I never thought about it until now. Tiny eggs, tiny bodies, a waste of time, I thought. Heck you could play Chinese Checkers with those eggs, About 1/5 the size of a chicken egg.

But:

• I can't legally have roosters so I need to buy live chickens. I could get away with several roo quail.
• I could incubate my own eggs, and have those quail hens laying in less than two months
• Quail lay all winter
• I can get five quail into the space of one chicken.
• Quail meat and eggs are every bit as good eating as chicken.
• Overall, I figure I can produce more and better food in a years time, than with chickens....and in the same, or even less space

So, what's not to like?

They are awesome. I put mine in wire cages suspended from the ceiling, make the cages lean forward a bit so the eggs roll out onto an egg catch so they can't break them and you don't have to go in the cage. Use a rabbit water bottle for water and hang the feeders from outside the cage. They are the simplest egg producers one can find. I think Keithc on here raises a pile of them if I remember right prom a previous post.

You are correct on all points. I raised coturnix for a couple years. They do well in a hutch. During a large part of the year, I got 1 egg per hen per day. I pickled so many quail eggs at a time, it was crazy. You can incubate them in 17 days, and they are cage ready in two weeks. Reach maturity at about 6 to 7 weeks. Only draw back I ever had, was they can get a little smelly in the summertime. Other than that, they are really easy to raise. Plus the roosters make a cool sounding call in the mornings.

Only thing I would at in a unit to keep the eggs cool and moist when saving to eggs to fill the incubator so you get a much better hatch.
Get a forced air incubator. If you are going to raise coturnix make sure you get good stock. You can get them now that weigh up to 5-6 oz. They have good watering system now. There can be some problem when first hatched because they are so small. Have to watch they do not drowned in there watering dishes. But it has been year since I have raised them. There is not much difference in cost in doing it right and doing is wrong. It is just as easy to get a good rather than a bad hatch. JMO Good luck keep up posted.

Best eating bird there is.

Why can’t you “Legally “ have a rooster?

There's a fella here in Ohio, and on here. I know he know's everything about Quail, but I can't think of his name.

Pretty sure its KeithC

I would PM him, he seems to have a wealth of knowledge on birds.

I hatch out a little over 1200 coturnix quail in a good week. For egg production and efficiency rates, coturnix quail are hard to beat. About 2.1 pounds of feed will make a pound of eggs and about 2.7 pounds of feed will make a pound of quail meat.

20 hens will keep a normal family of 4 in eggs and can be kept in as small as a 2' by 2' by 8 inch high cage. I mostly keep 70 hens with 20 males in 4' by 8' pens. Calcium in the diet is more important than protein. You will read that coturnix quail need a gamebird feed. It's absolutely not true. I feed a 16% protein layer mash at all ages. I have literally hatched many hundreds of thousands of cortunix since 1995.

Most of my males weigh between 9.5 and 12 ounces. Most females between 12.5 and 15 ounces. Hens that go over a pound are poor breeders and heavier males breed little. There is a foam ball on the tail side of the vent on males from 6 weeks on. The foam looks like shaving cream. It is placed by the male in the hen, while breeding to feed the sperm, which the hen can store for up to at least 2 weeks. Males with very firm foam balls are not breeding. Males with no foam, should be culled. Hens that are laying will have very wide vents. If they have been bred recently, hens will have some foam on the stomach side of the vent.

With colors, modifiers and patterning genes you can breed coturnix in about 50 variations.

Coturnix reach 85% of their full weight at 10 weeks and have few pin feathers at that age. Most people cull extra males at 10 weeks.

I can process a coturnix in under 2 minutes, if I skin, rather than pluck it.

Keith

Nope, our numbers of quail are WAY down here, we don't hunt them much anymore. Used to love some fried quail, and I always favored the legs for some reason, even though there is not much meat to speak of.

X2 on what was said. Only problem I had was in the late spring, the nates(s) would get so bad, they would plug up the quails nose and the quail would die.

They are cool birds. I hatched some last summer and they lay eggs after 5 or 6 weeks after being an egg. Good eating too I had two for dinner tonight. I hatched out another bunch this summer and going for my second batch here soon.

Mine made it just fine through a pretty tough Alaskan winter with 0 loss and no heat in the shed exept for a small chicken heater, and I bet they didn't need that. It was 0 in the shed some days.

A few tips if your in a cold climate get a heated bucket nipple style waterer. Mine never froze and is hassle free. never needs cleaning and just add water. they take to it right away too.

Like Keith said, I feed just layer pellets, mixed with bird seed just cause its cheap to get shipped in here, and they do just fine. They are mosquito eating machines as well so get some extra protein in the summer.

I have mine in a shed cage that has a window that swings up and they have a outside run on wire. I closed it in the winter to keep the chickens warm but don't think I needed to for the quail they were fine, except the turds froze and would not fall through the hardware cloth. I had straw bedding inside and that worked good. just roll it up like a matt to change it and chuck it on the compost pile.

Would love to see your set up Keith.

City ordinance, even though I only have one neighbor that might be within earshot.

Thanks, everyone for the tips and references. I have every intention of adding a few pens/coops/hutches

As though we haven't already mentioned enough positives, there is at least one worth highlighting:

• Butchering should be easier, quicker, cleaner, and quieter

If I were looking for a negative:

• Those tiny eggs are a pain to crack. I've heard there is a special scissors for quail eggs. That is going to be included in my initial investment

I would love to see everyone's quail cage setups.