i am looking at getting some quail to raise for the table. I cant decide if I want to get the jumbo coturnix quail or the Texas a&m quail.
do any of yall have any experience with either one?

I have raised several batches of coturnix, they are a hoot. They will start laying eggs at 6weeks!

If you're skinning them, go with the jumbo browns. If you're going to pluck them, go with the Texas A&Ms. The jumbo browns get slightly bigger and grow faster. The white feathers on the A&Ms show less if you miss a few pin feathers while plucking. I have hatched 600 to 800 coturnix, most weeks for around the last 3 years. I raised them from 1995 to around 2000 too. I believe I have all the current colors in them.

Keith

They're also escape artists .

Very very true. Keep a net handy at all times.

Keith:
What was your % rate of hatching?

Are quail eggs good eating?

Yes they are good to eat.

I pickled quite a few when I had quail.

What's the best laying breed?

I had 100 Cortunix and had all the eggs I could handle.

Its been a couple years, but I think I boiled the eggs then soaked in vinegar to dissolve the shell, then I peeled the membrane off before I pickled them.

Egg laying rate is incredible. I had 12 in one pen that would consistently lay 13-14 eggs a day, someone was doing double duty. It comes at a cost to them though, so they need plenty of calcium.

I have only tried the jumbo browns. Very high hatch rate, easy to tell the difference between hens and roos ,prolific egg layers.
I had fun with them.
For me,being able to tell the difference between between sexes was a big thing. The roos turn into noisy, aggressive little jerks at about six weeks.

I usually get about 80% hatch rates out of pure jumbo browns and Texas A&M whites. My fertility drops down to around 60%, when hatching the other colors, mixed together because of the lethal factors in some colors. I have 3 GQF Sportsman and 2 Dickeys cabinet incubators.

Most people like to have a variety of colors. I breed the more interesting colored coturnix to jumbo browns and then back to colored and split cocks and cull aggressively for size.

I do the exact same thing with guineas using the larger French guineas, which are pearls, on the smaller various colored guineas.

Keith

kiethc
how do you like the sportsman incubator? I am in the market for a larger one than the tractor supply ones

I have a Sportsman incubator and have had excellent success with it in hatching chickens, quail, pheasants, guineas, peafowl, emus, rheas and ostrich. I have had to replace both fans but otherwise it has worked spot on.

I like the Sportsman incubators better than the Dickys, though they are pretty similar. You can often find used Sportsman incubators, on Craigslist for $400.00 to $600.00. You should get a much better hatch out of one of the cabinet style incubators than the styrofoam ones.

I would buy a single, larger incubator, but don't have a good climate controlled area to house one. The cabinet style incubators, when empty, are easy to move and they don't take up much space.

Keith

Is there a place any would recommend for getting eggs to hatch? Been thinking about raising some for the table. Always loved eating bobwhite, and thease birds are quite a bit bigger, are they not?

This is where I order mine from: https://bdfarm.com/

I have had good luck buying quail hatching eggs on Ebay, when I need new blood. Anyone with lots of good feedback and little to none poor feedback, should be safe to buy from.

Keith

Thanks for the order link.