Raising quail can be a suitable alternative to raising backyard chickens. Quail are classified as pets, rather than livestock, and are smaller and quieter. They can be raised for both eggs, or meat and are viable as a small-scale, backyard egg producing pet.
There are many breeds of of quail, including our native North American bobwhite quail and Western quail. Commercially there are also dozens of domestic coturnix quail breeds, from white, black, silver, and even jumbo coturnix quail. This quail breed type is a Japanese quail that’s been successfully bred for many years. For egg producing pets, chose a variety that is beautiful for you. I love the look of the black and the white coturnix quails, as an example.
If you’re wanting to raise quail for meat and eggs, then the jumbo coturnix may be the best choice. They are about twice the size of the regular quail, including other coturnix breeds, and their eggs are also about double the size. While a normal quail is about 6-7 ounces in size, the jumbo coturnix are up to 16 ounces in weight. These are the breed of quail recommended for egg production.
Quail can be a good addition to the homestead for exotic meat and eggs. Quail eggs are a luxury item, and are a frequent feature of some Asian cuisines. If you wish to raise and release quail, you’ll need to work with Fish and Game in your local region to make sure you comply with those regulations. Also check your local ordinances for any backyard poultry restrictions, though most ordinances probably classify quail as pets, rather than livestock like chickens.
Why Raise Quail?
Quail are small, quiet, and cute birds. They are quieter than chickens, and most of their sounds will blend into your local bird population. Due to their small size, they are less ground destructive than chickens, as well as being less likely to cause an odor problem. They eat less food, and grow faster, and hatch faster, than chickens as well.
Quail can hatch in 14-18 days, while chickens take 21 days. A quail gets to adult size by 8 weeks, and can be laying at that time. quail will produce anywhere from 150-300 eggs per year. It takes 4-5 quail eggs to equal the weight of one chicken egg for recipes.
Quail eggs are used in many cuisines, especially Vietnamese and Japanese. They are a much smaller egg than chicken, and some people like them for the small size and slightly different flavor.
Equipment:
Make sure you have proper equipment and containment for your quail, before getting either day-old chicks or hatching eggs.
If starting with eggs, you’ll need an incubator, as well as a chick brooder. This is the incubator I use. It will hold 48 quail eggs with the standard egg racks. Quail eggs can be incubated in the same incubator you would use for chicken eggs. However, quail require a shorter incubation period, so should be incubated on their own. Don’t mix egg types in your incubator.
Chick feeders and waterers will also work for quail chicks, avoid duck or turkey specific feeders or waterers for quail as the quail chicks are much smaller. The adult quail will also need feeders and waterers that are quail specific, or designed for small breeds of chickens.
Stick with a red toned heat-lamp for warmth, if you are using a heat lamp. Heat plate brooders like this one, allow the chicks to freely come and go underneath. The heat plates are less likely to start a fire than the heat lamps and are preferred in situations where a heat lamp can’t be secured. Consider them “fire insurance” if you are brooding chicks in a barn or in a basement.
At least one section of your brooder should stay at 95F, for the chicks. This temperature needs to be available for at least the first week, until they start feathering out and moving around more. They will indicate to you, by avoiding the heat source, when they’re ready for it to cool down.
Try to keep drafts and cold air currents away from your chick brooding area. An area off the floor, especially for just a small number of quail chicks, is best. If you’re raising backyard quail, you may only want to plan to hatch at least 12, and up to 24 quail chicks, if you plan on keeping a breeding set of 7 over the winter (6 females, 1 male). The hatch rate for quail is usually 50%, so you’ll need to incubate at least 2 eggs for every one chick you want to hatch. Usually the male to female ratio is 50:50. If you are looking for mostly for egg laying females. You’ll need to incubate 4 eggs for every female chick, that you want. (So many first time quail breeders don’t account for this when they hatch eggs). So if you want 6 females you will need to incubate 24 eggs. If you get extra chicks because you have an awesome hatch rate or a higher ratio of females to males, you can sell the extra chicks.
Quail Housing:
A fully enclosed coop or tractor for the quail is a necessity. Quail will fly, and unlike chickens shouldn’t free-range as they won’t return home to roost. Here’s an example quail tractor. Quail need at least 1 square foot of space per bird in their coop and enclosure. I’d recommend using smaller gauge wire than chicken wire for the enclosure, and have the coop segment made out of solid wood material. This helps deter predators and protects your poultry better. Make sure your coop section has a door that can be closed at night.
The ground portion of the quail housing, or cage, should have some ground access. Quail do like to dust bath, just like chickens, but they’re less destructive to the ground than chickens are. Since quail are a game bird, they like lots of cover in their environment, so upside down baskets with openings for entering, some evergreen branches and grassy tufts are good.
Make sure to provide a few nest spots for egg-laying. They are less likely to use the same spot twice than chickens, so plan to check the entire enclosure every day for eggs.
In captivity, quail are less likely to brood, especially if you’re removing all eggs every day. So if you wish to perpetuate your flock, you’ll need to brood new chicks at least every second year. Quail lay actively for about 3 years, but can live for up to 6 years.
If you’re letting the quail raise their own chicks, remember that newly hatched quails are about the size of a large bumblebee (1 1/2 inches or 3 cm.). So, use quarter inch mesh when making a quail brooder house, or for their initial coop or tractor. Even bantam chicks can get through regular chicken wire mesh, and they’re nearly double the size of baby quail.
Aim for a ratio of 5 or 6 females per male for breeding, or talk to your quail breeder for their recommendations.
You can adapt an existing chicken tractor, or rabbit hutch, to act as quail housing if you don’t want to build a quail home from scratch.
Avoiding Predators and Pests:
Keep your quail housing and yard covered with wire netting or mesh to protect from falcons, kestrels, hawks, and other birds of prey. Ensure that your birds are inside their coop at night to protect from owls and other predators.
Make sure your brood area is fine mesh wire, quarter inch hardware mesh is good, if you’re letting the quail hatch their own chicks. Otherwise crows, black birds, or ravens could steal chicks that escape, or if the top is open they can steal eggs from the brooding area. Make sure, especially with the brooding area if it’s not indoors, that you have no gaps on the bottom of your enclosure that chicks could slip through, a mesh wire bottom may be good.
Ensure your coop has secure latches especially if you have raccoons in your area. Raccoons can learn to manipulate simple latches and doors, so make sure your coop is secured against critters with hands. Foxes are only a concern if you’re free-ranging quail, or raising quail to release as the larger pens and ability of birds to interact in the wild will attract foxes and coyotes.
Rats can be attracted to spilled feed or unsecured feed containers, as can mice. Keep quail feed in a mouse-proof and rat proof container. A metal garbage can with locking lid works well to keep both mice, rats, and raccoons out of poultry feed. Clean up any feed spilled in the quail enclosure on a regular basis too.
Using wire mesh for a small backyard tractor can also help protect the quail from snakes. Quail raised quail chicks looked like snacks to a snake. Baby quail are smaller than mice!
Cleaning and Maintenance:
Quail manure is high in nitrogen, and hot, similar to chicken manure. For this reason, it will need to be added to your compost pile, and broken down, before adding it to your garden or planters. However, quail poop does make a great compost additive.
For bedding, use straw, hay, or wood chips. Stick with hardwoods, and avoid pine or cedar as those don’t break down as easily in the compost. Avoid any straw or hay that has mold or smells musty.
Especially in the city, clean your quail enclosure on a weekly basis during summer and at least twice monthly during the winter months. You can let litter build up a bit during winter, as the nitrogen and start of decomposition can help maintain warmth for your quail hens. The litter can go straight into a compost bin, along with your other green and brown waste to create healthy compost for your garden.
Quail have a potential egg laying span of 3 years, and a life-span of up to 6 years in good conditions. Some homesteading resources on quail claim that quail only live for about a year in captivity. A lot of poultry life-span, however, has to do with care and winter shelter.
Chickens, as an example, are projected at a 3-4 year life-span, with productivity being highest in the first two years. I’ve had hens who’ve not only continued laying eggs, but set and hatched chicks up to 6+ years of age, and lived till 8 and 10. Now, these were bantam hens, but I’ve had several heavy layers who lived till 6 and 7 too.
So for long-term quail raising, have a plan in place for your older birds. Whether this is a retirement tractor, where they can enjoy bugs and grass. Or, you plan to butcher your laying quail once you have hatched replacements and they’ve started to take over production. Either of these options can work well in the back yard. Plan to hatch replacement quail around year two at the latest, to continue egg production IF you decide to perpetuate your quail covey.
Quail Feed:
There are commercially available quail formulated feeds. I’d recommend sourcing a quail chick starter, or gamebird starter, or something similar to make sure the tiny chicks have adequate nutrition, and a feed size that’s small enough for their tiny beaks. There are also commercially formulated feeds for adult quail, that you can source. Avoid chicken feeds. If you can’t find quail specific feed, a feed or grain mixes that are recommended for doves can work instead. As these are both similarly sized game birds, there is overlap on their diets.
Smaller quail require 14-18 grams of food per day. Which works out to about 4-5 ounces of food per week. For jumbo coturnix they’ll need 1 ounce to 1.5 ounces per day, or around 7-12 ounces per week once they’re adults.
For a year, per bird, you’d need about 20-36 pounds of food. So for a flock of 6-8 birds, you’d need around 240 pounds of feed per year. This is quite reasonable, since a single laying chicken can go through 100lbs of feed per year. If you don’t use a ton of eggs, the quail eggs will substitute in nicely for chicken eggs for what you do need. Though, I can’t imagine separating out several dozen quail eggs to make lemon pavlova.
In the wild, quails forage on small insects, as well as tiny seeds and grains, and small berries. Things like amaranth, small seeded sunflowers, millet, and many of our wild grasses are their natural wild diet. If you wish to grow some grains for your quails, I’d recommend millet, amaranth or quinoa, small seeded sunflowers, flax, and buckwheat. These can be grown in small plots or as part of your long-term garden plans, and give you a way to provide some grains for your birds.
Quail may also enjoy seedy fruits like strawberries, raspberries, rose hips, and other wild hedgerow fruits with lots of seeds. You can offer small amounts of these fruits and see what your quails prefer.
Quail Meat:
Quail are small birds with a live weight of 6-8 ounces for the average quail breed, and up to 16 ounces for the jumbo coturnix. Dressed weight ends up being about two ounces smaller per bird. For a good meal, you’d need up to 2 birds per person of regular quail breeds, and 1 bird per person of the jumbo coturnix. The quail also make good soup stock, as they are a game bird and will have a stronger flavor than your average chicken. It’s also a good way to stretch the small birds for more people, as it ends up being more for flavor than a main dish.
Quail should be processed for meat around 8 weeks. Any longer and they can become tough and end up more gamey. You want them to be full sized, but not be too active. This is unlike chickens that can be processed anywhere from 8-16 weeks depending on the breed, and who will still be immature at that time.
Remember that quail hens will start laying at eight weeks, while chickens start laying after 18-22 weeks. With only 14-18 days incubation time, you can have new quail eggs only 10-12 weeks after you put quail eggs into your incubator! If processing for meat at eight weeks, makes sure to separate out the female quail, and male quail, that you want to keep for your egg production BEFORE starting the day’s processing. And if getting help for the day, make sure your helpers know which pen to take from and which pen to leave completely alone.
Quail processing is similar to chicken processing. The exception is that you will skin the bird rather than plucking it, or using a plucking machine, due to it’s much smaller size. If you want to save the feathers, of course, you can still pluck small birds it’s more finicky than doing larger birds.
You can use quail heart and liver the same way you’d use chicken heart and liver. Expect quail liver to be more rich than chicken, however. Quail feet are too tiny to use in the same way as chicken feet, however chicken feet do make a nice chicken broth.
Are Quail For You?
Quail may be for you if you’ve wanted to create a self-sufficient lifestyle, but are stuck on a city lot with lots of regulations. But, pet birds are permissible, or there’s small flock regulations that do let you have a few chicken hens but no roosters. Quail can fit into those regulations, and you can keep a male quail with your females for fertilized eggs to perpetuate your flock.
Quail may be for you if you’ve raised backyard chickens but you and the birds just didn’t click and you’d like something smaller, cuter, and maybe a little quieter.
These small birds may be for you if you enjoy eggs, but don’t eat, or bake with, more than a dozen eggs per week. Quail eggs are great for snacking on, as hard boiled eggs, or for using in noodle bowls. While small and slightly finicky if you wanted to make, say meringue or lemon curd, they still work awesome for omelettes, scrambled eggs, and in baking. There are scissors to make opening your quail eggs easier, so you’re not trying to crack the tiny eggs on the edge of the counter too.
If you’re a homeschooler who’d love to do a chick hatching project with your kids, but are not sure that 21 days incubation is going to hold your kid’s interest. Quail eggs only take 14-16 days, and after eight weeks your chicks will be mature and able to start laying eggs. So they’re a quicker project, and possibly cuter and extra fun too. You could even get the kids involved in building the quail tractor!
Back to You:
This has been a whirlwind trip through raising quail in your backyard. Would you consider raising your own quails? If you’ve raised quails would you recommend these birds to a beginner? Leave a comment.
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