- Jul 26, 2009
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The OP listed many possible "uses" of quail -- meat, eggs, breeding stock, pets -- well, the answer is "all of the above" -- some people eat them, some sell the eggs (sushi eggs), some breed them and sell the birds or hatching eggs, some people no doubt keep them strictly as pets. My birds are considered pets with benefits -- I eat the eggs. I'm brand new to quail right now myself - I have some baby button quails that are now 4 days old. I got 55 Coturnix coturnix eggs in the mail today to hatch as well.
I personally couldn't imagine eating birds I worked so hard to bring into the world. Please don't take that as a slam on those who do raise birds for meat, because it isn't that -- it's just that they are so physically and emotionally intensive, not to mention the actual expense, that I can't imagine eating them -- frankly, I can buy high quality meat for far less than it would cost me to grow my own, not to mention the work and effort of killing and processing. For those who have the time and ability, and especially the space to do it in larger quantities to bring down the average cost it would be great. Because of the space considerations, I can only keep a few birds at a time, so it just isn't practical.
Now, I will say this -- we have a small local chain of upscale markets here called "Hiller's" that sells various gourmet meat items -- three or four little tiny quail in a pound package, frozen, is like $22, so they aren't exactly cheap to buy.
I personally couldn't imagine eating birds I worked so hard to bring into the world. Please don't take that as a slam on those who do raise birds for meat, because it isn't that -- it's just that they are so physically and emotionally intensive, not to mention the actual expense, that I can't imagine eating them -- frankly, I can buy high quality meat for far less than it would cost me to grow my own, not to mention the work and effort of killing and processing. For those who have the time and ability, and especially the space to do it in larger quantities to bring down the average cost it would be great. Because of the space considerations, I can only keep a few birds at a time, so it just isn't practical.
Now, I will say this -- we have a small local chain of upscale markets here called "Hiller's" that sells various gourmet meat items -- three or four little tiny quail in a pound package, frozen, is like $22, so they aren't exactly cheap to buy.
