Coturnix quail?

[jackelope]

Anyone raising Coturnix quail? Apparently we've got a dozen hatching eggs in an incubator that are headed our way once they hatch. My wife has agreed to take all the roosters from her friend because the friend just wants eggs. Wondering what the best dispatch method is for the little buggers. Looking forward to pickled eggs and some quail dinners in the future.

[nwwanderer]

There are lots of different lines, the get right with egg production and they are a step above other egg layers in the nutrition department, good luck!!

[jackelope]

She’s got the Celadon variety coming that produces the blue eggs.

[Widgeondeke]

Hold the body at the shoulders, pull the head. Just like rabbits, breaking the neck is simple.
Other option, use a small cone.  Insert head first, pull head and slice neck. Let them hang to bleed out. This is how I do checkens & turkeys 

[Birdguy]

Raised thousands of them over the years. Celadons do not seem to lay as well as the normal ones. They are the "rats" of the quail world. Most lay an egg a day (some more) and start laying eggs at about 6 weeks old. You can have a thousand in a short time with an incubator. Eggs are good, lots of people with allergies to chicken eggs can eat quail eggs no problem. Incubation is 17 days. Fertility and hatch are usually very good if it slips get some new blood and it will go right back up. They are not good flyers, we used them for puppy training aids when we started. Do well in our winter, with a little light they will lay all year. The males have a neat call that is not loud and does not neighbors. Lol.

If you have questions ask away, by no means a coturnix expert but I do know a bit  .

[Jpmiller]

Hold the body at the shoulders, pull the head. Just like rabbits, breaking the neck is simple.
Other option, use a small cone.  Insert head first, pull head and slice neck. Let them hang to bleed out. This is how I do checkens & turkeys 

I like the cone method but we use a sharp pair of two handed hedge trimmers and just take the whole.head off and let it bleed. Less room for error

[jackelope]

Raised thousands of them over the years. Celadons do not seem to lay as well as the normal ones. They are the "rats" of the quail world. Most lay an egg a day (some more) and start laying eggs at about 6 weeks old. You can have a thousand in a short time with an incubator. Eggs are good, lots of people with allergies to chicken eggs can eat quail eggs no problem. Incubation is 17 days. Fertility and hatch are usually very good if it slips get some new blood and it will go right back up. They are not good flyers, we used them for puppy training aids when we started. Do well in our winter, with a little light they will lay all year. The males have a neat call that is not loud and does not neighbors. Lol.

If you have questions ask away, by no means a coturnix expert but I do know a bit  .

Rats of the quail world, huh? Wife and her friend wanted the celadon for the pretty blue eggs .

[KFhunter]

I'd like a game bird incubator that'll do anything from small button quail to Pheasant, to maybe even bigger eggs?


any suggestions? 

[jackelope]

I'd like a game bird incubator that'll do anything from small button quail to Pheasant, to maybe even bigger eggs?


any suggestions? 

We don't have one, but my wife's friend who is incubating the quail eggs has a Brinsea. She's a chicken junky but has incubated quail eggs before in it. Hatches chicken eggs, shows chickens, has over 100 of them, kid heavily involved in 4-H poultry, etc.  I believe the biggest difference is humidity level, but I'm not sure of that. Bird Guy knows more about that than I do.

[Birdguy]

Raised thousands of them over the years. Celadons do not seem to lay as well as the normal ones. They are the "rats" of the quail world. Most lay an egg a day (some more) and start laying eggs at about 6 weeks old. You can have a thousand in a short time with an incubator. Eggs are good, lots of people with allergies to chicken eggs can eat quail eggs no problem. Incubation is 17 days. Fertility and hatch are usually very good if it slips get some new blood and it will go right back up. They are not good flyers, we used them for puppy training aids when we started. Do well in our winter, with a little light they will lay all year. The males have a neat call that is not loud and does not neighbors. Lol.

If you have questions ask away, by no means a coturnix expert but I do know a bit  .

Rats of the quail world, huh? Wife and her friend wanted the celadon for the pretty blue eggs .

We call them the rats as they reproduce very quickly and LOTS of them. We started with 10 8 hens and 2 roos and were hatching 50plus a week when we started. Our daughter was 2 or 3 and LOVED hatch day and helping get all the chicks out of the incubator. Now I keep a few just to prove incubator function and give to kids who come to the house and fall in love with birds. They are easy keepers and a kid getting eggs in weeks vice months with chickens is so cool to them.

[Birdguy]

I'd like a game bird incubator that'll do anything from small button quail to Pheasant, to maybe even bigger eggs?


any suggestions?

KFhunter, most incubators will do all gamebirds and most farm birds that are not waterfowl. We have hatched from quail to peacocks in the same incubator. We have a couple GQF Sportsman incubators, they hold 1200 quail eggs or 400 chicken eggs, they auto rotate and have automated humidity system. Not perfect but way better than manually doing all that. I avoid the styrofoam incubators as they do not hold temp well with changes in ambient temps nor when opening to check water, and turn eggs. Brinsea males good incubators for sure. We bought one new in 2000 and bought the others used in 2002, and have been dependable hatching machines!

[jackelope]

Following up on this. My wife ended up with 2 hens in the batch of hatching eggs she and a friend got. 9 hatched out of 32 eggs. Pretty disappointing to them. 5 of them were hens and 4 roosters. Since her friend had the incubator she kept 3 hens and wife got 2. She decided she wanted a few more so I built her a quail fortress and picked up 5 more hens. 4 I think are pearls and the other one we’re not totally sure but maybe an Italian?

[jackelope]

PS...
Birdguy is the man. He doesn't seem to mind 13 questions a day either. 

[2MANY]

Picking up 3 dozen quail tomorrow.
They will die in the mouth of my 8 week old Chessie pup.

16' x 32' bird pen about done.
Then it's time to incubate Pheasant eggs and raise birds.

Gonna be a lot of feathers and death coming up.

[Bigshooter]

Are you getting any eggs yet?  My buddy has a dozen hens and they are not laying yet.  Probably to early but they should start any day now I would think.