Is anyone interested in keeping quail?

[Ready_fire_aim]

I’m curious if anyone on here is interested in raising quail? Does anyone have any quail questions? I enjoy chatting about this stuff. I’ve kept coturnix quail for several years now and have enjoyed them. I like them for meat!

I’m considering listing my quail set-up in the classifieds. I’m getting more invested into sheep now and I’m considering getting rid of some critters to help reduce the chores/feed bill.

They are great as an entry into homesteading/poultry hobby. Great for small backyard. They’re just like miniature chickens! They have minimal needs.

They reach sexual maturity in only 8 weeks after hatching, they grow very fast. With a $100 incubator you can be butchering batches of birds every 8 to 10 weeks spring through fall. Obviously you can eat the eggs too, but we have chickens, so I don’t mess with the little quail eggs. I just incubate and hatch them.

Anyone else on here have quail?

 

[SoonerP226]

I think @THAT Gurl keeps (or used to keep) quail. I kinda want to, but I really won't be in a position to do it for the foreseeable future.

 

[kwaynem]

We have quail here also hopefully someone that wants to get started will contact you if they don’t I’ll be in touch

 

[rickm]

I have always thought of getting into raising some to turn loose at the farm to see if they would reproduce in the wild so we could have quail on the place again since they have all but disappeared now. But i dont really have room where i live to hatch and raise to the point of releasing them.

 

[Timmy59]

There's 2 here that do or did, 1 already mentioned above and I'll let the other find this . Had them many moons ago and have given them thought but I have enough on my plate. Plus I think the little suckers would get stuck in the fingers of the plucker. I got a buddy that has them, if ya need I'll call him.

 

[2busy]

I've been keeping coturnix quail for several years too. You can put a lot of meat in the freezer in a years time. All of mine are the jumbo , easy to tell male from female at 3 weeks old.

 

[kwaynem]

The eggs are good also

 

[dennishoddy]

I have always thought of getting into raising some to turn loose at the farm to see if they would reproduce in the wild so we could have quail on the place again since they have all but disappeared now. But i dont really have room where i live to hatch and raise to the point of releasing them.

Pen raised quail have almost zero chance of surviving in the wild when released.
Predators decimate them because the tame quail don’t know how to survive in the wild.
There has been some success by those that build really big flight pens to flight train and teach fear before moving them out to Johnny houses where they roost safely while getting weaned off human supplied feed, learning to find food on their own.

 

[turkeyrun]

We have discussed raising quail, several times. Something always throws a wrench in the plan.
May be time to revisit the venture.

 

[Cowcatcher]

Pen raised quail have almost zero chance of surviving in the wild when released.
Predators decimate them because the tame quail don’t know how to survive in the wild.
There has been some success by those that build really big flight pens to flight train and teach fear before moving them out to Johnny houses where they roost safely while getting weaned off human supplied feed, learning to find food on their own.

Yessir! There are thousands of them released/placed here on the ranch for the field trials that take place several times a year and they don’t survive. We do have a few wild coveys the guys find occasionally but placing birds is just part of the field trial these days.