What is the purpose of raising quail?

[MichiganWoods]

Oi!

I've always loved tiny things too. Tiny silverware, cups, dolls, figurines, sculptures etc. Tiny baby quail will be too hard to resist!

Well I have to wait for my incubators to be empty. I should be able to order my bunch about the 15th or so.

But all I needed was another excuse to go build something new. I think I love building things as much as I love hatching eggs! (I even promised to build my girls a doll house for next Christmas.) I completely blame Anne McCaffrey and her firelizards for my hatching fetish. I don't have anyone to blame for the building fetish, but my husband has referred to me lately as the female version of Tim the Tool Man Taylor... minus all the crazy accidents.

 

[jvls1942]

I had button quail last year..

I made a quart of pickled eggs..I think it took either 40 or 50 eggs..

we had two meals of them. they were super delicious, and lean, but a bit tough.. that was our fault, though because we cooked them too hard..

the eggs were hard to peel.. I would like to try boiling some with a pin hole and in salt water, now that I learned that little secret..

I read to soak them in vinigar and it softens the shell so you can sort of squeeze them out of their membrane.. ?????don't knw if that works, either.......

 

[bkvail]

I soaked about 4 dozen quail eggs in vinegar overnight - and it wasn't a pretty site at first, LOL. the vinegar started bubbling - so if you put them in a jar to do it, put the jar in a bowl to catch the overflow as they bubble...... the ''splatter'' effect on the eggs sort-of melted off and left me with almost white eggs......the peeling didn't go too bad though. I wish I would have stirred the eggs better during cooking though to keep the yolk centered. They made great pickled eggs - and at a recent party, I brought 2 dozen of them.......nobody could figure out what they were until told, LOL. Some people were guessing testicles, white olives, LOL. Mine were done spicy - so the cayenne had turned them a barely pink color. If you know what a ''Hot Mama'' pickled sausage is, the flavor of the pickling is very similar. The recipe is online - Emeril's recipe - although if you can them, they are a bit firm....... I think next time I'll just pickle them and not can them (not the hot water bath, just put them in the fridge for the pickling time).

 

[MichiganWoods]

Huh. I'll have to remember the pin hole and salt water trick!

Mmmmmm.

I'm craving quail eggs!!! At least this is much more attainable than the eggs I craved while I was pregnant; hard boiled ostrich eggs (darned that old movie; The Gods Must Be Crazy II -- and no I never did get to satisfy that particular craving

).

On the bright side, when I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going to start raising quail along with my chickens, she started asking a bunch of questions. She's a vegetarian and is OK with the fact that I eat chicken and will eat my quail too. We finally got to the part about the eggs. When I mentioned that they were sweeter than chicken eggs and about a third of the size, she was extremely excited and said to sign her up as a regular customer for them. So, yay! First customer!

Then she said she had 25 feet of brand new fencing (the chain link kind) and asked if I wanted it, free.

I told her SURE! And I'd make sure she'd get lots of quail eggs in trade, rather than just take the fencing for nothing. I was happy. She was happy. It had been sitting in their yard since they bought their house and she's wanted it gone since forever.

Oh, and you know what I was doing for about... oh, 3.5 hours tonight? I build the frame of my quail hutch! I will take a picture of it in the morning and post. It's very similar to the one AndreaGS made in this thread, with a few slight differences. Mine is only 6' long, and I think I made the shelter areas a little too big. So I will be moving a few bars tomorrow.

 

[jvls1942]

I posted this before, so if you already heard it don't stop me because I want to hear it again..

I always fixed a couple of fried eggs for my grandson before sending him to school.. one day I fried 8 quail eggs sunny side up for him.. you should have seen the look on his face.. those tiny yellow dots all over his plate really woke him up that morning.. he ate every one of them..

 

[Bettacreek]

Quote:
Same here.

I actually started a salt spoon collection, because they're small and cute, lol.

 

[sandspoultry]

Here is from our last hatch, still haven't counted them all yet. lol

 

[sparkles2307]

Glad to see this post on here! DH wants to get into game birds...he raised pheasants as a kid and liked it...I wanted quail. I can tell him now what the purpose is! Of course I always have to have the pretty ones so then I would feel bad eating them!

 

[jvls1942]

ummmm.the pretty ones taste the best..!!!!

 

[AK_Button_Mama]

I raise the quail originally because I liked them, they are tiny, and I wanted eggs. then I realized that there is a HUGE asian population in Alaska who LOVE quail and thier eggs. so now I am selling eggs off to them to meet their demands... problem is I cant exactly meet thier demands for them. I need more birds so I can hatch replacements. and have more eggs because I liek the eggs too for boiled. I also eat the meat and I like them because I can eat new birds in about8 weeks. turn over is more like instant gratification. and I am a cant wait person!!!

good luck with the quail they are really fun!