Is anyone interested in keeping quail?

[Ready_fire_aim]

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.

You’d want to raise bobwhites for that. Not these domesticated coturnix varieties. You have to get a permit to raise bobwhites (it’s easy). They also take much longer to mature. They fetch good money though. Primarily because landowners will buy to release in Jonnyhouses to stock hunting properties and bird dog folks buy them to train dogs

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

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.

Yup! That’s all I raised for the first couple years. I like how easy sexing brown jumbo’s is. Although I wound up gravitating towards these white mutts because they are very tame and usually not aggressive with each other. With these white ones I pick them up and vent sex them at 8 weeks

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

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.

I’ve never plucked a quail. They skin very easily. So I do them skinless. I process them using only a pair of scissors and it takes like 2mins per bird.

 

[THAT Gurl]

I let my quail go (not literally lol) when I got hurt but I wad actually telling a friend of mine that I am fixing to get back into them -- for a couple reasons. The most important one is I enjoy them more than the rabbits and chickens.

Let me know where you are and what you have, what you are thinking in terms of times to get together and money you want and we'll see if we can work something out. I'm fixing to go crawl in bed -- rough day at work ... I'll check back in the morning some time.

 

[THAT Gurl]

I’ve never plucked a quail. They skin very easily. So I do them skinless. I process them using only a pair of scissors and it takes like 2mins per bird.

They are not hard to pluck -- kinda like doing a chicken.

 

[CanadianRiverRat]

For several years pre beer virus, I had a crap-ton of coturnix quail. Sold eggs for the oriental restaurant market and did fairly well but it was a LOT of work. Normal month I'd sell +/- 1000 doz eggs to feed the sushi bar/chinese buffet crowd.
Right before the virus shut everything down, I was talking to Tyson and OK Foods about quail meat bird sales.

 

[2busy]

For several years pre beer virus, I had a crap-ton of coturnix quail. Sold eggs for the oriental restaurant market and did fairly well but it was a LOT of work. Normal month I'd sell +/- 1000 doz eggs to feed the sushi bar/chinese buffet crowd.
Right before the virus shut everything down, I was talking to Tyson and OK Foods about quail meat bird sales.

That's a lot of quail poop. I swear they crap more than a chicken.

 

[THAT Gurl]

That's a lot of quail poop. I swear they crap more than a chicken.

Man ... I dunno bout that ... Maybe I feed my chickens too much.

My biggest "problem" with quail is they LOVE LOVE LOVE to play in their food. I finally figured out a fix (give them a tray of fodder with some rough ground scratch and mealworms sprinkled on it). That and a cake pan full of sand to bathe in. If I can keep them busy they are less interested in raking the equivalent of a 50 pound bag of feed out onto the ground in an afternoon.

 

[2busy]

Man ... I dunno bout that ... Maybe I feed my chickens too much.

My biggest "problem" with quail is they LOVE LOVE LOVE to play in their food. I finally figured out a fix (give them a tray of fodder with some rough ground scratch and mealworms sprinkled on it). That and a cake pan full of sand to bathe in. If I can keep them busy they are less interested in raking the equivalent of a 50 pound bag of feed out onto the ground in an afternoon.

My chickens have never seen a mealworm. Rarely scratch grain.
I use J feeders for my quail with 1" hardware cloth over the opening . It doesn't give them much room to play with their food.

 

[THAT Gurl]

My chickens have never seen a mealworm. Rarely scratch grain.
I use J feeders for my quail with 1" hardware cloth over the opening . It doesn't give them much room to play with their food.View attachment 339712View attachment 339713

I have a suburban lot -- with fully half the backyard in raised garden beds. My chickens live on the other half -- along with ducks (when I have them) and the damned rats under the shed. There is not a shred of "green" on that side of the fencing. Well except what I throw out there when I clean out the fridge -- or work gives me produce they were gonna throw out. I don't mind babying my small livestock at all -- though I am thinking I'm gonna get that shed finished up this summer so I can set up my own mealworm farm -- maybe one for earthworms, too. Those bags at Atwoods are starting to get a bit pricey.

I have some j-feeders. Think I'll make me some covers for them so I'll be ready. Thanks for sharing!