Posted: 12/10/2012 5:34:09 PM EDT
| I have been doing some reading and I think I want to try and raise quail. I have had good success with chickens and supposedly quail are even easier and use less space. I am thinking I want to try 12 breeding groups of three females to one male. Has anyone tried raising quail? |
| If I had to guess the hunting farm idea was using a species of wild quail. Wild animals don't take we'll to intensive captivity breeding efforts. If you stick with a domesticated breed of quail you will probably be fine with proper management and breeding practices. |
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I have raised over a 100 Texas A&M quail. It was fun and I will get some more this spring. I made a video on Youtube of how to sex them and kill them. I will post it later, I cant do it from work. I remember this vid from maybe a year or so ago. You promised us a video of maybe goats..I cant remember what the next animal to be butchered was. Good video and great information |
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About 10-12 years ago, I bought 20-25 young quail. It seemed pretty simple to raise them. I figured the eggs would be easy to pickle, and since they are kinda pricey to eat, raising my own would be a nice way to eat a premium-meat at a low price.
I built an elevated cage from treated 2x4's and 1/4" galvanized wire. I planned to use the manure for fertilizer and the open-air (100% wire enclosed), elevated, cage would make it simple to keep clean. About six weeks later, they were doing fine. I went out one morning to check on them and it looked like some kind of VA waiting room horror story. There were birds walking in off-balanced circles, birds not moving, birds stuck to the wire. Birds in every kid of condition flopping around. It was quailmaggeddon. Apparently, coon had crawled up the legs of the cage, reached in to the 1/4" wire and pulled all of the legs through to nibble. He must have munched all night. It was ..well... damn, I killed all the survivors and grilled them. Still tasty, though. TRG |
| I have heard the same thing about quail if you mean the coturnix quail you are looking at raising. Bobwhite quails like the ones you hunt don't do well in captivity and are downright mean from what I read. Depends which breed you are looking at. Also if you are thinking Coturnix you are going to need more than 3 females or the male will be all over them constantly you need more if I remember correctly. I know backyardchickens.com had a section when I was looking at raising them awhile ago. |
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I've been around quail almost my entire life. We raised bob white when I was a kid, and would turn over roughly 3-500 a month.
They really aren't that hard to raise once you get the hang of it. Read as much as you can and learn to improvise. Are you raising for meat? To sell? For the Eggs? Or to breed? All of the Above? Make sure no matter which breed you go with you don't have to have a license for them. You have to have a license for Bob White here in Va. You also have to document every single one you buy/hatch, and whether it dies/is sold/ or killed for meat. This gets turned in at the end of the year to the Dept of Game and Fishery. After not having them for a few years we are getting ready to start raising Coturnix this spring. Much easier, good for meat, Largest of the Breeds. And you don't have to have a permit for them. They also hatch quicker at about 17-18 days compared to Bob Whites which have a longer hatch cycle. Backyardchickens.com is a good place to start. Just read up on them, and don't be afraid to ask questions. |