Thinking of raising Quail for meat

[emvickrey]

If you have a reguglar table top incubator like a hovobator or LG you can only get a max of 120 eggs in them. Then you have to wait 15 to 17 days for them to hatch. So if you fill up your bator in one shot you'll have to either eat the eggs, sell them or toss them. They won't keep that long. What I do is I fill up 1 or 2 racks and wait and collect for about a week then fill up another rack, and so on. I hardly get anybody that wants to buy any so I will toss them to the big chickens when they have had to wait too long. I have cortunix hens and 5 Bob White hens and I have 2 bators. I still get too many eggs. Although I only have quail rails in one bator. I have another set sitting at the Post Office my mail carrier failed to bring me today. I plan to put 2 quail rails in my other bator. I have chicken and duck eggs in there now taking up all the space but for 2 rails.

For me to keep it sstraight which ones come out to go in the hatcher I put little tabs with rail number and the lock down date. There is no way I could remember which ones came out next. When I take them out Iput more inand put a new tab with the new date. DH is going to build me a cabinet bator and right now we are collecting the parts for it. Then he's gonna build a 2 or 3 shelf hatcher. That will make more room in the nursery for the brooders and elilminate the styrofoam bators I have to stay glued to to keep temps and humidity right. I spend 2 hours last night standing by the hatcher because it decided it was going to spike in temp. It will be nice to be able to go somewhere to visit for about a week or so with out worry of ruined eggs when I get home.

 

[mhwc56]

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my adult Coturnix don't "pop" but the 3 week old babies do it when they are startled or just for the fun of it too.The males seem to do more of it for the fun factor while the females seem to do it more b/c they're startled...silllly birds ! they sure are entertaining to just watch!

also, none of mine have so far iinjured themselves doing this though it's a wonder at times !

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Thanks, mhwc56. The tractor I was thinking of using is about 4 feet or so tall at the peak. Its shaped like a triangle. Since its shingled there are tiny nails kinda sticking out on the walls. I was worried if they jumped up they could cut themselves. The chickens havent been bothered by it, but they dont jump either.

emvickrey, I have a hovabator incubator but the turner doesnt work. I was thinking that if I had a batch hatching every week or two I could use it as a hatcher.

 

[mhwc56]

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[Attack Chicken]

My quail dust bathe where the chickens do. The chickens get under the cage and clean up and spilled food that the quail may have dropped. So far I haven't lost one

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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thats interesting to hear, everywhere else I have heard they have to be kept seperate.

What kind of wire should you have for them going outside? For the chickens I use 2x2 inch wire, but is this too small for Quail? I also have a roll of chicken wire I could put over top of the 2x2 stuff.

I was worried about the nails too, what kind of caulking could you put on them?

 

[emvickrey]

I think if y ou get s sick chicken and it gets around your quail, then you may have something to worry about. But My quail layers are right next to my silkie pen and my hatcher pen is very near to the main coop. My chickens also free range and also go under the quail pens and clean up left overs that they spill. I havne't had a problem and i've had this set up all summer so far.

The jumpping reminds me of crickets and pop corn popping. When you have a bunch of them and they get started jumping it's like a bunch of crickets. I say they are doing their cricket imitation or the pop corn is popping.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

lol, thats funny. How high do they jump?

 

[emvickrey]

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I don't know but it sure is hard to catch them when they get started. I have a bunch of Bob Whites in one side of the grow pen and I told DH to add an internal door so when I opened the top to feed and water they will jump out. Well, sure enough when they got about a month old they flew out. I caught I think all but one and the cat got that one for breakfast. It happened again but not as many got out that time and I think the same as before. I think only one ended up an early dinner. So I rigged a top for that side for now. It's a pain in the rear but it keepsthem in while I tend ot the other side. They will be soon trying to get out too. I clipped the Bob Whites wings and tails so they can't fly out but I don't want to take a chance They're about half way to getting processed and I don't want to loose anymore.

They will be geting transferred to the hutch in about a week so I can add more to the grow pen. I have 19 that will move outside in about a week and I have 36 eggs in the bator now.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

How do they do in the winter? How much extra heat do they need? Temps can get down to -35 and colder in the winter