I am seriously thinking about raising quail. I keep seeing listings for snowflake quail and I like the look of them, plus I think they are bobwhites and have white meat, but since I have not raised quail before it seems more economical to start with coturnix since they are more common and seem like they are easy to raise.
Ideally I would like to trade chicken eggs for quail eggs or chickens for quail so there is no start up costs. We already have some nice bird enclosures my husband built for older chicks that we have not used much because the feathered chicks are able to transition outside into the Silkie coop rather than moving into indoor brooders in our shop in order to move them off heat. We can easily set the light on a timer to keep up egg production year round so we can have a steady supply of eggs and meat.
I would love to eat our surplus roosters because I have raised my own meat in the past but we raise our chickens like pets rather than meat and none of us wants to kill birds we have become attached to as babies. I think the quail would be something we could remain unattached to and see them as a food supply because they are not as friendly and they grow so fast, plus they would all look alike and have more of a wild bird appearance.
If anyone in the area has an abundance of quail or eggs, I would love to hear from you. I researched the blue egg genetics but it seems sort of hit and miss to get them once you have blue egg layers so I don't necessarily need to raise blue egg lines but it would be kind of fun to breed for blue eggs. I got a Quechoa rooster to put over our two Easter Egger hens to bring back some of the original blue egg genetics but I have not started hatching yet since I need to get on my feet again before I start up the incubators (although I have Silkies that would probably hatch the eggs and raise the chicks for me if I let them).
Anyway, I would like to get started with some quail in the near future and see where it takes us. Hatching eggs would be the cheapest way to get started but then having my own egg layers would be even better. I could potentially start with chicks but that is the longest route to get eggs to hatch and hatching is how we will keep a steady supply of eggs and meat going.
I like chicken eggs okay but I like hatching them even more because that makes more chickens! It is terrible to have Spring fever and all of my incubators are empty for now. Certainly a batch of quail will fill the void, eh?
Is your rooster Quechua? We put a Quechua rooster over our two Easter Eggers (one hatchery and one breeder) because that is where their blue egg genetics originated. The term Easter Egger has become so broad now that I don't trust breeder Easter Eggers to be what the hatcheries call Easter Eggers (which were called Aracauna before the current Aracauna took the name). When we bought chicks many years ago they had pea combs, greenish slate legs, beards, and muffs. They were mainly in various shades of red and they layed blue and green eggs with the occasional pink egg layer. Now I see people calling birds that don't fit the type Easter Eggers just because they lay colored eggs but they are obviously more mutt than what I would call an Easter Egger (originally the nickname for what hatcheries called Aracaunas). I want to bring more of the original genetics back into my own Easter Eggers, which fit the type originally called Easter Eggers. I think the reason people get so bent out of shape when referring to Easter Eggers these days is that there is no longer a standard for what that means. The closest thing to the Easter Egger we used to get labled as Aracauna is the Ameraucana (I hope that is spelled correctly) but they only lay blue eggs, not green eggs. The Easter Eggers from the hatcheries used to be my favorite chicken breed but I want the chickens I raised over 25 years ago, not the ones people are breeding now. I bought Easter Egger chicks from a breeder a few years back and most of them were not anywhere near the standard I was expecting and then out of the ones I kept only two layed a blue green egg, the rest layed beige eggs even though the breeder advertised that they were guaranteed to lay colored eggs. Sadly I sold a beautiful turquoise egg layer with an olive egg layer because I don't like the olive eggs and I could not ethically sell one hen by herself. I was so excited to find chicks (with rumps and no ear tufts) labeled Aracauna at a feed store that I bought some several years ago and then they ended up looking entirely different than what I expected. Out of all the chicks I bought and raised I had one (labeled Americana at the feed store) that was true to the type I expected and she layed a beautiful round blue egg but she ended up turning over a plastic nest box on herself and suffocated to death before I found her. I figure the only way to have the original Easter Egger is to go back to the Quechua and make my own with my hens that are as true as I could find. It is too expensive and time consuming to raise chicks that are not even close to what I want and I am not bringing in adult birds due to biosecurity (my two hens were in quarantine for over a month in order to give the rooster companions during his quarantine). I hatch and keep what I want and sell the rest rather than risking bringing in birds that could be vaccinated carriers of disease (I made sure this rooster was not vaccinated and that he came from a healthy flock but it was still a risk I do not want to repeat). I just wish I had more than two hens for one rooster and I am impatient to start hatching eggs to see what I end up with after all the hassle. The Quechua is a more leggy bird than what I hope to end up with so I am curious to see what other people have ended up with by breeding to the Quechua. He has a much larger tail too so I am not sure how that will come across in his daughters. At least they will lay blue eggs and they should have the primary characteristics I want. I can keep the first generation if I like them and then the rooster will have to go because I don't want to breed back to him second generation.No, but they share the same parents. My sexlink Easter Eggers are from my Easter Egger rooster bred to my Barred Rock hens. The rooster is pure for the blue egg gene.
