Coturnix Quail

[Machias]

I looked through the older posts and read a few of the threads on Quail.  Anyone still raising quail?  I've got 13 in the brooder right now and another 50 eggs being shipped on the 11th.  I'm picking up a three tier breeder cage set up this Friday and building some new cages over the next couple of weeks.  Amazing how young they start laying and how quickly they mature to freezer size. 

[Timberstalker]

I've just started researching them. How do they do with temperatures - both hot and cold?

[Machias]

So I'm a complete newbie myself, so I don't want to give out any bad information or "advice", but everything I've read they will handle our heat up here pretty easily with shade.   It sounds like they will have no problem at all with our winter temps, but I'll be keeping mine in a insulated shed with a small electric heater that will keep the temps around 50 degrees.  I don't want to have to deal with frozen waterers.  They will need extra light in the winter if you want them to keep laying.  Also reading a lot of information on a Coturnix Quail Facebook pages (seems like a lot of knowledgeable people at "Coturnix Corner"), a lot of folks swap out hens and roos once or twice a year.  They generally lay an egg a day starting around 6 to 8 weeks and they are ready for the freezer around 7 to 10 weeks.  Takes three eggs to equal a chicken egg, but they will have laid about 100 eggs before a chicken chick lays its first egg.  Lots of people make pickled quail eggs, which I am really looking forward to.  Sounds like they are messy birds, can sometimes be aggressive if you don't watch for it and cull the bullies.  Not too expensive to get into really, particularly if you build your own cages.  Youtube has a good channel also called Coturnix Corner, by a guy named Terry with a lot of helpful information.

[Timberstalker]

Nice. Thank you for the information. And pickled quail eggs are ridiculously good!

Hope to follow along on your journey, Fred.

Thanks again.

[Machias]

 

[Woodchuck]

@jackelope

[nwwanderer]

With there growth curve, almost straight up, and early maturity quality protein and high energy is a must.  And the little monsters sound like Hollywood dinosaurs.  Have fun

[Machias]

With there growth curve, almost straight up, and early maturity quality protein and high energy is a must.  And the little monsters sound like Hollywood dinosaurs.  Have fun

Yep, they are on 30% right now!!

[high_hunter]

Following.

I have 15 adult birds for training & butcher I recently picked up with another 40 in the brooder that are now 1-2 weeks old.

Plan is to keep all the females and a few males to start my own flock, then cull the leftover males for food & dog training.

Will have to compare recipes and try pickling some of the eggs as well.

-HH

[Kola16]

@Birdguy has coturnix. He has a lot of birds though not just coturnix I have raised bobwhites for 3 or 4 years now. I raise bobwhites for bird dog training, but they produce more eggs then I can handle. Coturnix produce even more. I will stick with my bobwhites, but if I were raising quail strictly for meat and eggs, coturnix are by far the choice.

[jackelope]

We’ve got a few. They’re fun. Protein is super important for their health and egg production.  No messing around with the feed. Lots of eggs. Be prepared for that. Honestly they’re kind of a pain in the butt but they’re delicious. I eat lots of them on the weekends and when I get a few dozen stacked up I’ll pickle them. Got them for meat and eggs. Wife decided she couldn’t kill them for meat so now we have them for eggs. Oye.
We’ve got a couple of the celadon variety too that lay blue eggs.
PS almost everything I’ve learned about them, I learned from playing 20 questions with Birdguy.

[Machias]

What's your pickled eggs recipe...if you don't mind sharing.

[Machias]

Just curious if the Birddog guys can or would use Coturnix Quail for training?  Dried Wings?

[brocka]

Just curious if the Birddog guys can or would use Coturnix Quail for training?  Dried Wings?

I train my GSP pups with them. They aren't very strong flyers so launching them from a launcher is recommended to get a little more height/distance out of them.

[Machias]

Just curious if the Birddog guys can or would use Coturnix Quail for training?  Dried Wings?

I train my GSP pups with them. They aren't very strong flyers so launching them from a launcher is recommended to get a little more height/distance out of them.

 

[Birdguy]

Thanks for the tag guys! Yes, I raise a few birds, have raised a few types of birds and likely will continue to raise some. Pros:
Coturnix are the "rat" of the bird world. Very quick to mature (most laying fertile eggs at 6 weeks) grow like crazy and lay a ton of eggs. They are a boom for egg production or bird production. They are cheap, super easy to raise and you can have an army of them in no time with a decent incubator. plenty hardy to be kept outside during our weather. Are great for puppies or soft mouthed well trained dogs looking by scent.
Cons:
Wasteful, they will spill more food than almost any other bird, poop a LOT, eating like they do it goes through them quickly and cleaning regimen will be needed if kept inside. Lots of feather dust (again problem if kept inside). Not great flyers. Usually only last a round or two in training a dog (stress out). Can get aggressive strains of birds (males and females can pick others to death in short order, once it starts I replace the entire pen.

They are fantastic for what they are. If raising for eggs or real meat I would only raise jumbos, find a good line of bigger good layers and get started. The jumbos mature at the same rate, will lay as many eggs just bigger and will grow bigger, some get the size of small chukar. If I were on the east side I would make sure in the winter they were protected from rain and wind (even a wrap of clear plastic around the pen works great, also a piece of wood or cardboard to keep feet off the wire when real cold) but for the most part they will huddle for warmth when cold.

I am glad to help anyone however I can with bird stuff, do not hesitate to ask!

[jackelope]

What's your pickled eggs recipe...if you don't mind sharing.

I don’t really have a recipe. I used this one for the boiling. I put them in cold water.

https://practicalselfreliance.com/pickled-quail-eggs/

Don’t really have a recipe. I use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. I got pickling spices and use that. Peppercorns. Put some jalapeño slices in. A bunch of garlic. Whatever else sounds good. Let them sit for 7 days before eating.

[Machias]

Thanks for the tag guys! Yes, I raise a few birds, have raised a few types of birds and likely will continue to raise some. Pros:
Coturnix are the "rat" of the bird world. Very quick to mature (most laying fertile eggs at 6 weeks) grow like crazy and lay a ton of eggs. They are a boom for egg production or bird production. They are cheap, super easy to raise and you can have an army of them in no time with a decent incubator. plenty hardy to be kept outside during our weather. Are great for puppies or soft mouthed well trained dogs looking by scent.
Cons:
Wasteful, they will spill more food than almost any other bird, poop a LOT, eating like they do it goes through them quickly and cleaning regimen will be needed if kept inside. Lots of feather dust (again problem if kept inside). Not great flyers. Usually only last a round or two in training a dog (stress out). Can get aggressive strains of birds (males and females can pick others to death in short order, once it starts I replace the entire pen.

They are fantastic for what they are. If raising for eggs or real meat I would only raise jumbos, find a good line of bigger good layers and get started. The jumbos mature at the same rate, will lay as many eggs just bigger and will grow bigger, some get the size of small chukar. If I were on the east side I would make sure in the winter they were protected from rain and wind (even a wrap of clear plastic around the pen works great, also a piece of wood or cardboard to keep feet off the wire when real cold) but for the most part they will huddle for warmth when cold.

I am glad to help anyone however I can with bird stuff, do not hesitate to ask!

Thank you!  I've read back though a lot of your past post and learned a lot.  I'm already doing the jumbo birds like you recommended.

[Machias]

What's your pickled eggs recipe...if you don't mind sharing.

I don’t really have a recipe. I used this one for the boiling. I put them in cold water.

https://practicalselfreliance.com/pickled-quail-eggs/

Don’t really have a recipe. I use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. I got pickling spices and use that. Peppercorns. Put some jalapeño slices in. A bunch of garlic. Whatever else sounds good. Let them sit for 7 days before eating.

Thanks!

[Machias]

65 quail eggs going in the incubator tomorrow. 

[Machias]

Ended up putting 73 eggs in the incubators.  Had 77 eggs, but 4 would not fit, just had no more room.  I ordered 50 eggs from Southwest Game Birds and they shipped me 60 eggs.  My wife was helping me put them in the incubators and dropped one.  Really honey, that egg made it all the way through the Postal system from Arizona only to be dropped before putting it in the incubator!!      Didn't matter as we ran out of room.  I also bought a dozen eggs from a local breeder and she showed up with 18 eggs.  So I had 18 more eggs than I had originally anticipated.  Shipped eggs don't always have the best hatch rate so I'm hoping for at least a 50% hatch rate.

[Machias]

So update on my last batch of quail eggs in the incubators.  Final quail count, 13 hatched.  Had to assist the last two, not sure they will make it or not. Got 78 eggs, 60 shipped from AZ.  None of those hatched.  Got 18 from a local lady and 13 of those hatched.  Just put in 56 eggs from the local lady.

[jackelope]

Sounds like my wife's experience the first time around.  Her and her friend bought a bunch of eggs from someone through the mail because they wanted good celadon eggs. I think they ordered 36 of them and 15 hatched.

[boneaddict]

Unless the person really knows what they are doing, eggs are incredibly hard to ship to remain viable for hatching.    Lots of money is wasted on eggs especially on ebay.    One of the reasons I had the success I did and the clientele.   

[Machias]

These came from Southwest Gamebirds.  They have have a ton of happy customer's on the Facebook Page Coturnix Corner.  Normally pretty high hatch rates.  But they were shipped out of Phoenix, AZ when they were experiencing 110+ temps.  I will order from them again in the fall when it cools down.  Shipped eggs are always a gamble.  These were packed perfectly and the box arrived with no visible damage.  It's all about how long they sat somewhere and how they were handled.

[boneaddict]

Yes indeed!   I hope you have better luck this next go around.

[jackelope]

My wife’s friend is a poultry collector and breeder. She put together this directory. Might be worth a look.

https://www.theflockdirectory.com

[Jonathan_S]

Columbia Quail in Tri Cities if you want shorter shipping/pickup. When I was in the quail game, I bought from them several times.

[Machias]

Thanks guys!!

[Norman89]

Well I’m now invested in the coturnix quail game too 

Next Homestead Project: Coturnix Quail!

[LDennis24]

Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane had coturnix qual and snowflake bobwhites on several occasions this summer. Not sure who their supplier is.

[Norman89]

For the next guy that wants to get into quail raising, I copied the hutch design from coturnixcorner on YouTube and videoed it

Building the @CoturnixCorner Stacking Quail Hutch

[Norman89]

[Norman89]

What I didn’t know, about coturnix quail

[Jonathan_S]

One really learns how many toothy critters there are when they start raising quail. Everything likes chicken but critters will move heaven and earth to try to get at your quail.

[Norman89]

Once I moved them inside haven’t had any killed, but I am building a outdoor hutch for the meat birds that have a huge hide house, they will have to come out for feed and water but lots of room to hide away and feel safe

[Boss .300 winmag]

🤔

[jackelope]

My last quail died a couple weeks ago and I’m not getting any more. I’ve got a nice quail hutch in Duvall if anyone wants it. It’d probably hold a dozen birds.

[Norman89]

My last quail died a couple weeks ago and I’m not getting any more. I’ve got a nice quail hutch in Duvall if anyone wants it. It’d probably hold a dozen birds.

If you find someone to take it that’s first starting up with quail I’ll supply them some hatching eggs or chicks to get started with

[Boss .300 winmag]

I’ll take it.

[Boss .300 winmag]

My last quail died a couple weeks ago and I’m not getting any more. I’ve got a nice quail hutch in Duvall if anyone wants it. It’d probably hold a dozen birds.

If you find someone to take it that’s first starting up with quail I’ll supply them some hatching eggs or chicks to get started with

I’ll take you up on that in the spring.

[Norman89]

My last quail died a couple weeks ago and I’m not getting any more. I’ve got a nice quail hutch in Duvall if anyone wants it. It’d probably hold a dozen birds.

If you find someone to take it that’s first starting up with quail I’ll supply them some hatching eggs or chicks to get started with

I’ll take you up on that in the spring.

Let me know when your ready, I have fertilized eggs every day and I’m hatching out chicks pretty regularly now

[Norman89]

More from my quail video series

[Norman89]