The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Shropshirelass on March 02, 2013, 07:26:47 pm
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How good are they as layers? Also how easy are they to hatch & rear &are they easy to keep??? many thanks xx
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Easy to hatch but chick mortality can be quite high.
Start laying about 8 weeks and the boys are ready for eating by about the same. Can be aggressive but I have always enjoyed mine.
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Will out lay your chickens too.
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had them once never again.... they never reach the weight they a quoted to reach.... to little meat for to much effort..... can be bothered with tiny eating eggs... easy to keep ...rather shoot a pigeon any day... BUT OTHER PEOPLE LIKE THEM
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We keep them and they are prolific layers eggs can be used same as any other just weigh we regularly make mini scotch eggs ready to eat as said at 8 weeks tasty little things :thumbsup:
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are the quail kept in a brooder up to killing age (8 weeks)?
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Ours go in the brooder under heat until they are featherd then into pens
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are they indoor pens or outdoor? I suppose it depends on the time of year?
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Ours are indoor Clarebelle.....
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Thanks Padge, still perfecting my quail keeping plan for the summer :)
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Glad to help if we can what we have works for us :sunshine:
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If you are raising over the summer and we have nice weather (you never know ;)) they may only need a week under a lamp. Nice temps and you can get them outside in the sun during the day (if you keep them under heat they won't feather well) We have found that we get about 11oz meat from a jumbo quail, ready in a couple of months. Small amount of meat but very sweet and a delicious change from everything else.
Preparation, use a teaspoon to do guts. Plucking, need nibble fingers :) about 15 mins total.
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Oh dear it looks like your all tempting me to buy some ::) & just after I've bought a load of new ducks & plan to get more turkeys too - you'll get me into trouble ;D
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they fly well but not to well/ they fly but dont seem to be able to steer ,,, mine flew straight at my caravan and stunned itself.... or they fly straight up like a rocket..... you need a roof
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ok thanks they'd be in a large run x
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Last year we started hatching Japanese Quails, good hatch rate (about 75%), managed to get the eggs cheap by buying about 4 or 5 dozen at a time.
But as said mortality it high, a lot seem to die off in stages as they get older. We managed to get a good number to layers, and had quite a few eggs from them. Unfortunately they all got killed by rats (only a couple were attacked, the others just scared themselves to death). A couple of other people I know said they had problems once the weather started getting cold, apparently they don't do so well. This year I'll be building a more sheltered unit for them, and will be trying again.
The eggs fetch a fair price, the birds sell well at auction, and really they are quite nice animals.
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Hi, very interesting reading about the Quails, I am contemplating rearing some can anyone recommend any publications? on keeping and rearing.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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I found 'backgarden chickens and other poultry' by John and Cara Harrison a good read. It focus's on chickens but alot of it is revelent to quail keeping and it does have a whole chapter devoted to keeping quail which I found comprehensive.
I'm currently saving up for an incubator, then I plan on getting a second hand eglu to keep the layers in. The males i plan to cull at about 7 weeks (bar one male) for meat so they actually will only be outdoors for about a week so ill keep them in a rabbit run outdoors.
From what i've gathered they do not winter well without additional protection from the cold, they need either bringing indoors or heating in the coop. Also, they fly straight up when scared so it is advised that the run they are kept in has either a low head hight or has some kind of softer barrier below the roof of a tall run to cushion them when they hit it! Otherwise they can be liable to injure themselves.
From what I have read so far I think they are going to be great for my small backgarden and I'm hoping to get a good system of eggs and meat birds.
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Mine have overwintered fine in their coop, but i do have them on a rubber mat under the whole coop to stop cold coming up from below. I absolutely love them but they can be a bit trying especially when the boy's get a bit aggressive with the girls. they can peck their heads wide open if you don't keep an eye on them! I give the eggs to a chinese friend of mine who does wonderful arty things with them cooking wise, he makes me cake in return; :eyelashes: it's a no brainer!!
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We have hatched Japanese quail and found hatch rates very good and no problems with survival rates.
Depending on weather, we have been able to put them outdoors by around 3 weeks of age ..... and we are softies ::) . They mature much quicker than chicks and are feathered in no time. We did only hatch out in spring/summer though. They are very seasonal layers. Presumably they may lay during the winter if you use lights .... not tried ???
We have found them to be very hardy. They stayed outdoors during those bad winters ..... though I did throw something over the coops at night. We are 800 ft up and it went down to -20 on a few occasions. No deaths at all.
Lifespan appears to be around 2 years old. Some live longer, one or two have gone sooner.
Try "keeping quail" by Katie Thear.
Rats are killers to quail. We use that small squared strong wire stuff .
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Try "keeping quail" by Katie Thear
Yes, definitely a good place to start.
I'm picking up quail chicks on Thursday - can't wait! :excited:
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Thanks for your replies, will definitely try the Katie Thear book, started with our chickens with her Chicken book.
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We have found pheasant pens ideal for quail. The high boarding along the bottom gives excellent protection. We added ferns, yew, spruce branches etc to corners to give hiding places and then a bit of coraline on bricks to give protection from rain. Over wintered just fine outdoors. Net over the top.
laying is down to sun hours not temps btw.
The biggest issue is rats. Once they get in they are deadly killers.