Growing Meat Quail

Japanese Quail
Taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Japanese Quail, Coturnix japonica, is a species of quail found in East Asia. They are a migratory species, breeding in Manchuria, south-eastern Siberia, and northern Japan, and wintering in southern the Japanese Island, the Korean Peninsula, and southern China. They dwell in grasslands and cultivated fields. The plumage of the Japanese Quail is a speckled yellow-brown, with a creamy white strip above the eye. Adults are approximately 20 centimetres in length. The species is abundant across most of its range.

The Japanese quail is used mainly for table and egg production, and is a good dual purpose bird. Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kannur under Kerala Agricultural University has produced video album containing songs and visuals on Japanese quail production under Creative Extension series

Here is more from Wikipedia

Meat quails are called either Japanese or European quail. They are a beautiful little bird and come in a variety of colours (white, brown, fawn, tuxedo and anything in between.

They fall in the category of game birds and are very good as a hobby or a business.

The advantage quail have is that they are small, cheap to buy and to feed, increase numbers very quickly if required.

At the start I found them a bit flighty, but after a little time and handling they have quieten down a fair bit. Japanese quail normally don't fly but when startled they will fly straight up into the air, which means they can break their necks.
Japanese quail are hardy birds that thrive in small cages and they don't cost that much to keep. Quail are a good alternative to chickens or ducks.

A WORD OF CAUTION:
As hardy as the little birds are as an adult bird a lot of care need to be taken with the young quail chicks.

I'll explain on how i keep my birds in the housing section.

They are affected by common poultry diseases but are fairly disease resistant.

Japanese quail mature in about 6 weeks (it still amazes me on how quick they do grow) and are usually in full egg production by 50 days of age.

With proper care and the right amount of light hours, the female should lay 200 and some people think that they could lay up to 300 eggs in their first year of lay.
The Birds don't live for very long and their life expectancy is only 2 to 2½ years.

Feeding is very important as the quail are growing very fast. It is amazing to see them grow.

I hatch quail every 8 days and to see them growing from just hatched to when they are 8 days old is amazing.

At the moment I sell most of my eggs through out Australia and have not many eggs to hatch myself, but I am getting more eggs everyday.

When feeding the young quail it is important to give them the right feed. In most cases people use a chicken or turkey starter. They have around 24% protein, but the young quail need 28% or they want grow as quick as they could.

Also keep the feed up to the birds. It doesn't matter what age the birds are, including the adult birds, this can prevent cannibalism.

The way I feed my little quail chicks
After the chicks come out of the incubator (normally 24hours after hatching) the chicks go into a brooding pen. I sprinkle the game bird starter feed on the floor for the first 2 or 3 days. After that I'll put a feeder or dish in.

At the beginning I added meat meal to the chicken starter to boost the protein level. When I used to have pigs, I mixed my own feed and I know , by adding meat meal or any other protein source it will upset the balance of the feed you are feeding.

Now I buy a game bird starter (see picture below on the left). It is not cheap, but the young quail don't eat a lot. The quail overall don't eat a lot, compared to chicken or ducks.

This is the feed I'm using for my breeder above on the right. It should be available from most stock feed agents. One of the problems I had when I first ask for it, they didn't even know about game bird feed.

Fortunately I already had a look on the internet and I knew what I was looking for. They ordered the feed in for me and now have always a couple of bags there for me. It took nearly a week to get it in, so you need to allow for that.

Adult Quail consume about 20grams a day, but I have feed in front of them all the time.
I also add a little shell grit to the feed once a week in order to ensure that I don't get soft egg shells.

They Adult Quail also get a wild bird mix, which consists of different grain and seeds to let them scratch around a little.

Below on the left you can see a close up of the Tree Lucerne, which I grow. The bird really love it and it is high in protein.

Here is another close up below on the right of a tree which has flowers and it is July. Every other tree has the flowers in October to November. The seeds are ready early December.

I have my quail in old fruit bins. I run up to 25 birds in them. The floor is covered with straw and newspaper.

I haven't made any brooder pens as such and I use ,as you can see in the picture below, a 44 gallon drum cut in half. I need to build some bigger brooder pens very soon, because I am getting more eggs to incubate. Also in winter the loss of heat is to much when you consider that the young quail need about 35 degrees Celsius.

I can run up to 30 to 40 young birds in a 44 gallon drum like that, for about 2 weeks. The 44 gallon drums are placed in a spare room we have on the farm.

Other places to house the Quail could be rooms similar to garages or garden sheds. However, such areas need to be well ventilated and free from drafts, and must provide protection from cats, rodents, snakes and predatory birds.
A lot of of different creatures do have a liking for them. I put covers over my bins.

The Young birds go into a 44 gallon drum cut in half. The picture below show s you what i mean

The pen they live in should be designed to ensure comfort (no over crowding) for the birds and to make food and water readily available. The feeders and drinkers should also be easy to check and clean.

The adult pens should be made in such a way which suits the purpose of having them. For example, if the birds are to be raised for egg or meat production, then small pair-cages maybe used.

People using quail just as an hobby, may use aviaries or small deep-litter pens that do not require regular cleaning of droppings.

These are some of the recommendations made by the DPI for the housing of adult quail. "For cage or pen construction, 7 mm square welded wire mesh is recommended to provide secure footing, prevent leg injuries and prevent chicks escaping through side walls.

Adult quail will live and produce successfully if they are allowed 145 cm2 of floor space per bird (125 cm2 per bird on wire floors). Often, in community pens, they will not build a nest but will hide their eggs in the litter. For this reason quail egg producers usually prefer to house their birds in cages. A cage 13 × 20 cm is large enough for two birds. The cage should have a solid metal or plywood roof to minimize head injuries if the birds take fright.

I personally don't like cages and I like to see them running around. Big community pens don't work for me either as it is a lot harder to look after the birds and it is a lot harder picking up on sick or outcast birds. I am working on movable pens sitting on pasture as I live on 20 acres I have some room, but I am wary of wild dogs, cats, foxes, snakes, and other animals that my pose as a threat toward my quail . We'll see how it goes.

Here are my fruit bin in which my little birds live. These aren't expensive when you can find them around $10 to $20 will get you one. Or you can build them yourself.

There is a view into one of my bin. There you can see they live quite happy in there and the bins are easy enough to clean out. I keep adding straw to it for about 2 to 3 month, then i take the birds out into small box and take everything out and start fresh with new straw. You don't need to use straw, you can use shredded paper or I tried leaf litter and that work ok as well.

One question I have been ask a number of times now:

Can you run Quail with your chicken?

My best guess is no, because the Quail are to small and any predatory bird would try to get them unless you have the yard covered with netting.

Also I think the competition would be to great and the quail could miss out, and the chicken might peck at the quails. If the male quail is added after the chickens, the rooster may also think that the male quail in the pen is in his territory and kill the male quail. I'm not sure about that and if someone has got an answer for that please let me know.
Quail are mainly run in Aviaries to clean up spilled seeds from other bird such as parrot, finches. I believe that the quail need to be feed extra good quality feed to survive and do well. Left over seeds spilled by parrots or finches would not be good enough.

I have heard people losing their quail in Aviaries and don't understand why. This could be it, the feed.

Just a quick note of running quail with chicken:
A lady from Queensland sent me an email saying she lost a few of her young quail to black birds.

There are lots of different equipment available for raising and growing Quail, from the cheap to the expensive. I try to show as many different techniques as I can when it comes to feeding and giving the quail water, and keeping them warm.
This gives people ideas and if you have anything different and you would like to include it here please feel free to contact me and I am only to happy to include it.
Here is one of my self made feeders. As you can see it doesn't need to be expensive. I'll show other types of feeders i have as well. This is a good way to get started. ( due to new rules i have to work out on how i can my pictures back on this lens)

Below you see a drinker which cost about $10.

Here you see a feeder which you also can buy for around $10. You also can use margarine containers if you like or any other container you can think of, like a small dish or bowl. Just don't have the feeder too deep.

The heat lamp is very important, because the little quail will need around 35 degrees heat for the first week.

Lots of people have different opinions about breeding Japanese Quail. Research indicates that having a single male with two or three females will give high fertility. I run mine at 1 male to 4 females, but I'm still trying different things.

When quail are kept in pens with larger numbers, one male to three females is said to be good enough and reduces fighting among males.

Pair matings in individual cages also give good fertility and also give you the knowledge where the eggs coming from in order to preserve bloodline or create new ones.

Fertility decreases markedly in older birds. Avoid mating closely related birds, because inbreeding increases the incidence of abnormalities and can greatly reduce reproductive performance. For this reason, you keep records and write numbers on the eggs, incubate them in separate groups, and mark the chicks at hatch time. Just don't use permanent marker on the eggs because it seeps through the egg shell and kills the bird inside, use a pen or Grey led

Records can be kept by using wing bands or leg bands to identify quail of all ages. Quails can be identified temporarily by a little oil paint on the back feathers (not on the skin) or fingernail polish on the toes, which I think is rather cute. Young chicks with make up. lol.

I use black cable ties for my males and clear ones for my females. You can get different colour cable ties, which helps if you got different bloodlines to keep them separated.

My main loss of birds is that the young ones get to cold. The cause was blown heat lamp (silly me). Also I had the wrong drinkers in with the day old chicks and they got wet. The adult quail seem to be a pretty tough bird and I don't know of any diseases which affects the quail. This is not to say there aren't any and I will research this a bit more and add my findings to this section.
One other thing I like to mention here is that the male are very rough on the girls. They seem to peck the females head and pull out feathers. Sometimes they can make their head bleed. I don't know if there is anything I can do about that.

There is only 2 ways that i know to sex quail and i have to wait until they adults.

The easiest way for me is to see the male standing up a little and make a high pitch shrieking noise. Where as the females are a lot more quite. I will try to get a video so you can hear the noise the male make.

The 2nd way is look at their bums. The male is excreting a white foamy looking substance when they are mature. I will try to get a picture or two showing what i mean.

Below is a Video on how to sex quail:

Video clip: How To Visually Tell Male from Female In Coturnix

I could never tell doing it this way. This is a very good video and the information which came with video is in the quotes.

"Pictures and video of how to see the difference in male and female coturnix of the Brown and Golden varieties. The only video on here shows how to foam test, this is a GLAND of the roo, only the coturnix quail has this gland that produces a foam-like substance it is NOT reproductive fluid if you get my drift but it does help in fertilization. This gland is actually above the roos vent and almost looks like a swollen bump above the roos bum (vent). Hens do not have this gland but only roos in breeding condition have it...and for them to be in breeding condition they have to be under 14 hours of light a day artificial or natural....natural would be in southern states year round, or spring and summer seasons in the northern states. Coturnix can breed and lay eggs year round as long as 14 hours of visual light is given to them, in the form of a light bulb will even work! :) Roos also only crow when in breeding condition... they WILL not crow if it's the dead of winter and no supplimental light is given other than normal winter daylight. Browns Goldens and a Brown looking variety called Cinnamon can be visually sexed by their feathers where as most other colors you cannot tell by looking. A & ms, English Whites, Tibetans (ranges), Red Range and Tuxedos can only be sexed by you seeing which one crows, by foam checking, or by seeing a hen lay an egg....otherwise unless you're good at vent sexing (which most aren't) you won't know. So I hope this video helps some! :)"

There other ways on how to tell when they are younger and i will tell you more about it when i understand how and i will tell you how..

Quail eggs are set at a different temperatures to chicken eggs. I use two Bell South Incubators and i set my eggs at 99 to100 degrees fahrenheit (37.2 to 37.8 degree Celsius). Chicken eggs are set at 103 degrees(39.4 degree Celsius) . They also hatch a lot quicker 16 to 17 day compered to 21 days for chickens. My hatch rate is not that good yet and it varies from 20% ( don't know what happened ) to over 70%. A number of people said to me, that if you are getting 50% it is ok. Over 60% is good and over 75% is excellent. I like to go to excellent and i will add tips to here as i learn more.
Our hatch rates haven't improved yet and I am trying new things. I am also searching the internet and talking to other poultry people about hatching. At the moment I am leaving the eggs for two days in the incubator to let the eggs settle. I guess I'll soon find out if it works.
We had a poultry show here in bendigo on the weekend and someone told me to try to give the birds meat meal, which is a high protein product. This I'll try next, as it is very frustrating to have a high fertility rate and at times such a poor hatch rate.

Here is my incubator i am using and i just bought a second one. My number of eggs per day have increased to 36 to 40 and sales of fertile eggs has slowed down a little. I just put all the eggs in the incubator which i don't sell or if the eggs getting to old to ship. The eggs are rarely ever any older then 4 days old.

Here is a look inside the incubator. This is the way i put my eggs in when i haven't got to many. It keeps the incubator a lot cleaner. Besides the quail are lot cleaner then the chooks or the ducks.

I turn the eggs at least 2 times a day , morning and evening, but sometimes 3 times normally when i come home from work if I'm not in a rush doing other things. Turning them involves just running them from one end of the egg carton to the other. The proper way would be to make a X on one side and a O on the other and turning according what is up at the time reversing that eg X to O or O to X.
You also can candle the eggs about half way through the incubation period say day 7,8 or 9. If you find any infertile eggs you can remove them. I myself don't do it as I have trouble seeing through the dark shell. However in due time I'll spend the money on a good candling light.

At 13 days i stop turning the eggs until they hatch.

Here you see a normal chook egg in contrast to quail eggs. I seen this done before and thought i could do the same.



One last point on incubation. When the little chicks hatch I leave mine in the incubator for at least 24 hours. This allows them to dry nicely and they get moved to their new pen then.

After the 16th or 17th day the eggs should start hatching and you should hear a bit of chirping coming out of the incubator. I leave my chicks in for 24 hour before i remove them. Everything what is going to hatch will have hatched. I can't remember having any live chicks hatching after that and i stand to be corrected.

As you can see the chicks are tiny. look at the match box



I use 44 gallon drums cut in half (see the picture when i finally get it on) to house the little quail chicks. 30 quail fit in quite well.



First i put newspaper on the bottom and add some sand on top of the newspaper. Newspaper on it's own i found the young chicks were sliding around to much and with adding the sand it gave them some grip.

I place 2 pieces of wood in the drum to sit the heat lamp on. The heat lamp is a 75 or 100 watt light globe. Then i observe where the young chicks going to. If they moving out and away from the lamp means it is to hot and i can lift the lamp a little.
If on the other hand they moving in and huddle together means they are to cold and i have to lower the lamp or use a stronger globe.

These birds are a week old



This is a very important point to understand, if you want your young quail to survive the first few days. There is very little of them and the cold will kill them quickly.
I did lose my first lot that way, thinking they be ok for a hour or so and it wasn't even winter.

For the first couple of days i sprinkle Game Bird Starter feed on the floor for the chicks. After that i add a dish or small feeder.

Note:If you cant get the right feed, use chicken starter and add some other protein to it such as meat meal or soy meal.

As a drinker you can use the bottom of a milk container with some pebbles put in, so the little quail don't drown in it or even get to wet. Or you can buy a drinker, which costs around $10.

They also need protection from cats, dogs, rats and others. The enclosure should have solid wall and a lid.

China is the largest producer with over 155000 tons of meat produced and Spain being a distant second with just over 9000 tons. Demand for Japanese Quail meat and eggs are steady on the increase in many countries.

Of all the game birds grown in Australia, the production of Japanese Quail for meat is the largest with around 6 to 7 million birds being processed.
One producer accounting for over 75% of the market which is slowly increasing. There are other farms but not to that size.

As I mentioned in the introduction, my main market is fertile egg at the moment. My number of eggs isn't big enough at present around, 30 eggs a day, to look any further into eggs for human consumption.

(I added the bold text in July 2011, which is 18month after I started this lens.)
This is not an easy market if you live in the country.
Options to try are:

Asian specialty shops

Asian take away or restaurants.

You may end up selling some birds as well.

I mainly sold mine by advertising on poultry and game bird sites.

Backyard Poultry

Petlink

Farmstock

These are just 3 I have used and the really good thing is they are free to advertise on.

We are also in the middle of winter and I have no idea yet how the seasons work with demand. (2011:Winter time is a good opportunity to sell fertile quail eggs, because most people with incubators don't like seeing them empty and be looking for eggs.) I try to set 24 eggs a week in my incubator to get at least some chick for myself to grow up. There is a limited but it seems an expanding market for specialist products such as fresh or pickled quail eggs and fresh or frozen quail. However, doing quail on a larger scale, success requires thorough market research and the ability to maintain supplies of top quality produce.

Japanese Quail Egg production could be the best option for smaller farmer in particular at the start and expand their flock as demand for their eggs starts to increase.

For the smaller grower there seems to be a number of opportunities to sell live birds. Various poultry markets sell them by auction and you pay a commission of around 20%. Some pet shops will also take some as well as people which have got other birds in Aviaries and run quail on the floor to pick spilled grain and seeds.

Another market could be a reptile keeper. They are also looking to feed their snakes or lizards either eggs or frozen birds.
I have eggs for sale for anyone in Australia and birds if someone wants to come and pick them up. I'll add a link to my email address in the near future.

I did have a look into contract growing, but it required a larger investment then I was prepared to lay out.

First of all I should say this works for me in Australia. All my eggs get send in 2 dozen lots (changed that to 20 per box), because I can send them for the same price anywhere in Australia for the same price. If I send more then that, postage becomes a problem as some areas become more expensive then others. This way I can keep it under 500 grams (just) and I don't have to work out what to charge each time I send more then 2 dozen eggs in 1 pack.

At the beginning I had a bit of trouble sending eggs and I couldn't find anything on how to send eggs and how to package them. Needless to say I did run into trouble at first. After I send the first couple of lots I send and they arrive all in one piece I got a little to overconfident, thinking this is easy. The next few lots I got messages back that there were broken eggs in the boxes.

What happen? Not only did I have to replace the eggs, but also I had to work out what went wrong and I had people wanting eggs. To cut a long story short, the first lots I send were only a dozen each. Therefore there was no problem with the weight. The 12-piece grid worked fine for that. 2 dozen eggs was a different story. 2 eggs in each compartment don't work. So I made a 24-piece grid. After a lot of trailing I came up with this way and I hardly lose an eggs now, but I does happen.

Below you see all the steps I take to send my eggs.

I start with a post pack like you see in the picture
I make a grid out of cardboard

I make them like that

The bubble rap goes in the bottom

This is what it looks like before I start packing the eggs

I use tissues to cushion the eggs

The first egg in the box

Filled Box

Bit more filling

The fully packed and ready to go package

I have decided to move this part to another site over the next few weeks.
You will find it here:just click the link

New spot for recipes

At some later stage I'll make a new lens with just Quail dishes using quail eggs and quail pieces

These are recipes picked up of the net and are available to anyone

Pickling Ingredients: 25 boiled quail eggs, 1 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, 3/4 teaspoon dill seed, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, 3 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon mustard seed. 1/2 teaspoon onion juice, 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic. For hot pickled quail eggs add 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper or any Louisiana Hot Sauce. For fire HOT add more red pepper or hot sauce.

quail-egg-recipes.com quail-egg-recipes.com quail-egg-recipes.com quail-egg-recipes.com

# First thing you need to do is check for cracked eggs.
# Then soak your eggs in warm water for a few minutes and clean.
# Place eggs in a pan, cover with cold water (at least 1" above the eggs).
# Bring water to a rolling boil before removing from heat.
# Allow eggs to stand in hot water for 10 minutes.
# Gently stir them occasionally to prevent the yolk from settling to one side.
# Drain water and cover eggs with white vinegar (at least 1" above the eggs).
# Stir the eggs every few hours.
# After 12 hours the shells should have dissolved in the vinegar leaving the membrane on the egg.
# Rinse the eggs thoroughly and peel them.
# Then rinse them again and place them in a 1 quart canning jar.
# Place pickling ingredients in a pan and simmer for 15 minutes.
# Pour the pickling liquid into the quart jar, completely covering the eggs.
# When the eggs and mixture have cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

Cajun Omelet with quail eggs
In a sauce pan add one can of cooked tomatoes drained and chopped fine, two onions cut fine, plus mince 1-2 garlic cloves. Add heaping tablespoon of bread crumbs, salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne. Cook slowly until onions are tender. Take two dozen quail eggs and beat together. In a 12 inch non-stick skillet place one tablespoon of butter and when hot add quail eggs. When omelet sets pour other ingredients on it, fold over and cook 2 minutes longer.

Poached Quail eggs, Cajun Style
Stew 1 can of diced tomatoes and one green pepper shredded until reduced by half. Pour into hot platter and arrange toast on top. On each piece of toast place 2 poached quail eggs. Pour a small amount of melted butter, salt and pepper over eggs.

Baked quail eggs
Spread butter in muffin tins. Put a thin slice of fresh tomato in the bottom of each ring. Break 2 quail eggs in each ring, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover each ring with another slice of tomato, sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with a small amount of butter. Bake until tomatoes are done and quail eggs solid. Serve on buttered toast.

Quail Egg Pie
Hard boil 24 quail eggs. Make a white sauce with 3 cups of milk, 3 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. Line the sides of a baking pan with a pie crust. Crumble day old bread or bread crumbs in the bottom of pan. Cut the eggs up over the bread in pan. Add the white sauce. If there isn't enough sauce to cover add more milk. Any kind of left over meat could be added if desired.

Cheese quail egg omelet
24 quail eggs. Beat eggs then add 4 tablespoons of milk. Place one tablespoon of butter in non-stick pan. When melted pour mixture in. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Then add 1/4 pound of grated cheese. Brown omelet carefully, fold over and serve immediately.

Quail eggs and rice
12 quail eggs. Beat eggs and 1/4 of milk then add about one cup cooked left over rice. Place one tablespoon of butter in non-stick pan. When melted pour mixture of quail eggs and rice in pan. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Stir until cooked and serve immediately.

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