Thinking of getting quail

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I hope that this thread keeps going. I'm watching it now. I too am interested in Quail - so interested that I have ordered my eggs and incubator. Eggs should be here early next week and the incubator should be here tomorrow or Friday. I have 7 chickens currently in a suburban lot. I really upped the scale with the Quail - we ordered 100 eggs 50 from one source and 50 from another. I will be keeping the quail relatively close to the chickens run, but not in contact with each other. I'm hoping to minimize disease transfer between the species and undo stress to the quail from my large breed chickens. Hopefully a fence/gate and a few feet of open ground is enough as I would like to keep the entire bird
I intend to raise them on wire for meat and eggs. I will likely have 4 3'x8'x2' pens. I want to stack them in two stacks, 2 wire pens in each stack, 2' off the ground and 1'-2' in between. It seems terrible compared to the 100+ square ft I provide for the 7 hens. The hens are pets though who provide eggs as a bonus. The quail are going to be a but more of a production project. I hope to get 60-75 birds from the 100 eggs. I hope to double that number in rather short time once the first group is able to start breading (next batch of eggs will go in the incubator in March ideally). So that's up to 150 quail in a total of 96 square ft. I intend to cull quite a bit, keeping a number of the hens for egg production and only the heaviest, healthiest, best looking birds for breading. Then I intend to repeat the cycle. Breed adults, hatch and grow chicks, cull the young when mature keeping only what I need to continue egg production and breeding, and repeat. This should get me into a 2 month program. My layers will get to stick around for 1-2 years. My breeders should be able to stick around for a few breeding cycles at least (I'm told I can breed parent/child and grandparent/grandchild, but not sibling/sibling so I will need to keep the breeders around for a few generations). Breeding hens will then go to the layer pens to live out their days happily and breeding males will be culled or sold as the exit the breeding program. PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK ON THIS BREEDING STRATEGY.
Aside from weight, I'm not exactly sure what to look for in looks and health :idunno - I know I cannot breed a dead quail, that's start right?:lau I hope somebody can share pictures of ideal quail and point out what makes them the best looking. Also, if you are a resident expert in identify health problems in quail, especially at the 8-10 week mark when I intend to cull to the freezer, please share you wisdom on what to watch for.:old

That's a good start to hopefully kickstart this thread and get some help from the experienced quail raisers out there. I'm sure I will come up with more soon, especially as I get into the incubation, brooding, and so forth.
 
I am planning on doing the same thing I only have eight 9 day old jumbo brown Coturnix quail at the moment. I have 60 eggs on order from James Marie Farms 30 jumbo meat maker and 30 jumbo recessive white. I am ordering a 3 cage 4 section batterie cage from Wynola Ranch they look like really nice quail cages. I also have a new double stacked rabbit cage with a 1/2” wire floors and clean out pans for back up. Can’t wait to get started with the new order. One thing I see from the 8 quail I have is wow do they ever poop a lot sheesh.
 
I am planning on doing the same thing I only have eight 9 day old jumbo brown Coturnix quail at the moment. I have 60 eggs on order from James Marie Farms 30 jumbo meat maker and 30 jumbo recessive white. I am ordering a 3 cage 4 section batterie cage from Wynola Ranch they look like really nice quail cages. I also have a new double stacked rabbit cage with a 1/2” wire floors and clean out pans for back up. Can’t wait to get started with the new order. One thing I see from the 8 quail I have is wow do they ever poop a lot sheesh.
The Jumbo Browns I ordered a certified as a James Marie line. The sure do look impressive, don't they? I ended up changing sources today for one of my orders because I just found out that the source I had in NC decided to refund my money with no communication. I am getting all of my eggs now from Orchard Hill Poultry out of GA. 50 Jumbo Brown and 50 TX A&M White. I wanted some variety to see what interesting crosses breeds I develop. I intent to breed true lineage of each bird as well - it's not absolutely necessary to recreate the wheel, but it sure can be fun.
 
Anyone who keeps quail on wire, be sure they have sandboxes and some brush to hide under. The sandboxes help keep them parasite-free and give them a place to stand that's not on wire, and the brush lets them hide and have a bit of enrichment. Production birds need enrichment too.
Do you use just sand? I know many people offer dust baths for chickens can be as simple as just sand or very complex containing specific ratios of peat, dirt, DE, wood ashes, and who knows what else.
 

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