After deciding to try to get into feeder rats, small meat rabbits, and quail in the upcoming year, I've gotten my first bite: someone with an incubator who'd be willing to house and do daily care for a fee. This would mean MUCH cheaper meat, for both myself and the housemates (they will eat quail), so I should be keeping some pretty pennies back (to feed the rabbit habit, of course).
Now I'm getting excited and thinking about what I plan to do with the birds. I have about a month to plan for everything. I know I want Japanese Cortunix and I have housing I could use, but now I can think about colors, male/female ratio, feeding plans, etc.
Now for questions time!
I have a 4.8 sq ft cage that I can use for the housing of quail and perhaps a large dog crate if the housemates will allow me to use it (as no dog uses it). But just for the cage, how many grow out/temporary breeder quail would you guys suggest? Water bottle will be put on the outside of the cage and feeder will be put inside the cage.
I plan to provide four people with dinners two nights a week to begin with. So that's sixteen quail a month, I think? Everyone normally eats a single chicken breast. I'm trying to replace the staple chicken with quail eventually.
What sort of breeding process does everyone use to keep a stable amount of dinner table quail? Kill the older hens as soon as their first offspring start laying eggs, then kill the first offspring (O1) as soon as the second offspring start laying eggs, etc. and then start the process again? Or what? I figure you'd keep a roo as long as you could, but keep cycling the females, maybe holding back a really great producer here and there? Oh, and does temperature in the incubator affect sexes at all?
What have you found to be the best feeding method? I hear gamebird feed is the obvious solution, but it is more expensive and I avoid pelleted feed. I figured I could maybe raise mealworms outside in the garden. I hear they also will eat quite a varied diet, being omnivores. According to Greg Yarrow, quail can eat "beggarweeds, partridge peas, milk peas, butterfly peas, the native and cultivated lespedezas (common, bicolor, Kobe, Korean), sesbania, paspalum, panic grass, ragweed, chocolate weed, blackberry, mulberry, pine, oak, sweetgum, mast and cultivated crops such as cowpeas, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and corn." I can get the weeds, wheat, and corn easily and my backyard is full of pines and sweet gums. Not sure what part of the trees they eat, though--nuts/seeds? Thoughts on natural feeding for quail, though? In the least, I could supplement their pelleted diet. Oh, and I hear cat food can work well. If I could get cat food cheaper at TSC than gamebird feed, I might take that route.
And I think that's it for now. :lol: I'm double-checking a lot of things, mostly, because I'd like this to go as smoothly as possible.
Thanks in advance!
Now I'm getting excited and thinking about what I plan to do with the birds. I have about a month to plan for everything. I know I want Japanese Cortunix and I have housing I could use, but now I can think about colors, male/female ratio, feeding plans, etc.
Now for questions time!
I have a 4.8 sq ft cage that I can use for the housing of quail and perhaps a large dog crate if the housemates will allow me to use it (as no dog uses it). But just for the cage, how many grow out/temporary breeder quail would you guys suggest? Water bottle will be put on the outside of the cage and feeder will be put inside the cage.
I plan to provide four people with dinners two nights a week to begin with. So that's sixteen quail a month, I think? Everyone normally eats a single chicken breast. I'm trying to replace the staple chicken with quail eventually.
What sort of breeding process does everyone use to keep a stable amount of dinner table quail? Kill the older hens as soon as their first offspring start laying eggs, then kill the first offspring (O1) as soon as the second offspring start laying eggs, etc. and then start the process again? Or what? I figure you'd keep a roo as long as you could, but keep cycling the females, maybe holding back a really great producer here and there? Oh, and does temperature in the incubator affect sexes at all?
What have you found to be the best feeding method? I hear gamebird feed is the obvious solution, but it is more expensive and I avoid pelleted feed. I figured I could maybe raise mealworms outside in the garden. I hear they also will eat quite a varied diet, being omnivores. According to Greg Yarrow, quail can eat "beggarweeds, partridge peas, milk peas, butterfly peas, the native and cultivated lespedezas (common, bicolor, Kobe, Korean), sesbania, paspalum, panic grass, ragweed, chocolate weed, blackberry, mulberry, pine, oak, sweetgum, mast and cultivated crops such as cowpeas, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and corn." I can get the weeds, wheat, and corn easily and my backyard is full of pines and sweet gums. Not sure what part of the trees they eat, though--nuts/seeds? Thoughts on natural feeding for quail, though? In the least, I could supplement their pelleted diet. Oh, and I hear cat food can work well. If I could get cat food cheaper at TSC than gamebird feed, I might take that route.
And I think that's it for now. :lol: I'm double-checking a lot of things, mostly, because I'd like this to go as smoothly as possible.
Thanks in advance!
