# Quail????



## Kye022984 (Apr 23, 2010)

Anyone have experience raising quail? My husband won't go for chickens because he says they smell (no arguments please, I have tried to convince him otherwise). I recently had a woman buy two goats from me and she said "if he won't go for chickens have you ever thought about doing quail instead?" We only have about a quarter of an acre and already own two goats and are looking for a nice spot to set up our garden. She told me they don't take up as much room, lay a good amount of eggs, and are smaller and more quiet. Can anyone vouch for this? Can anyone recommend some good sites or books where I can research up on Quail? Thanks a mil.


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## Delinda (Dec 5, 2005)

Yes, she is right. I raise alot of quail, Buttons, Corturnix, Mexican Speckled and regular Bobwhites. I would recommend the Corturnix, also called Pharoahs. They are basically a quiet bird, do not need much space, and lay a hugh amount of eggs! They are totally mature at 8 to 10 weeks old, ready to eat or lay eggs for you. If you can incubate the eggs you can go from just a few birds to hundreds in no time at all. I have around 20 breeders of the pharoahs and incubated around 100 eggs every week. They lay an egg a day, everyday, especially if you give them the good gamebird breeder feed. I raise mine in above ground wire pens. They also sell very well for me. If you do a google search I am sure you will find alot of excellent info.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Quail smell just like chickens. An equal weight of quail or chickens will have about the same waste and smell about the same. It is easy to control the smell of either. Not crowding the birds is a good start on controlling the smell. Will result in healthier and more productive birds also.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Quail are easy but they need the right enclosure. Fencing for chickens will not work. Quail escape easy and dont come back as easy as chickens from my experience.

As for the eggs, you get a lot but they are really small.

In my experience quail are lousy sitters and best hatched via an incubator.
All those babies will be tiny as heck too! Again, keeping them confined is an issue.

For meat they are delicious but again, small as heck.
I raised several different quail and stopped just because the small eggs and little meat just wasnt worth it all.

Chickens, you can get more with less birds.


As for smell, they he same. Many quail will smell like a few chickens.
And its takes 4 quail to equal one nice chicken.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

I had a few I kept in a ground cage with a board along the wall for them to roost on. I put my cage on the ground cause the neighbor who raised them had his on the ground. Everyone else I've seen keeps theirs in above ground cages. I didn't have any smell, but I only had a dozen and they had a large enough cage that they could hide in the grass. I never ate the birds, just the eggs. Takes a lot of eggs to make breakfast, but they tasted good. I'd still have them if the grands hadn't left the door open and set them free! 

Anyone near SE OK have an for sale? I'd love to get another start of them.


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