Why do YOU keep quail?

[mochicken]

I have posted a thread about something similar before but it went in a different direction so I thought I would post a "why do you" specific post.

Why do you keep quail? is if for eggs? meat? or just the pure enjoyment of owning such a beautiful little bird?

For me personally it started with "hmmm I could get eggs or possibly meat in the future" but it has somehow turned into me wanting to breed the biggest, healthiest, and most beautiful quail I can breed.

I plan to try to get a good line of pure white "English White" quail that are not only pure white but large and healthy.

I plan to also breed some good large Tibetans, on them the color will take care of itself with their beautiful patterns.

I am getting some eggs from Bfrancis and once they hatch and I see what I get then I will go from there on them.

I have already sketched up a 12x20 "shed" that will have about 90 different pens in it and a walkway straight down the center, it will have grow out pens on the ground and breeding cages elevated with natural light and hopefully automated food and water setups. I dont want to be a "professional quail breeder" I am just trying to do whats best for my birds as well as get a good line of quail that other quail lovers can look to for good stock and locals can depend on for a good supply of meat or eggs if they would like to give it a try.

Soooooooooo why do you keep quail?

 

[cooprunbuilder]

Very good post friend, I used to keep quail years and years ago and recently acquired a few, I keep them simply because the birds are just beautiful and the population of rare breeds also I raise a few for friends etc.

I wouldn't keep birds for meat but if your after birds for meat try pigeons, the birds taste beautiful, I had pigeon pastilla when I was in morroco on a 3 month field trip researching blue winged teal behaviours.

 

[mochicken]

I do keep pigeons but unfortunately they are a bit pricey to roast lol

 

[cooprunbuilder]

There worth it, you should of seen the price of it what I paid in the resturant!

 

[joe125]

I hate to urinate in your cheerios, but the whitest range pattern white birds (English whites) will be on the small side! Not much you can do about that. It is in their genes.
The larger white (Mostly white) birds come from the (Wild pattern) strains, often called Jumbo whites, A&M, etc...

Good luck with your hopes and dreams, but coturnix genetics are not on your side.

 

[mochicken]

Yeah I am aware of how the genetics work, I dont want a JUMBO size english white, just a good pure line that are large for whites. I do plan to get some Texas A&M soon as well since the EW that I got were sold to me as Texas A&M and that is what I wanted but the EW that I am keeping range from small to pretty big, I am going to breed big against big and so on until I get a good line of large birds.

I already have 2 females and a male that are pure white, no splash at all so thats a good start, im sure some will hatch true and some with have spots because thats the nature of the beast I guess but I am hoping to get some pure whites out of them

 

[joe125]

Quote:
If you wish to get the whitest birds you can, then keep up that line. If whiteness is what you are looking for, then keep up that line.

Just remember that small white birds come from the range pattern gene set, and large white birds come from the normal/wild pattern gene set. There is a difference, and anyone that has any white birds may call them A&M's., but it doesn't make them so. A white coturnix isn't an A&M.

 

[mochicken]

Yeah I figured that out, I more or less bought my birds sight unseen, I picked them up at night and they were in a box, since I never kept Coturnix before I did not know how much bigger A&M were supposed to be so I thought the white birds were A&M. I plan to get some good A&M hatching eggs from a reputable breeder to get some good large birds but I will probably wait on spring to get here since I am already hatching out too many birds lol

 

[rittert3]

I want eggs and meat and to breed my own line of jumbo peids to throw asst. color peid birds.

 

[mochicken]

Ritter when you start looking for eggs in the spring hit me up, I am already getting 7 eggs a day and as I get more babies hatched and started I will be getting alot more, I will hook you up with a bunch for free if you are willing to make the trip or I will ship them to you if you wanna pay shipping