If you are looking for small poultry that will generate meat and eggs, you have to consider raising quail. It is perfect for a homestead with limited space for those who want something relatively easy to care for. Here is a guide on how to raise quail for meat and eggs
Quail is extremely easy to raise and can be a sustainable meat source for your family.
Raise Quail for Meat
Quail meat is one of the juiciest and the most flavorful meat among the poultry family.
Because it is very popular among the fanciest restaurants, purchasing quail meat from a local organic store will cost you big bucks for your wallet, also hard to find. Because it is considered to be quite the delicacy among the foodies, raising quail for meat can be very lucrative. So if you are looking to start a new side business, raising quail will be the best choice than chicken.
Raise Quail for Quail Eggs
Quail eggs taste almost the same as chicken eggs, in fact, the nutritional value between chicken and quail eggs stay about the same. But depends on how you raised them, some of your quail eggs are a little more nutritious than chicken eggs. Since they are smaller in size, you need two quail eggs to make up for any dishes with a chicken egg. Just like quail meat, people considered quail eggs a delicacy too.
The Coturnix Quail for Meat and Eggs
If you are considering raising the quail for both meat and eggs, the Coturnix quail is your best choice. The good thing about quail is that you don’t have to choose between different breeds for your purpose. If you are already raising chicken for egg and meat, it makes sense to raise quail instead of chicken for your dual-purpose.
The Coturnix Quail is the best known for its hardiness to produce a great meat volume compared to its size. Also, Coturnix Quail can lay eggs up to 250 to 300 eggs per year if they are healthy and happy.
As you can see, the Coturnix Quail is the best choice for a beginner if you are looking for both meat and eggs from your homestead garden.
Raising Quail for Meat Only
If you want to raise quail for meat only, raise quail in a dark place, and give them a grower feed that will satisfy your goal.
It sounds a little unhuman to raise them in the dark, but limiting quail’s movements makes them grow faster and gain weight more quickly due to the prohibiting their movement. If quail see the sunlight, they start to move around the cage and start to lose their muscle mass. Because of this reason, free raining quail would not be a good choice for gaining mass quickly.
Also, there are many different kinds of feed for different purposes for your quail. However, if you are growing quail for meat consumption, you need to feed them with high content in protein and formulated for meat game poultry.
If you keep your quail in the dark cage, they will not lay as many eggs as those exposed to the sunlight.
Nutrition for Quail Eggs
Compared to their time size, quail lays a lot of eggs. To make the egg, quail need lots of nutrition, especially calcium in their diet. There are special feeds formulated for the laying egg purposes.
Laying Eggs
Quail and Chicken laying egg behavior are very different. If you are raising quail for the egg, you don’t worry about placing a nesting box for nesting. Because they will lay eggs anywhere and everywhere.
But if you plan to collect eggs regularly, you better purchase or build a cage that has an egg-collection tray in it. Also, it is good to collect them regularly because eggs become dirty or squished by the other quail.
Should I Raise Meat Quail and Egg Quail Together?
No matter why you are raising quail, you can easily raise them by separating them or keeping them together for meat or egg. Feed formulated for laying eggs will not be much beneficial for raising quail for meat. Therefore it is better to keep them apart if you are raising for production and yield.
But remember, however you decided to raise the quail, it will be sufficient for your family dinner table.