Quail
Quails are my daughter's 4H project. She is in charge of how many eggs get hatched, how many quails get sold or processed for meat.
Breeds
Our quails are Jumbo Coturnix quails. These started as a 4H project for my daughter. We have a mix of colors, Shannon prefers the white and grey birds over the standard brown! Ours lay brown speckled and celadon eggs.
Breeding
This project is 100% on Shannon (ok, I help some, too!) We easily hatch eggs, they take only 18 days! We use a small incubator that can fit 80 quail eggs! Shannon is trying to make certain color combinations, but we really enjoy hatching the little baby quails.
Hatching
The quails are hatched in a small incubator in the house. Depending on the outdoor weather, the birds spend at least a week inside in brooder tubs in our incubator room. Once they are big enough to go outside, they still stay on supplemental heat for a while.
Growth and Feeding
The quails have several different coops around the farm. We have a 4 story coop in the barn for them for winter time. This allows space for a grow out row for the smaller quails, a few levels for the breeding groups, and a level for the bachelors - the extra boys that become food.
Conventional feeds
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We feed 28% Game Bird feed to our turkeys and quails, and baby chicks
We feed a 20% layer pellet to adult birds.