I ordered some jumbo brown Coturnix quail eggs. My friends father wants to raise some food. So I ordered the eggs and now I am thinking that they would be nice a holiday meal. So I am trying to find a good site that tells you all about raising them. I did find a couple but they didn't have the do's and don't what to feed etc, just chatting. I ordered some non-drown waterers! Everyone who raises chicks and keets should get some (they are cheap, just a base that uses as mason jar) I never knew they existed, no more need for marbles or bobbles and I think it would help with getting poop and food it in too!. Here a link to one http://www.bdfarm.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=79&products_id=302&osCsid=3a6701030ec73bad1d0eb0ff677ae0a2
I think these might be my "gateway" to be able to process my own meat chickens. I have someone who will give me as many wire bird breeding cages that the quails would do great in. They have bottom trays so if I want to keep some over to use as breeders I could keep them in the basement or hen house. From what I have read they do great on wire, it keeps them clean.
Coturnix Quail, anyone raise them?
Let's see, there is 'That Quail Place' . com (no quotes when
typing the name). Which is a wealth of info.
I am starting to raise them. Where did you get your eggs?
Are you incubating now? I started with 24 eggs, hatched out
4. I got the eggs from 2 sources, and the better eggs that
weren't jumbo's arrived with several broken, but they were
the more fertile. The jumbo brown eggs I got weren't that
viable, but they arrived with just one cracked.
My 3 remaining (1 died) are 2 regular coturnix and 1 jumbo.
The breeder I got the jumbo from had 2 mexican speckled
bobwhite quail overwintering in the same pen with her jumbos,
but she said they weren't breeding yet. Ha! I now have a coturnix
cross, and don't want to use it to breed. I have to get more
eggs here pretty quick. I think all of them are males. So, it's
egg shopping time.
I have done a lot of research on feed and care. I like the
info I got on diet from a place called gbwf.org. They can
be a little stuffy, and 'elitist' in scientific terminology. Most
members there raise special game birds, and you won't
hear talk of eating what they raise. They are extremely
caring of their birds, their diets and habitats, so the info
is sound.
The coturnix create more of the amonia in their droppings, and
care must be taken to keep clean. The drop pans under
the cages should be 4-6 inches below the wire. They are
messy, and need a feed bin they can't get into to dust bathe,
which they love. I ordered 6 pop bottle waterers from GQF
mfg, that use recycled bottles, and this is on the outside of
the cage, with a spout that fits into a 1" hole in the side of
the cage. Even with the fount waterers, which I have started
with in the brooder, they get pine shavings in the water, and
it's a constant battle. I will be transferring them outside to
wire cages this week. They are vigorous and busy, and have
frequently tipped the fount waterer. I am looking forward to
no more shavings! I will post a quail food recipe in next post,
and they like a piece of apple to pick at when they are over
3 weeks old. They need a dust bath in the wire cages, and
would prefer some branches of evergreen something to
hop on and get under. I have read they need 1 sq foot per
bird of cage, meaning floor space. I have 1 male alone with
3sq ft of brooder, and 2 males in the other woth the same
sq footage, and they seem ok- but are fussing with each
other, which is natural since I have no females to keep them
busy. The best ratio is 2 females and 1 male per cage for
breeding, and in a colony if a large number for meat birds.
Hope this is a good start, and that you have fun!
This is a breeder diet for many game birds:
A gbwf member wrote this-
"Callipepla species here with me generally lay around 80 eggs per year per pair for comparison. People doubt or even disbelieve the egg production figures as many people struggle to get anything near them, so you can believe them or not yourself. The "secret" is sound diet - a crumble or mini-pellet of 22% protein or higher and containing fish and/or meat meal, and a seed mix high in oil seeds (which are high in protein and essential amino-acids too), a very basic multi-vit/mineral in the water is probably a good idea too - I tell people that and they also disbelieve that too, and get few eggs which turn-out to have poor viability. "
Another source writes this:
"New Shoot Slurry
take two whole tangerines peel and all in throw them in a food processer.
add an entire cup of fennel seed
1/2 cup coriander seed
1/2 cup whole unhulled sesame seed
1/2 cup pecans
three tablespoons crushed black pepper
two sticks of artifical crab meat
two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
chop this up into what looks like granola and spoon this into an ice tray.
Place in freezer. It stores best frozen and its more convenient to feed out ice cubes of slurry then a wet mess. At any rate, cut a small melon in half and add two to three slurry cubes to the melon guts- leave out until they clean it up. Don't feed them anything but apples or fruit for forty eight hours before supplementing them with a slurry.
This way they are eager to eat and most importantly, the processed crumble or gamebird ration you are feeding will be cleaned out of the digestive tract before loading up with the slurry.
It needs to be in the digestive tract without the viscous layer of partially digested feedstuff blocking ingestion."
You can adjust the quantities for the number of birds you have.
You can get by on just the higher protien game feed, but
when they have a varied diet, they are healthier and create
the same in offspring.
I put this together for my 4 week old chicks and quail:
Chop craisins and put in food processor with pecans.
(About a 1/2 cup of each.)
Add 1 tbs fresh ground black pepper
1 tbs ground tumeric
Whirl this around til small pieces and well blended.
Add 2 cups budgie seed and blend well. Use as a
top dressing for the game bird feed crumbles.
This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 8:40 AM
Thanks! I bought them off of ebay. I got 60, the guy had great ratings. One the occasional broken egg and good hatch rate. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=7213dexter&&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller&sspagename=VIP:feedback:2:us&iid=150227338519 this is his feedback, he just sells quails