making larger Quail

[4mychicks]

I've been reading alot lately about quail, I in fact have 76 eggs in the bator to hatch in about 2 weeks. Somewhere I read that keeping a red light on the quail or just allowing light every 2 hours makes them grow bigger. Has anyone tried this?
Kathleena in Ky

 

[Omniskies]

I use a red or colored light to help them sleep (from what I was told

and to cut down on cannibalism when they get bored. I don't know if it makes them grow larger, but if it -does- help them to sleep, then I suppose they'd be growing larger because of that.

I've never heard of keeping them on light for only two hours. I -think- I heard something about a 16 hour light, 8 hour dark cycle that is supposed to maximize egg production and fertility.

But that might have been information I found out when I was looking up stuff about chukars...not for quail

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Never heard of that myself either. Best bet is to buy the biggest ones you can get or wait until yours grow out and select for the largest quail and keep breeding those. Select them this way each generation to build the size up.

 

[4mychicks]

Ok after searching for a while I found where light restrictions were used. if your interested here's the conversation on it. it's near the bottom of the page.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=112110&highlight=jumbo+quail


thanks for your replies.
Kathleena in Ky