally take me from 1-2 minutes to do one the first one may take 3-4 minutes but the last one is only 1 min I use a pair of scissors most of the time and I skin them too if you google processing quail there is a good example on utube of a hunter processing one

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
when I process them I like using latex exam gloves I trap and I am used to using them to skin my catch with because most days during hunting trapping season I am skinning something the processing of quail normally take me from 1-2 minutes to do one the first one may take 3-4 minutes but the last one is only 1 min I use a pair of scissors most of the time and I skin them too if you google processing quail there is a good example on utube of a hunter processing one

I always pluck my birds quail included.

You throw away most of the flawor with the skin. To me it does not make sense.

Why bother to raise birds and then give up the best meat flawor?

Sure plucking is more work but "there is no gain without pain"

 

[Robo]

jmofaustin wrote:
Well, I would like to get the breed that lays the largest egg, does anyone have an opinion on that? What is the normal lifespan? Is it feasible to only have about 6 hens for eggs for my family of three? Has anyone ever raised quail in a bird cage in the house? My husband would never let me, just curious. If I were to raise them for meat also, I would need more I know, how difficult is it to process them? TIA - Jacky

The breed that lays the largest egg is jumbo brown coturnix. If you get six you will get between 4 and 6 eggs every day. To feed a family of 3 eggs once a day you will need about a dozen hens. As far as processing goes, I just wring the necksand skin them from the head down. You also have to cut off their feet from the knee down. You can raise under 3 dirds in the house with little to no smell. You would have to change their bedding very often though, because of their high amonia smell.

 

[kingmt]

I don't like the taste of the bird if the skin is left on them so skinning is the way I go. I made killing cones out of 20 oz. pop bottles. I drop one in cut the neck & let it bleed out. It takes me about 10 to 15 min. to take 6 or 7 birds from cage to freezer.

 

[jmofaustin]

Thank you all for the replies! I guess if jumbo brown lay the largest egg, than that's what I will look for. I also noticed they don't go broody, so has anyone used a silkie chicken to hatch their quail eggs?
I have chickens too, so I wouldn't need to eat quail eggs everyday.

 

[Robo]

You could try it, but there is a disease transfer between quail and chickens. Plus a quail egg is the size of a quarter and the Silkie might squash it.

 

[Rozzie]

Chickens can carry diseases that can make quail sick/die. The chickens may not show any symptoms at all. You will need to keep your birds completely separate and tend to the quail first.

 

[jmofaustin]

Wow, didn't think about the disease transfer.
What is the dress out weight of a jumbo brown? How much bigger are the jumbo brown's eggs compared to a bobwhite? I would love to see an egg comparison picture

anyone have one? Are the eggs much smaller than a serama egg? Thanks so much everyone!