I have been researching the possibility of keeping quail in my backgarden. I currently keep rabbits for meat and the plan would be to keep the quail primarily for meat too with eggs being a great addition. I think we have room for them but as we have neighbours nearby the main issue would be noise.
I dont think the girlies will be a problem as, from what I've heard the cooing quail sounds lovely and we are regularly woken by hundreds of wild birds anyway! The trouble would be a crowing crockerel, I don't think my neightbours would appreciate that! I have read really contradictory information about whether the males do crow at all! Some sites seem to say they can be very loud, others that they crow very softly and to the other extreme, the Omlet website says they dont crow at all?
The other mixed report is whether they will brood their eggs successfully? Some people seem to think they will whereas the majority say they are lousey mothers. As we want meat birds and therefore a replenishing system, if they wont sit on eggs we would have to invest in incubation/brooding equipment and we just dont have the room for that so this issue may also be restrictive.
I don't know if these issues are breed related? We are looking at jumbo quail as they will be mostly meat birds.
Thank you for any experiences you guys can share!