How to keep quails in the country

Quails are most often bred for the sake of eggs, although their meat also has valuable qualities. Small birds can be kept in a non-residential corner of the apartment, in the country in the summer kitchen or any other similar place. But do not think that growing quails is a simple matter. The bird requires comfortable conditions, cleanliness and good care. Now we will talk about how quails are kept in the country, and we will also touch on all the subtleties of caring for feathered creatures.

Choosing a place for growing quails

In a small amount, quail will not bring much trouble to the owner. If you decide to have birds in the summer in the country, you need to think in advance where the cages will be installed.

So, it was decided that only one bird cage should be installed in the country house. So, where is the best place to put it? The best place would be a remote corner of the living space or summer kitchen. However, it is advisable to install the cage away from food, because small particles of feathers will fly from the birds. Not bad if the cottage has a closet or a well-groomed barn. It is not scary that there are no large windows in the building. Quail in the wild live among dense grasses. The bird is comfortable in twilight, and it rarely gets out to sunny areas. Similar living conditions for quails must be created in captivity.

Quail do not tolerate heat well. When choosing a room, it is necessary to take into account that the temperature here on the hottest day does not exceed +30^оC. The installation of exhaust ventilation provides good results in providing comfort to the birds. You can simply install a fan in the window, but it should draw air from the room, and not force it from the street inside. Daily cleaning in the cage will eliminate the spread of the unpleasant smell of quail life. However, close to the bedroom, the bird should not be placed even in a clean and neatly made house.

Chick Incubators

When everything is ready for breeding quails, it is time to take care of acquiring chicks. Experienced poultry farmers who have been breeding quail for many years have acquired incubators. This device can be bought ready-made in the store or made independently, for example, from an old refrigerator. Constantly buying new chicks is unprofitable. In addition, long-term transportation, plus adaptation to new living conditions, adversely affect the young. Sometimes this process is accompanied by a large case of birds. In incubation, quails are very unpretentious. Even an inexperienced person can bring out the chicks. The main thing is to observe the temperature regime and humidity inside the incubator. The problem can only be the acquisition of quality quail eggs for the first time. If this is not possible, you will have to buy chicks for the first plant. When the quails grow up and begin to lay eggs, you can start hatching your young in the incubator.

Time to purchase eggs for the incubator or ready-made chicks

Quail grow very fast. The incubation period is also short. From the eggs laid in the incubator on the 17th day, the first chicks will already appear. At the age of two months, the female reaches maturity and begins to lay eggs. At the same time, quails can be slaughtered for meat. Given these terms, the owner himself determines the time when it is better for him to start quails at the dacha.

A list of important issues to consider when breeding quails

To understand exactly that quail breeding in the country is your business and you need it, let’s cover a number of important issues. These little birds are very sensitive to good care, as well as the surrounding microclimate. If something is neglected, the quail will not justify your hopes or, in general, will die. So, it’s time to raise important issues related to quail breeding:

• The purpose of quail breeding and the number of individuals kept. There can be only two goals: to obtain dietary eggs or to raise poultry for meat, sale, etc. The number is determined on the basis that there should be 3 or 4 females per male.
• Quail habitat. A cage with 20-40 birds will fit in a remote corner of any room. If, over time, appetites begin to grow, you will have to occupy a new space for the installation of additional cages.
• Choosing the optimal cage design. It is unprofitable to occupy the usable space with a cage, inside which a male with four females will live. For quails, it is better to make sectional multi-tiered cages, each of which will contain up to 30 adult birds.
• Compliance with daily care. It must be remembered that quail are living beings. They require daily feeding, clean water, constant cleaning in cages, and collection of eggs. This whole procedure takes a certain period of free time.
• Finance. Here you will have to reduce the debit to the credit. Initially, cash costs will be required for the purchase of chicks, eggs, an incubator, cages. A certain amount will need to be allocated for the constant purchase of feed. Profit can be obtained from the sale of eggs, chicks or carcasses for meat. If everything suits and the appetite has increased, it will not be possible to keep a large number of quails in the house. We’ll have to build a barn, and this is a serious investment for a summer resident.

So, if all the questions considered are feasible for you, you can safely start breeding quails.

Everything you need to know about quail cages

Most poultry farmers make quail cages on their own. Any sheet materials and necessarily a metal mesh are used. Cell structures are very different. Many drawings can be found on the Internet. Usually a quail cage is a box of a certain size. To save space, a multi-tiered battery is made from several cells.

In addition, birds love to fly. If the aviary is not covered, the quails will scatter, and poor shelter can be traumatic for the bird. Cells are made with a height of at least 200 mm. The area depends on the number of birds, but about 200 cm should fall per quail² free space. This is approximately a rectangle measuring 10×20 cm. The floor should have a slope of about 12^о towards the egg box. The egg tray itself is attached outside the cage. Quail flooring is optional. Sometimes you can put clean straw. Once a week, quails are placed inside the cage with any box up to 80 mm high with dry sand. Birds love to swim in it. Before throwing the sand, you need to check if the female has buried eggs in it. Feeders with drinkers are optimally placed outside the cage. The quail should reach them only with its head stuck through the net.

Microclimate for quails

Quails are sensitive to the surrounding microclimate. First of all, this affects the development of chicks and the number of eggs laid. The following conditions are considered optimal for a bird:

• Inside the room where cages with quails are installed, there should be fresh air without drafts. It is optimal to maintain the temperature within 18-22^оC.
• The humidity index affects egg production. The optimal value is from 60 to 70%. A deviation from this indicator will affect a smaller number of eggs laid by the quail.
• Quails do not need to equip artificial lighting. They have enough daylight. If you want to increase productivity, daylight hours can be extended up to 18 hours. To do this, turn on a not powerful light bulb in the room, but always at the same time.

Well, to all that has been said, do not forget about the timely cleaning of cages with quails.

Quail feeding

It is important to follow the correct diet for feeding chicks from the first day of life:

• After hatching, the chicks are fed hard-boiled eggs for the first three days. It must be cut into small pieces.
• Further, the chicks begin to mix a little cottage cheese with the boiled egg. You can add purchased feed for newborn chickens.
• Drink only boiled water. It is optimal for disinfection to dissolve a tablet of chloramphenicol in it.
• After 8 days, the grown chicks begin to mix feed with trace elements for chickens, after which the young are transferred completely to this feed.
• Starting from the twentieth day of life, compound feed for adult birds is mixed in, and on the twenty-eighth day they are completely transferred to it.

At the age of one month, the grown quails are divided into two groups. One batch goes for fattening, the other for laying eggs. It is desirable to keep each of the groups of quails in different rooms. Naturally, feeding for birds will be different. Adult females are fed compound feed for laying hens. Each quail is given 30 g of feed 2-3 times a day. It is not bad to mix crushed egg shells, chalk and bone meal into the feed. Birds love fresh cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Excess males and culled females are fattened for meat. For them, the diet is increased, giving food up to four times a day. Here it is possible to add fodder fats and grain waste. Quail is slaughtered for meat when it reaches a weight of about 150 g. The video shows the device of the quail:

Breeding quails in the country is as easy as chickens, geese or any other poultry. If you immediately get up to speed, a domestic poultry farm can even bring profit.