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Someone is influenced by the propaganda of “eco-products”, someone out of need, someone just out of curiosity, but today many people, even city dwellers, are thinking about breeding quails at home. The main arguments for the townspeople are the small size and the promoted unpretentiousness of quails. Is this how it is? Here you should take a closer look.
Quail breeding at home for beginners
If there were no quails on the farm before, it may not be worth starting with several hundred quails at once. Although fundamentally quails are not so different from ordinary chickens, they have certain features, at least in that the main herd must be renewed already at the age of 8 months, while laying hens are kept for up to a year. Walking is also very desirable for chickens, quails can live permanently in a cage.
It also matters where exactly the quail will be kept. A barn at a private house and an apartment in a city house are not at all the same thing.
Since the phrase “home conditions” usually means the maintenance of quails in an apartment, this option should be considered first of all.
Keeping quails at home
If you are going to start quails in an apartment, you need to take into account not only the area that you need to allocate to the birds, but also the reaction of the neighbors.
First you need to decide on the desired number of quails. If you need only 5-6 quails to get eggs, a large cage for parrots is quite suitable. The main thing: the cage should be low, but with a large bottom area. An area of u0,5bu0,7bXNUMXxXNUMX m is quite suitable. You can pick up or make a cage more suitable for keeping quails.
One family of quails is unlikely to displease the neighbors. And if your goal is to get a dietary quail egg, then you can only take quails. Then the neighbors will not even know about the presence of quails in the neighboring apartment. Quails don’t cry.
About 20 heads of quails can be safely brought in without fear of quarrelsome neighbors. Even if they find out, you can always complain about poor health and doctors’ recommendations about eating quail eggs and meat.
In such a battery, you can place more than 20 heads.
Another thing is whether you want to live on a poultry farm.
From the Odessa experience it follows that 50 heads of the main herd of quails are enough to provide for the family. The owner of the Odessa apartment farm does not want to increase the livestock, since with an increase in the number of quails, the smell from them intensifies.
For self-repair of a quail herd, an incubator and males are also needed.
On the Internet, you can find statements that up to 200 quail heads can be placed on the balcony.
This is what a battery of cells on the balcony might look like. But with two hundred quails, you should be prepared for increased attention from your neighbors. In this case, it will not be possible to get rid of stories about poor health and anti-crisis support for the family.
Therefore, the balcony should be tightly closed from prying eyes and have good sound insulation. Don’t count on good neighbors. It usually ends as soon as people realize that you have found a way to make money.
In addition, a quail mini-farm will stink for some squabblers, even if it is located in an apartment on the 16th floor of a 16-story building, and the squabblers live on the ground floor.
If you plan to allocate an entire room for a quail mini-farm, as in this video, it is better to make friends with the district police officer and inspectors from various regulatory organizations in advance. For example, sanitary and epidemiological stations. Complaints are inevitable. And it cannot be said that they will not be justified.
It was in the 90s that even a horse could be kept in an apartment. Now the authorities are putting things in order.
After you have decided on the expected number of quails, you need to decide on the purpose of breeding and the breed of quails.
How to choose a quail breed for breeding in an apartment
If you intend to get only eggs, without focusing on the amount of meat, it is better to take Japanese quail. This smallest breed of all domesticated belongs to the egg direction and gives the maximum number of eggs. The size of the egg correlates with the size of the quail. Eggs from the “Japanese” weigh 7 – 10 g. The breed is the least whimsical of all available and is ideal for beginners.
If the family does not consume so many eggs, but loves meat, it is better to have broiler breeds of quail: pharaoh or Texas white. The quail of these breeds is more than two times larger than the Japanese quail. Egg production in these breeds is not so bad as to leave the owner without eggs. Yes, and the eggs themselves are the largest of all other breeds and can weigh up to 20 g. The minus of these quail breeds is their exactingness in feed and conditions. If you start your quail breeder journey with broiler breeds, you can be forever disappointed in this occupation.
All other breeds are universal, meat and egg direction. The most suitable for a beginner is the Estonian quail, which is somewhat larger than the Japanese quail and has the same color.
Among the meat and egg breeds, the widest selection of quails of various colors. You can choose not only according to productive characteristics, but also according to the color you like the most.
The Manchurian golden quail has a very nice shirt.
Tuxedo quails are easily distinguished from each other due to their piebaldness, although this may not matter to the owner of a mini quail farm.
English quails come in two colors: white and black.
Black English quail, despite the name, is not pure black. Rather, it’s just very dark.
The color of the white English quail is the same as that of the white Texas quail. Quite the contrary, as the Texan White was bred using English and inherited his shirt.
Cell selection
Cages will have to be selected after choosing a quail breed, since broiler breeds require cages 10 cm higher than other breeds. This is the case when it comes to large livestock and cell batteries.
Craftsmen make cages on their own.
The main requirement for all quail cages is a solid floor (but then it will be difficult to clean) or a fine mesh grate.
A mesh with a mesh size of 1×1 cm is well suited. Cages for flying birds are categorically not suitable. For example, here is this cell, where the bottom does not differ in design from the side walls.
There are a lot of options for cages where quails can be placed. Who has enough imagination and skill.
Completely free cell option.
And a video with instructions on how to make such cages from boxes.
After breeds, livestock sizes and cages, the next step will be caring for quails, since there are few to buy. They still need to be fed and properly maintained.
Quail care at home
In general, caring for quails is no more difficult than caring for any other birds or small rodents: cleaning cages and feeding. The only difference is the mandatory collection of quail eggs every day.
Feed and feeders
What should be taken into account when caring for quails: the basis of the quail diet is compound feed. Any additions of greens and worms are only top dressing. Compound feed per bird requires 30 g per day if it is a medium-sized quail, and 40 g per day if the breed is broiler.
Attention! Before buying quails, you also need to consider where the quail food will be stored, since it is better to buy food in large quantities. At the same time, the storage place of the feed should be dry, the feed absorbs moisture well.
Quails have a habit of scattering food, so they should either have a feeder with restraints, or a feeder outside and under it a feed trap.
Do-it-yourself feeders with limiters.
Feeder option on a professionally equipped quail farm.
For better digestion of grain feed, quails need so-called gastroliths in their stomachs – small pebbles that help grind solid food, so quails in a cage must have a container with sand, or sand can be mixed into the feeder. If the quails need it, they will choose the pebbles.
Drinking bowls
Very often in the video of quail farms you can see nipple drinkers, sometimes with a drop catcher. The advantage of such drinkers is that water is not wasted and always remains clean. Minus the financial costs.
Nipple drinkers with drip catcher
Ordinary drinkers can also be used.
Such drinkers can be made from improvised materials, but thick wire limiters must be installed so that the quail does not jump into the drinkers.
Lighting
Since the quail is a bird that seeks shelter in dense grass where the sunlight is muted, bright lighting causes them discomfort and anxiety. Instinctively, quails believe that they are in an open space accessible to the gaze of a predator. Growing nervous tension provokes quails to fight.
The room where the cages with quails are located should be shaded. If the quail cage is located in the back of the room, then this is enough. Additional shading is not required. In the case of placing quails in a room without windows, a small fluorescent lamp or an ordinary incandescent bulb will be enough for them. Indoors for the comfort of quails should be twilight.
On the video you can see the device of cages for quails without surplus. It is also clearly visible what level of illumination should be when keeping quails.
Breeding and keeping quails in a private house
It is much easier to keep quails in a private house than in an apartment. Firstly, quails don’t really bother anyone there, and the neighbors themselves often also keep various cattle. Secondly, in this case it is not at all necessary to live among quail cages. Under the quail mini-farm, you can select an outbuilding in the yard.
In the video, a quail mini-quail farm is set up in an unheated room.
When keeping quails at home, you can ignore the temperature. In apartments, it usually does not go below 18 degrees. When kept in an extension in the yard of a private house, the extension must either be heated or come to terms with the absence of quail eggs in winter. You also need to protect the extension with quails from drafts, but at the same time provide good ventilation.
If you make ventilation from the bottom up, ammonia will rise and dissipate in the air, poisoning the room and harming the health of quails.
How to breed quail
Breeding quails in an apartment and a private house will differ only in the number of quails hatched.
For breeding egg-bearing breeds, families of 3-4 quails and 1 quail are created. When breeding broilers, there are only 1 quails per 2 quail.
Since domesticated quails have lost their incubation instinct, an incubator will be needed to breed quails.
For novice owners of a small number of quails, such an incubator is suitable.
What eggs to lay for incubation
Non-standard eggs are not laid in the incubator. Very large quail eggs are good as food, but they should not be incubated. There is a high chance of a double yolk in an egg. None of these eggs will hatch. The picture shows quail eggs, suitable and unsuitable for incubation.
The average weight of quail eggs should be in the range of 10-14 g, depending on the breed of quail. Small eggs are not incubated; quails from them are too weak.
But at the same time, quail eggs laid for incubation must be clean, without litter and other contamination. This is achieved by maintaining cleanliness in quail cages.
18 days to incubate quail eggs and 2 months to grow a replacement for the main quail flock. Do not forget to provide brooders for quails and cages for young quails.
It is better to buy an automatic incubator with adjustable temperature and air humidity, since in the first two weeks of incubation of quail eggs, the temperature in the incubator must be maintained at 37,8 degrees. Humidity in the first week is 50-55%, in the second – 45%. In the first week, the eggs are turned 4 times a day, in the second – 6. From the 8th to the 14th day, the eggs are cooled twice a day for 20 minutes. From the 15th day until hatching, the temperature is reduced to 37,5 degrees, the humidity is increased to 65-70%, turning and cooling of the eggs is canceled.
It is necessary to lay 3 times more eggs for incubation than the planned number of quail heads to be replaced, since 25% of the eggs will be unfertilized or the quails will not hatch at all, some of the quails will be defective, some of the quails will die. Of the remaining half of the quails will be males.
You can collect quail eggs for incubation within 5 days if you store the collected eggs at a temperature of 18 ° C. In this case, the hatchability of the quail will be maximum. The longest shelf life of quail eggs is 10 days. Further, the percentage of quail hatchability drops rapidly.
Growing quails at home
After receiving a mass of squeaky lumps and the fading of joyful emotions, a novice quail breeder may well grab his head: how to grow quails to an adult state in such quantities?
In fact, growing quails is not so difficult, but you need to get a brooder for growing quails, in which you can maintain the temperature within 25 – 28 ° C, and starter feed for quails.
Practice shows that it is easier for a novice quail breeder to start feeding young quails with special feed for quails, and it is easier for quails to start their lives and survive by eating this feed.
In this case, it will not be necessary to add finely chopped onion to the quail feed, supposedly to destroy the harmful microflora, while the quail does not yet have any microflora at all, but there is an intestinal upset from unnatural food for quail.
We must not forget that in nature, quails would start feeding from small seeds, which today they are replacing with compound feed.
If there is a problem with starter feed in the region, then boiled millet, non-sour (preferably calcined) cottage cheese and grated hard-boiled quail egg can be given to quails.
It is a quail egg that is necessary, since by feeding chicken eggs, you can infect quail with salmonellosis.
As the quails grow older, the temperature in the brooder is reduced, and the fully fledged quails are transplanted into cages and grown to adulthood.
Features of growing quails can be viewed on the video. Unfortunately, this video shows the cultivation of quails in semi-industrial conditions.
From all of the above, we can conclude that directly breeding and keeping quail at home does not require superhuman efforts and the main investments will have to be made not in quails, but in the infrastructure of a quail mini-farm.