How to properly grow quail at home?

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Quail is an excellent choice for a poultry farmer looking for meat and dietary eggs. The miniature size and unpretentiousness of this bird make raising quails in a private courtyard or even in an apartment affordable for both experienced poultry breeders and for beginners from scratch. Breeding does not require special conditions or material costs, it is characterized by productivity and promising as a business.

Quail breeding is a profitable business

Characteristic

In the wild in our country, there are European and Japanese subspecies. The latter was domesticated and made an object of quail breeding in Japan, where this tradition goes back several centuries. Now the descendants of the Japanese version are raised for meat or for obtaining egg products in small farms and industrial enterprises.

Breeders brought out representatives of the egg and meat directions. A domesticated variety that is grown for eggs is characterized by the following characteristics:

• quail weight - up to 130 g, females - up to 150 g;
• the beginning of oviposition - from the age of one and a half months;
• productivity - up to 340 pieces weighing 10-12 g annually.

Breeding of broilers has spread in the world to get tasty dietary quail meat. Representatives of this trend weigh from 250 to 500 g.

Broiler quail

Breeds

Quails are grown for egg, meat and meat-egg production. Many breeds allow you to choose the right herd in accordance with the main product received:

Breed	Direction	Color	Weight, g	Egg production,%	Egg product weight, g
Japanese	Egg	Yellow brown	130 (males); 150 (females)	90 and above	9-11
Manchurian	Meat and egg	Yellow brown	Up to 300	85	13-16
English white	Meat and egg	White	280-350	Over 85	13-15
Pharaoh	Meat	Yellow-brown with stripes	320-360 (female); Up to 280 (male)	85	12-16
Phoenix	Meat and egg	Yellow-golden	250	Over 85	12-18
Texas white	Meat	White with black spot	Up to 500	Up to 85	14-16

Pharaoh quail

Productivity

Quails have an intense metabolism and high productivity. A quail weighing 120 g lays more than 300 eggs annually, and the egg mass is 20-24 times greater than the female's weight. They are superior in nutritional value to chicken, they do not contain cholesterol. They are also used raw, since quails do not suffer from salmonellosis. Five pieces of quail, equal in weight to chicken, surpass it in content:

• potassium (five times);
• iron (four and a half times);
• vitamins B1, B2, A;
• phosphorus, cobalt, nicotinic acid;
• protein (60% versus 55.8% in chicken), antioxidants.

The color of the shell is from dark variegated to white, the shell is fragile and accounts for 7.2% of the total weight (in other domestic species - 10%). With the help of this product, a number of diseases (internal organs, skin) are treated, the effects of radiation are removed from the body. It does not cause an allergic reaction, on the contrary, the ovomucoid contained there suppresses it. Recommended dosage: for an adult - from 4 to 6 pieces, for a child - from 2 to 3 daily.

Meat is characterized as dietary, it has a high content of vitamin B, minerals, amino acids.

It does not deteriorate and does not lose useful qualities from long-term storage. Recommended for disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, diabetes and other diseases.

Quail eggs are a valuable dietary product

Reproduction

Quails rush without a male. But if your goal is breeding, then you will need representatives of both sexes. For this, it is better to buy young animals (age - a month or a half). Young quails more easily endure the stress of travel and a new place of residence. When purchasing a livestock, carefully examine it. In healthy specimens:

• clean plumage around the cloaca;
• average weight (not emaciated or overfed);
• dry, no deformation beak;
• breath clear in sound;
• smooth, clean feathers with no dirt or excrement fragments.

For breeding, choose females 3-8 months old, male quails -3-6. Cross specimens of the same breed, avoid closely related mating.

Quail in the process of selection have lost the instinct of brood hens. Use incubators for breeding from scratch and obtaining young stock.

Better use models in which the eggs turn over automatically or semi-automatically. Eggs for hatching chicks are selected from females 2-10 months old, fertilized, no older than a week, weighing 9-11 g.

You can assemble an incubator with your own hands (when keeping and breeding in an apartment):

• place a soft mat in a cardboard box;
• install a medical thermometer;
• fix the 40-watt lamp on top;
• adjusting its height, achieve a temperature of 37.5-38.5 degrees;
• put a saucer of water next to it (to maintain humidity);
• put the net on the bottom;
• Spread no more than 20 eggs of the same size on the bedding and turn them 3-5 times during the day.

The young will hatch in 17 days. They appear at the same time, within five or six hours.

Quail chicken

Offspring

Chicks weigh 6-8 g, they are active from the first hours of life. They are covered with brown fluff, on the back there are two light stripes. If you do not keep track of them, then the young are clogged in the cracks and suffocate, drowning in a saucer of water. Be vigilant and, when the chicks are dry, transplant them into a brooder - a room covered with a mesh net that will fit in an apartment. The size of a brooder is determined by the number of healthy quails.

The overall technology of quail keeping is simple. They feed on their own. Make them a protein diet. In the early days, serve finely chopped boiled white and yolk 5 times a day. From the third or fourth day, add cottage cheese, a combined feed for chickens (type "Start", after processing in a coffee grinder). On the seventh day, give chopped greens. On days 21-28, feed like adult quails.

Chicks with intensive, balanced nutrition gain 20 times their weight during the first two months. Use a vacuum or nipple drinker for watering to prevent the young from drowning. Give water boiled, warm. For prevention, give quail chloramphenicol in solution to drink.

In the first 14 days, apply lighting in the brooder for 24 hours, then reduce to 17. Young animals need a dry and warm (35-38 degrees) room with ventilation.

If the chicks are cold, then they huddle and squeak (in this case, lower the lamp below). If they stand around the perimeter with their beaks open, raise the heat source.After a week, reduce the heating to 34 degrees, after 2 - to 30 and by the end of the fourth week set it to 22.

40 day old quails are ready to breed

After 21 days, the quails show external signs of sex. Males acquire a red-brown speckled coloration of the neck and chest; in females, these places are light gray speckled. At 8 weeks of age, young males stop growing, by the 40th day they are ready to reproduce. Males not intended for breeding and rejected females are placed in separate rooms for fattening. In females, the maturation process lasts longer (up to 9 weeks).

Care

Quails are kept in cages, aviaries. Some breeders even choose equipment from cardboard boxes. Birds need an area of ​​30 by 30 cm (20 to 25 cm high) with 1 male and 3-4 females. With a large room and the previous number of quails, the productivity of the family decreases.

If the height is more than 25 cm, then cover the ceiling with soft material so that the inhabitants of the cage do not break their heads during takeoff. When kept in an aviary with a high ceiling (1.5 m), they do not reach the top.

On an industrial scale, in enclosures for 700 heads, there are up to 20 square meters of area. Cage complexes (multi-tiered batteries), which can accommodate 250 animals, are also used for keeping. The complex consists of several cages with drinkers, feeders and egg collectors. It is easy to make such a structure yourself from plywood, wire mesh and metal sheets.

Quails do not need nests or perches. They lay eggs on the floor. Place the flooring there: straw, shavings, paper, hay. Keep the litter clean, change it regularly to fresh one. Daylight hours for the quail family are no more than 20 hours with a dim source. With illumination for less than 17 hours, productivity decreases, more than 20 - the inhabitants of the cages show aggression, and this leads to the death of the livestock. In poultry farms, daylight hours lasts 18 hours (then three times alternation of 2 hours of darkness and light).

Quail cage

When equipping a cage or aviary, take care of ventilation, but without drafts (otherwise feathers will begin to fall out). Keeping quails requires a dry, warm room with a temperature of 20-22 degrees (fluctuations down to 16 are allowed, up to 25). When breeding in an apartment, it is easy to provide such indicators. If the thermometer drops below 16 degrees, egg-laying will stop. At a temperature of 5 or less, the livestock will die.

Humidity in the quail room is 60-70%. Make sure that this indicator is not less than 55 and more than 75%. To maintain the humidity level, spray the air with water from a spray bottle or water the floor (in winter). Install trays of ash around the perimeter so that the quails arrange dust procedures and get rid of insects in their feathers, and a tray for excrement.

Clean the floor and remove the droppings daily, which is especially important when keeping in an apartment. Perform a full cleaning on both young and adult specimens once a week.

The diet

When equipping feeding and watering places, use portable containers. Feeders and trough-type drinkers are placed outside the perimeter of the cage, and its inhabitants protrude their heads to quench their hunger or thirst. This measure keeps the room clean. Feed the quails 2-3 times a day, allocating 25-30 g of food per head. Do not overfeed the quail family, this decreases egg production.

Quail food

Include in the diet of birds:

• chicken feed;
• cereals (oats, barley, millet);
• greens (wheat germ, onions, lettuce and clover);
• vegetable peelings (boiled or raw potatoes, cabbage, carrots);
• sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, sliced ​​eggs;
• fishmeal, chopped raw or boiled fish;
• crushed chalk, crushed eggshells, shell fragments (2-3 times a week);
• fish fat.

When keeping in a private backyard, release pets to the area where they eat slugs and snails. Watch the temperature outside - at least 18 degrees (birds do not like sudden changes). If you breed quail in an apartment, then give them live insects, which are sold in pet stores.

When feeding, avoid offering greens such as tomato, potato, parsley, celery. Solanaceous and buttercup plants, buckwheat, rye cause indigestion and poisoning.

Monitor the color and consistency of the quail droppings. A healthy bird has dense, dark excrement with white streaks. If the droppings are liquid and dark green, this is a sign of illness. A yellow bowel movement indicates an excess of carbohydrate. If the flock has diarrhea, give the oat or rice tincture together with water.

Make sure that the quail family has boiled, warm water. Keep it clean, fresh, change it regularly. Use trough, microcup, or nipple drinkers. Wash the gutter containers daily.

Health

Watch for behavioral changes in the quail family. If the bird is not eating, passive and inactive, isolate it from others and see your veterinarian. After physical injury (pecking due to bright light, lack of space), send the quail to a separate cage until recovery occurs. Females often die from damage to the oviduct due to too intensive clutching. Reduce the level of protein in the feed, shorten the daylight hours.

The health of quails must be carefully monitored.

Fattening and slaughter

Quails intended for meat are divided according to gender. Young males and females are kept separately. The lighting and temperatures are reduced. Heating the cage - up to 24 degrees. It is better to dim the light by creating twilight. In such conditions, males do not conflict, mobility decreases, and food consumption increases. Eating 3-4 times a day. The quails are fed with herbs, grain with a 5% addition of fodder fat.

Broiler males are sent for meat by the end of the second month of life. Females are slaughtered by the end of the first year, after intensive egg-laying has been completed. Before the trial, the birds are not allowed to eat and are given plenty of water.

When slaughtering with a sharp knife blade or a kitchen hatchet, the head is cut off. Let the blood drain, cut off the legs at the level of the lower leg and wings to the second joint with scissors. Hold the carcass with its belly up, tear the skin with your thumbs and remove it along with the plumage. Gut the quail with a knife or finger.

Quail carcasses must be thoroughly cleaned

Additional Information

• birds are also used as fighting birds; in some areas quail singing is valued;
• in Japan, their breeding spread after the bombings in Hirashima and Nogasaki (eggs were included in the school menu to suppress the symptoms of radiation);
• if the birds are fighting, place the instigator of conflicts in another cage or separate him from the flock with a partition;
• quails do not tolerate stress well - take care of the absence of irritants;
• Do not place paper or newspapers on the brooder floor to prevent the chicks' legs from moving apart.

Growing quails at home, subject to the rules of care and feeding, will bring the expected result. They are suitable for meat, egg production or decorative breeding. Given the unpretentiousness, rapid growth and low feed consumption, quail farming will become a profitable business.

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Breeding and raising quails at home is not the last place in the farm. The bird has gained its popularity thanks to its delicious and healthy eggs. But quail is bred not only for this reason. Many breeders keep them for the dietary delicious meat for which many breeds of poultry are famous.

Where did it all begin

Common quail is a small bird pheasant family, the smallest representative of the order of chickens. Its body length is only 20 cm, and the weight of an adult is from 80 to 150 grams.

Feather color common quail beige with spots and strokes. Males have a darker color of the goiter, and around the eyes there is a pronounced dark spot that looks like a helmet. Females do not have these spots.

Virgin quail

By its nature, an ordinary quail is very shy bird, which in nature is very difficult to notice. Quails grow very quickly, fledge by two weeks. Since that time, young birds have been trying to fly. Quail is one of the migratory birds of the chicken order. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the bird in captivity in cages.

Breeders have bred many breeds of quail, which are bred in a private courtyard in order to obtain meat and eggs. The growth performance of these birds is pretty good. Live male weight home quail ranges from 110 to 180 grams, depending on the breed. Moreover, females of domestic quail are much larger than males. Their weight can reach up to 250 grams. Egg-laying begins early, at the age of 50 days. Some breeds start laying a little later. Each female produces more than 300 eggs per year, which are used for culinary purposes and for incubation. The weight of one egg is up to 14 grams.

Quails are grown not only in the country house. In order to obtain good meat carcasses and dietary eggs, quail farms were built. Quail breeding - This is the most cost-effective activity, for a start, you can use a regular barn.

Varieties and their characteristics

Many species of quail have been bred, which conquer breeders with their qualities. Broiler breeds able to provide a large amount of meat at minimal cost. Egg breeds contain mainly for obtaining large eggs, which are in demand in the consumer market.

Texas

This breed of bird was bred to obtain meat... Texas quail outnumber other breeds. Broiler type poultry for the creation of which used meat breeds of quail.

Texas quail

Peculiarities

Texans have a snow-white feather color, for which they are popularly nicknamed albinos or white giants... Sometimes on the white feather of a bird, you can see small black blotches. This is the norm.

Externally, the quail of this breed large... The chest of a pronounced meat type: round, wide. The legs, tail and neck of the bird are short. The tip of the beak is dark, the eyes of the quail are black.

Meat quality

The average bird of this breed produces up to 250 grams of meat. At correct feeding and content, it is capable of gaining up to 550 grams.

Important! You need to feed the bird with special feed and monitor its weight. Obese females are unable to lay eggs. As a rule, males are kept for fattening.

Egg production

The first egg in females of this breed it is formed by the age of two months. The eggs are quite large. In one year, the female is able to lay up to 280 eggs, with an average weight of 12 grams.

Manchurian

Interesting! This breed is one of the most famous in the world. Most popular among breeders.

Description

Manchu quails are very beautiful birds. Feather color combines feathers of yellow and brown colors. The people call these quails golden. On the breast of the female, you can see characteristic black blotches, which the male does not have.

Manchu quail

Define sex quail it is possible at 100% only by looking under the tail of the bird. The male has a gland between the tail and the cloaca, and when pressed, a white matter is released. Females do not have this gland.

Bird productivity

The Manchu quail breed is known for its meat and egg qualities... The egg production of females is up to 180 eggs per year, but they are much larger than others. The average egg weight is up to 18 grams.

Males of this breed gain weight 150 grams, but with proper fattening, the birds are capable of giving high rates. Average carcass weight - 300 grams.

Pharaoh meat quail

The main feature of these birds is good meat carcass.

Pharaoh quail

Characteristic

Outwardly, the birds of this breed resemble wild relatives. Plumage color Pharaohs are grayish brown. Females have white and black stripes on the breast. The weight of the females is significantly higher than that of the males.

Meat quality

Pharaohs belong to meat quails. Average female weight reaches 300 grams, and the male is slightly smaller. A distinctive quality of this breed is early maturity... Slaughter can be carried out by two months. Quails of this species need a balanced feed.

Egg-laying

The Pharaoh female begins laying at approximately 45 days. However, the first eggs cannot be used for incubation. Egg weight is up to 15 grams. The average female is able to lay up to 200 eggs in one year of intensive egg-laying. Females must be well fed to produce eggs.

California

California quails are not widely spread and are kept mainly for beauty. Growing these birds is not profitable. Low survival rate of young animals, poor growth performance.

California quail

It is necessary to keep this breed in the most natural conditions, otherwise the bird loses its decorative effect.

Japanese

Reference! Japanese quails are classified into three types. Birds of egg direction, meat and mixed meat and egg direction.

Description

The plumage of the Japanese quail has a rusty brown color... In males, the collar zone is darker than in females.

Japanese quail

Productive characteristics

Bird weight fluctuates, depending on the breed line. On average, it is up to 150 grams. Egg bird species fly well. Average egg productionfemales make more than 300 eggs per year.

Tuxedo

This breed originated from crossing white and black English quails. Outwardly, a very large beautiful bird.

Tuxedo quail

Characteristic

The bird has a tuxedo feather color... On the breast, the feather is light in color, and the back is darker. Females and males of this breed are the same in color.

Productivity

These birds are bred more for decorative purposes. Female weight is only 180 grams, and males do not exceed 150 grams. The bird has good egg production. Tuxedo quail females lay up to 280 eggs per year.

Breeding features

Breeding quails at their summer cottage is quite simple. They do not require a lot of space, high financial costs and are unpretentious in maintenance. All a bird needs is warmth, light and balanced feed. Big advantage quails are eggs that can be eaten even raw. The bird is not affected salmonellosis.

To breed a bird, a breeder needs to decide on the breed and the purpose of quail breeding. All breeds are classified into several types:

• meat quail;
• egg birds;
• meat - egg views.

The last bird species is most in demand. This is due to the fact that in addition to eggs, you can also get good meat.

Incubation of eggs

For quail breeding you will need an incubator. This can be a homemade appliance or a store-bought one. A typical small incubator can hold up to 400 eggs.

Important! The female domestic quail has lost the ability to incubate eggs. It is only necessary to hatch young growth in an incubator.

Incubation period lasts an average of 17 days. On the 18th day, the incubation ends. Subject to the required temperature regime, the hatching of the young is very high.

Quail eggs in an incubator

The entire incubation period temperature in the chamber is maintained at a level of 38–38.5 degrees. Air humidity should be more than 50%. Under these conditions, the elimination is amicable and ends in 6 hours.

Raising and caring for chicks

The hatched juveniles are distinguished by their mobility. Contain quail it is necessary in a special brooder, where the required air temperature is maintained. First 14 days the temperature should not fall below 38 degrees.

Important! You can determine the comfortable temperature by the behavior of the chicks. If the young are in a heap, then the quails are cold. At normal temperatures in a brooder, chicks lie on their sides along the entire perimeter, with their legs stretched out.

From day 15 the temperature in the brooder is lowered to 25 degrees. By the age of one month, the chicks should be accustomed to normal room temperature, which is 20-22 degrees.

Quail chicks

Round the clock light mode support for the first 14 days. Further, the bird is transferred to normal daylight hours.

Remember! Quails prefer moderate lighting. Birds fight in bright light. Red light bulbs can be used to prevent pecking.

Feeding quail at home

From the moment of hatching, chicks need vitamins and minerals. You can use high quality compound feed for young animals, which contains all the necessary substances. In the absence of food, boiled eggs can be given to the quails, which are crushed and placed in a bowl.

Important! You need to remove excess food regularly. In hot brooder conditions, feed quickly sours and birds can be poisoned.

From day 4 small crushed corn grits, cottage cheese and complete feed for young animals are introduced into the feed.

Feeding quail

8 to 20 days in the main diet of young animals only compound feed. You can add greens, carrots, meat waste.

Remember! All offered products should be given in small quantities and their freshness should be monitored. To prepare feed, you need to grind well all large and hard pieces.

From day 20 feeding young quails does not differ from feeding adults.

By week 10 young growth completes and begins puberty... From day 45, most breeds begin egg-laying.

Important! The quails are fed from vacuum drinkers, which should not be too deep and wide. Young chicks can drown in the drinkers, to avoid this, stones are placed on the bottom of the drinkers. Drinking water should be boiled.

Feeding adult quails

For feeding adults feeders and drinkers taken out of the cage. Birds stick their heads through the bars for feeding. This method of feeding reduces the cost of compound feed.

Adult quail eat

Adult birds fed 3 times a day, while consuming 30 grams of feed per individual.

For females, the best nutrition is balanced feed for laying hens. Sometimes grain, vegetable garden waste, herbs and fruits are added to the feed. The diet of a laying hen must contain crushed shells, chalk, sand, boiled fish.

Important! Females need to be given food strictly according to the scheme, not exceeding the dose. Obesity in birds leads to loss of egg production.

Feeding birds for meat

When reaching the quails months of age they are separated by gender. Males and rejected females are planted separately and fed for meat.

Fattening is carried out at a temperature of 22 degrees and low light. Feeding mode for these birds is different. Quails are fed 4 times a day, and in large doses. In the first half of the day, green fodder is added, and in the evening they give grain waste. The fattening period is about 60 days.

Quail feeding

Slaughter is carried out as soon as the bird gains the required body weight. Before slaughter, the quails are not fed for 6 hours. Only water is left in the drinking bowls.

Features of winter cultivation

1. Quails are kept in low cells with a mesh floor, which makes cleaning easier and reduces the risk of diseases.
2. In winter house temperature should not fall below 16 degrees. With sharp jumps in temperature or when it is too low, the egg production of females drops sharply. The comfortable temperature for the development of the bird should be at 22 degrees.

Quail diseases

Most often, the livestock begins get sick from changing feed, poor living conditions, poor quality feed, lack of nutrients.

Walking quail

Improper nutrition and maintenance

Quails suffer from vitamin deficiencies, which develop when there is a lack of nutrients or a violation of the diet, a change in feed.

To the symptoms of the disease can be attributed:

• disheveledness feathers;
• loss appetite;
• lethargy;
• overturning heads;
• stretching neck.

Birds change their diet, introduce more nutrients, monitor the feeding regime.

Quail in a cage

If the conditions for keeping poultry are violated susceptible to the following diseases:

• dropping out oviduct;
• cannibalism;
• dropping out feathers;

It is enough to adjust conditions of detention and the birds are bouncing back. Change the brightness of the lighting, reduce the number of individuals in the cage and introduce missing vitamins and minerals.

Quail reviews from breeders

Many breeders prefer to breed quail Pharaoh and White Texan breeds. Birds grow well, are not prone to pecking, and gain weight well.

Young growth it is distinguished by good vitality, immunity and grows rapidly, so even a novice breeder will not have much difficulty in raising full-fledged individuals.

Breeding quails is no more difficult than chickens. The main task of the breeder - maintenance of cleanliness, observance of conditions of keeping and feeding. With a competent approach to raising quails, birds rush productively and give good growth rates.

Today, more and more people choose life in a private house for themselves, which involuntarily pushes them to the decision to start keeping livestock useful in the household. The smallest representatives of this vast family are quails. Breeding at home a rather unpretentious bird, responsive to care, is within the power of even beginners.

Fried, baked with mushrooms and herbs, stuffed quails were served at the tables of the nobility in Medieval Europe and Russia. But if in those ancient times, quail hunting was equipped for several dozen carcasses, today these very small birds are successfully bred both in private farmsteads and in large poultry complexes.

Economic aspects of quail breeding

Interest in quails among amateur poultry breeders is caused by:

• low costs for the purchase of eggs for incubation;
• ease of keeping poultry;
• quick return on invested forces.

How to start breeding quail at home for novice poultry breeders? What difficulties await them, and what should be considered when creating your miniature farm?

The bird is bred for two purposes:

• for the sake of dietary eggs, nutritional qualities, safety and a number of other indicators that are superior to chicken;
• to obtain tender, low-fat meat.

This should be taken into account when choosing the specialization of the future quail farm and deciding on the breeds for breeding.

A small herd of quails can fully provide a family with egg products. But is it profitable or not to breed quail as a business? If we compare birds of the meat and egg direction, then the former emit a carcass weight of up to 300 grams with a relatively small, up to 200 pieces, number of eggs. In the second case, the mass does not exceed 200 grams, but from a quail you can get up to 300 eggs weighing about 10-12 grams per year.

Within a month and a half after the birth of the quail, they are ready to lay, and only 18 days pass from laying eggs in the incubator to hatching the chicks. Such early maturity "never dreamed" of chickens, which directly speaks of the economic feasibility of breeding quails at home.

Quail keeping conditions at home for beginners

If chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry are easily mastered in a backyard and can be raised using grazing, then it is extremely difficult to domesticate quails.Therefore, this type of bird is kept in cages.

A room for keeping quails in the country is chosen dry, ventilated and warm, but at the same time reliably protected from drafts, which birds cannot stand. For the active development and maintenance of egg production, birds need lighting. The optimum can be considered a 17-hour daylight hours:

1. If the cages are lit for longer, the number of eggs will increase at first, but the bird is quickly depleted.
2. Short daylight hours, without the use of additional illumination, will not give the desired results from layers and young stock. In the dark, birds are reluctant to feed, which leads to savings in feed, but at the same time inhibits growth.

The unpretentiousness of the bird, the small space occupied by the cells and the quick return of dietary products are the reasons for the popularity of keeping quails in the country, in a private house or even in an apartment.

However, breeding a large number of birds in a residential area is undesirable:

• due to the risk of developing diseases that are dangerous for both birds and humans;
• the difficulty of creating the proper conditions for lighting and ventilation;
• due to an imminent violation of the rules for the use of housing in apartment buildings.

In the country or in his own backyard, a poultry farmer can grow a couple of generations of quails in one summer season and get healthy and tasty eggs from them. The only thing that may cause the need for additional costs is the breeding and maintenance of quails in winter, however, a video about the organization of the process will help to understand the nuances to prevent mistakes even for novice poultry farmers.

How to breed quail?

A home quail farm begins with the acquisition of weekly chicks or the incubation of young stock with your own hands. The quails that have appeared require special care and conditions of detention. Before breeding quails, for tiny chicks, they build or acquire a draft-proof cage equipped with lighting and heating.

Small quails in the first week of life need to maintain an elevated air temperature at 35–36 ° C. Then the air is gradually cooled in the brooder, bringing it to 30 ° C by the end of the second week. It is important to arrange heating of small quails when breeding at home so that the temperature in the cage changes smoothly, without jumps that threaten the rapid weakening and death of the young.

In addition to heat, the quails are left with round-the-clock lighting in the first two weeks. This technique allows you to stimulate the activity of the bird, it often approaches the feeders and develops faster. From 3 weeks of age, the chicks are gradually transferred to 12 hours of light. From 1.5 months, when the quails begin to lay, the birds are placed in cages with a 17-hour daylight hours.

In summer, the birds can be taken out into the air, but there is no open range for quails. And here they are contained in mesh cells.

When keeping quails at home, novice poultry farmers need to pay special attention to the feeding regime and diet, as well as maintaining cleanliness in the cages. To make cleaning less hassle, the cages and baby brooder are equipped with a double bottom and are made of materials that are easy to dry read and wet hygiene procedures.

Arrangement of cages for quails

Convenient drinkers are provided for feeding poultry in places of detention. For young animals, vacuum-type constructions are highly desirable. For adult birds, you can leave the existing equipment or install nipple drinkers that do not give the quails access to the water. As a result, the drinking moisture will always be clean, and the quails themselves will not suffer from hypothermia.

The number of drinkers and feeders when breeding quails at home is calculated based on the number of livestock so that in hot weather or during a mass meal, the pets do not quarrel over food and do not trample the weak. For chicks, tray feeders are installed in the brooder.As they grow older, they are changed to flute structures outside the cells.

Keeping adult quails

At three weeks of age, the chicks are placed in adult cages. Females prepare to become layers, and males are sorted for breeding and fattening for meat. At this point, there are changes in the diet.

Protein-rich components are added to quails intended for breeding at home when feeding. This will help future laying hens to increase egg production, and male quails gain weight faster. By one and a half months, young livestock are divided according to gender and parental groups or families are formed, and experienced poultry farmers advise taking a pair of males for eight quails. In this case, the selected individuals are immediately placed in one cage. Subsequently, it is better not to change males, since chickens perceive this very sharply and can even cripple a beginner.

If a group is formed only of layers, then a strong active male can be added to them as needed. In this case, it is easier to control which birds are covered, and egg production is higher with proper supervision.

Quail breeding and breed selection - video

If in Japan quails have been bred for more than two hundred years, then in Europe and in our country this bird appeared relatively recently. However, even in a short period of time, she managed to fall in love with many farmers and amateur poultry breeders. Interest in this small bird is caused not only by the benefits of eggs and meat, but also due to their early maturity. The cost of breeding quail at home pays off very quickly. If you want to see this for yourself in practice, then we suggest you get acquainted with quail farming in more detail.

The basics of quailing: where to start?

Many novice quail breeders are alarmed by the specific nuances of farming. Yes, indeed, this type of poultry farming is a very troublesome business, the bird requires a lot of attention, care and, we note, completely manual labor. Therefore, before raising quails, it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons, to study specialized literature. If possible, it is better to chat with practicing poultry farmers or personally visit the quail farm. However, we hasten to assure you that all the work is worth it, since the cultivation of these birds pays off handsomely: your family will always be provided with tasty and healthy meat and eggs.

So, if you decide to keep quails, the first thing to start with is to determine the purpose of breeding the bird. The number and size of the poultry farm will depend on this.

1. The first option is for yourself. To provide yourself and your family with healthy products, it is enough to keep 10-30 quails. Such a number of birds can be placed in a 40 × 60 cm cage and kept in any free corner of an apartment or house.
2. The second option is a home business. In order to profit from quail farming, experts recommend starting to breed with 500 birds. After about a year, with successful farming, the livestock will increase to the size of 5,000 individuals. To do this, you will need a small separate room or a shed with an area of ​​at least 12 sq. m. It is most convenient to keep quails in such quantity in cage batteries - 10-12 batteries each.

After the purpose of breeding birds is determined, you can move on to solving a number of issues: preparing the premises, purchasing or making cages, breeding equipment (incubator, grain grinders), feeders and drinking bowls, where to buy feed, how to compose a bird ration, calculate the approximate costs and time to take care of the household.

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What breed should I buy?

Today, many varieties of quail are known in the world. But few of them are used on the farm.So, for example, in the general registration book six main quail breeds are indicated: English white and black, Manchu, Pharaoh, Australian yellow-brown, tuxedo, as well as about 60 breed lines. Most of them are raised for eggs and only a few are exclusively for meat, such as the pharaoh.

However, for keeping in an apartment or in the country for beginners, we recommend paying attention to the usual Japanese quail. This breed is available in our country and is suitable for home breeding for both eggs and meat. Beginners choose them for their unpretentiousness to the regime of maintenance and resistance to diseases. Already at the age of 40 days, females begin to rush, and the weight of the male ranges from 110-120 grams.

Poultry care and maintenance

Raising quail at home only seems difficult at first, but not much more difficult than keeping other poultry. Small livestock can be easily bred even in a city apartment. In order for the birds to rush regularly and delight their owners, they need to create comfortable conditions. First of all, it is very important to observe the regime of light and temperature, as well as provide the bird with a balanced protein feed. Let's consider the basic requirements in more detail.

1. Premises. The location of the quail farm does not really matter. You can keep a bird seasonally, for example, in a country house, in a country house or permanently in a barn on a personal plot, just in an apartment or in a house, specially equip a garage for this. It is important that the room is dry, warm and well ventilated. The presence of windows is not necessary, but desirable to save light, since the bird will need a lot of it.
2. Ventilation. For 1 kg of live weight of a bird, at least 1.5 square meters will be required. m / h in winter and 5 sq. m / h in the summer of fresh air. Therefore, when the quail is kept in an apartment, it is better to place the cages on insulated loggias or near a window.
3. Drafts. Quails are very sensitive to drafts. Their presence can be indicated by the loss of feathers, as well as a decrease in egg production. Therefore, in order for the keeping of quails in winter to be successful, it is important to carefully insulate the room.
4. Lighting. Quails love light, but not bright. There will be a lot of an ordinary daylight bulb, the bird will be excited, provoke cannibalism. The use of a 40 W incandescent lamp or a fluorescent LDC-40 lamp is considered acceptable. When breeding poultry, the light regime should be 17 hours.
5. Humidity. Humidity is another important requirement. It must be at least 55%. Otherwise, the bird consumes a lot of water, the plumage becomes brittle, and egg production decreases. Also, unwanted humidity is higher than 75%, but 60-70% is optimal.
6. Temperature. For quails, a comfortable temperature is considered to be 20-22 degrees, permissible fluctuations are not lower than 18 and not higher than 25. At temperatures below 18, females stop laying.

Cells

Cages are the most convenient way to keep quails. They can be bought ready-made or made with your own hands from mesh and plywood. There are no strict requirements for the shape of the cell. Most often they are made rectangular with dimensions 76 × 35 × 30 cm (width × length × height). The floor is best done with a mesh floor with a slight slope towards the trough. Here, a gap is left in the front wall through which the eggs roll into a special chute. Feeders and drinkers are attached to the outside of the front wall of the cage.

A plastic or metal tray is installed under the floor for collecting droppings. Litter must be cleaned every day. To learn more about how to keep these birds, the story of an experienced farmer on video (funnymushroomschool) will help.

As for the area, 100-120 square meters are allocated for one adult bird. cm. It is important that the height of the cage is no more than 25 cm, since at the slightest alarm the quails try to take off. At high altitudes, they can fall and hurt themselves.The stocking density of the birds depends on the age and the purpose of keeping. However, in any case, zootechnical parameters must be observed: per 1 sq. m of floor is placed on average 80-100 birds.

Poultry breeding

A very important question is how to breed quail? The fact is that in the process of domestication and domestication of wild birds, females have lost the instinct to incubate eggs. That is, an incubator is needed to brood chicks and breed birds. Some poultry breeders also use bentam brood hens for these purposes. As for the incubator, any mechanical "brood hen" for chicken eggs will do. It is just that the trays are adapted for laying small eggs or special nets are bought.

However, whatever the incubator is, it must meet all the requirements. First of all, it should have an automatic overturn of eggs and constant temperature maintenance at the level of 37-39 degrees.

To obtain an incubation egg, females are kept together with males at a rate of 1: 2 or 1: 4. If the birds are kept separately, then the females are planted for 15 minutes. In this case, fertilization is about 80% of cases. But with free mating, as practice shows, the fertilization of eggs is worse. For the most effective tribe, females and males are used for 3 months, after which the herd is renewed.

Growing quail

You can grow quails at home from the first days in a special plywood or cardboard box-brooder. Its size depends on the number of chicks, based on the parameters that 100 quails are placed on a bottom area of ​​30 × 30 cm. The boxes are covered with either paper or a fine mesh 5 × 10 mm with a pallet at the bottom. The box must be heated and light.

The quails are transplanted into a brooder box as soon as they dry in the incubator. In the incubator, chicks can stay up to 12 hours. Babies are very sensitive to the slightest changes and changes in temperature, which leads to their death. Therefore, especially the first 20 days of life, it is very important to observe a strict temperature regime.

From the first hours after hatching, the quails feed on their own. But due to the very intensive growth and development, they often need to be given nutritious food. In the early days, it can be a finely chopped boiled egg with cottage cheese, yogurt, chopped herbs. Poultry compound feed for young animals aged 1 to 10 days is also suitable.

You can prepare the following mixture:

• bran;
• egg yolks;
• grated carrots;
• fresh herbs (nettles, green onions).

From 3-4 days you can feed with millet, herbs, finely ground wheat groats, small flour worms. The consumption of feed in the first week of life for the maintenance of quail is about 3-4 grams, by the month of life - about 15-16 grams per individual per day. Read more about feeding quail in our next publications.

Chicks are transplanted into regular cages for adult birds at the age of 3-4 weeks. At the same time, they can be divided by gender and by type of feeding: tribe, meat, eggs. We hope our tips will help you succeed in an interesting and useful business, and breeding and keeping quails will become a favorite pastime.

Video "Quails from laying eggs to brood quail"

If you want to plunge into the atmosphere of quail farming and see how chicks are born, then the video from the Nature and Animal World channel will be interesting.