es, you have to feed them properly but even doing it all right, they waste a lot of feed, and there isn't much meat on them for the time and effort into them. I tried, the quail did well here, just not worth the cost. 25.00 per 50/lbs of feed, going throughI agree 2 bags a week with 250 birds, and half of that ending up on the ground, in the poop.
Tried ground housing the first lot of them, first time it rained, every one of them died (and they were adults) so have to be completely in a roofed pen where water cannot run into the pen - that means a raised pen and, then half the feed ends up on the ground under the pen.
I agree with Akane, they are about the dumbest birds I have ever raised and do pile up too easily, even when there is no reason for them to pile up. I learned not to put more than 25 in any one brooder (brooders that hold 100 large breed chicken chicks.) if I didn't want the quail piling up and suffocating the ones on the bottom of the pile. Even with plenty of room and even heating, they all pile together.