I saw someone on ebay that was selling blue coturnix eggs. That was a new one on me.

They call those Celadon eggs. They were all the rage a few years ago. They were very expensive after first being smuggled into the US and were later brought in legally. The Celadon Coturnix quail have a lot of genetic problems. The eggs are often weaker. Just like in Maran Chickens, most of the color is placed on the egg as it goes through the ovipositor. You can wash most of the color off a Coturnix egg.

I had some Celadon Coturnix a few years ago. I didn't like them and didn't try to isolate and keep the gene.

Keith

To do this correctly, what would we be looking at monthly costs for feed and everything for that size of box and 50 -75 birds? Besides feed, what medicines, chemicals or whatever other care agents would be needed?
That wouldn't take up much space at all. I was originally thinking of a box and covered pen attached to the shed out back untill I saw your box.

So alright, now I'm thinking of inside the garage along the wall with a heat lamp. Anything different?

How often do you change the bedding, and what do you recommend getting from a feed store or say rural king, etc.

A very rookie question but do you clip the wings or what's the reason they aren't flushing once you move the lid back to collect them or the eggs?

Adult sized Coturnix eat roughly one ounce of feed per day. Feed consumption varies based on the feed used, I feed a 16% protein layer mash, the ambient temperature, age, sex, whether or not the quail is laying, the amount of light, which effects activity level, the bird's individual metatabolism and other factors.

In temperate weather, 50 pounds of feed will typically feed 50 quail for 16 days or 75 quail for 10 days. 1 Coturnix hen will eat around 23 pounds of feed a year and produce around 9 pounds of eggs.

I would not keep any medicine for Coturnix. They're usually healthy. I immediately cull any quail that seems off.

Heat lamps will only be needed for chicks. Day old chicks need a high point of 95F to 99F with enough space to get away from the heat source into the mideighties. They can take around 5F lower per week until fully fledged.

I clean my pens about once a year, preferably after the first cutting of hay, so I can use a manure spreader to fertilize the fields. I add more wood shavings if the pens get wet. I also add wood shavings to raise the water bowls up.

Feed is cheaper from a feed mill than TSC or Rural King in most places. 50 quail will use around $24.00 in feed a month. 75 quail will cost around $36.00 to feed a month.

Buy quail lip waterers, that screw onto mason jars, if you decide to start with chicks. Chicks will readily drown if given the chance. Start chicks on paper towels with the rough side up. Chicks can eat small pieces of wood shavings and starve, so don't using wood shavings for the first few weeks. Chicks can fly some by about 3 weeks of age.

I can leave my pens open, while feeding or collecting eggs, because I selectively breed my Coturnix to be docile. Young birds are a little more flighty. The first time a young quai flies out of a pen, I pull the flights out of one wing, which prevents controlled flight. If it happens again, I cull it. Adult birds that fly out of a pen are culled. Nervous adult birds are culled. Wildness is mostly genetic in birds and mammals. In mice, there are actual formulas that can identify how wild a mouse is based on the timed distance it covers when released in the center of a specific sized room.

Keith

I have a small quail pen built off the chicken coop window. I close it in the winter but the quail do just find in cold temps. Don't bother them a bit except the turds freeze and wont go through the wire. I keep it closed for the chickens inside.

The heated bucket waterer with nipples is nice. Quail take to it and works great. I never had one freeze yet and they use it year round ,no hassel at all.

I like that big feed pan Keith has. They tend to throw more feed than they eat.

If you have a incubator they are easy to hatch and raise, almost none die on me. I get more eggs off 10or so hens than I can use. I am constantly giving eggs away, friends love them. The yolks are creamy not dry like a chicken egg. Make great pickled bite sized eggs too.

I would raise quail if I could.

For those interested in learning more about coturnix quail, Quail Con 2022 is in Miamisburg, OH 45342 on September 3rd and 4th. So far, people from 49 of the 50 US states, plus people from several foreign countries, have registered to attend.

https://myshirefarm.com/quail-con-2021

On site camping is available. Several hundred people have already registered. There will be classes, paid experts on hand to answer questions (including me) and a quail feast. This is the largest convention on coturnix quail in the world.

Keith

Awesome Keith^^^

cool!

Is there an easy way to sex them other then wait to see them crow?

Do we have an archive for topics like this? Cause it should definitely be preserved. What a wealth of knowledge!

I had been considering getting chukar or quail, and had I not read this I’d have just put them in with my chickens. Thanks for saving me from that blunder!

2 hrs 18 min drive checked schedule and I'm working nights. Grr

A little after 5 weeks of age, males will develop a foam ball, on the tail side of the vent, that when pushed, expresses a white, foamy substance, that resembles shaving cream. The substance is placed in the female during copulation and feeds the stored sperm for up to 2 weeks.

Females, after they start laying, will have a very wide, horizontally stretched vent, that is bluish in color. Any foam placed in the vent by the males will be loose, spread out and on the belly side of the vent.

In most varieties of coturnix, the females will have spots on the breast, like immature quail, after the adult molt and males will have colored feathers, without spots. Overall males have a more upright cast. Females will be on average 1 1/2 to 2 ounces heavier.

Keith

Didn't bother to read the post above. My dad was the biggest supplier of bobwhite quail on the east coast for 10 plus years. He raised Wisconsin giants and and had a 50' by 200 ' flight conditioning pen. Supplied every feild trail within 400 miles. Raised them in commercial laying pens and incubated The eggs in cabinet style incubator that hatched 5000 at a time.
Courtinex quail are 10 times more efficient but the size and taste is no comparison.

Wow that is awesome

I went to Quail Con 2022 today. I answered questions people had on quail and making a living with a small farm for pretty close to 7 hours straight. I think I helped a lot of people learn ways to make a decent amount of money. I got a lot of very appreciative feedback.

It was a nice event. A little over 400 people attended from all over the US and a few foreign countries. There were a lot of good classes offered and tours. From the people I talked to, I would guess there were many more people from out of state than Ohio. There was an extremely busy food truck during the day. In the evening many hundreds of quail and a kunekune barrow were grilled to perfecton.

If any of you are seriously interested in quail, I would highly recommend going next year.

Keith

Sounds like a good time Keith.

I searched and dug this post up yesterday wanting to look at your boxes you use for your birds. Depending on how things work I may be starting some fall chicks for layer hens next spring and thought your box design would make a good brooder and grow ouf pen for them until feathered out well.

One question on the quail, how do they handle the heat?

Keith , I have a couple of questions I'm hoping you can help me with . My first batch of quail (jumbo coturnix) that I hatched out in late February / March had the feathers on most of their back curled up since they developed them as chicks . Any idea what causes that ? Second , those same quail lost all their feathers on their backs and have not regrown them (its been well over a month) with very few pin feathers showing . Third I've had several laying hens die I'm assuming after laying eggs . The area around the vent was bloody . I could see a bit of blood on the eggs and some in the pen . Its happened to what appear to be very healthy hens that have been laying eggs for months . Any help would be appreciated .

Coturnix take heat pretty well if in the shade and given full access to water. They will drink and pant a lot. To much direct summer sun can kill them.

Keith

The feathers curling could be from getting wet and then dirty with fecal matter that drys, protein deficency or genetics. The feathers not growing back could be from damage to the follicles, when the feathers curled, likely exacerbated by plucking. If plucking is the issue, trimming the thin tip of the upper mandible of the beak back, with nail clippers, so that it is shorter than the lower mandible will help. It makes it hard for the quail to grasp feathers hard enough to pull them out.

The dead hens are likely prolapsing when laying and tearing their cloacas. Often other quail will peck and eat the prolapsed cloaca on the still live quail causing it to bleed out. Quail hens, that don't lay the smaller pullet eggs first, often prolapse. Older hens, which have stopped laying for a while, that start laying again, often prolapse too.

Keith