To incubate or not to incubate

[jna]

I am considering incubating some quail eggs. I can get them from a farm down the road from me. These would just be for pets and maybe saving a dozen eggs to make a serving of scrambled eggs lol.

I am just not sure if I should or not. Please help me decide if I should or not. Please help me decide. Tell me things you wish you would have know before raising them. If you would do it again why? If not, why?

Thanks all

 

[jng]

Hi jna I have Quails they are amazing. I've incubated their eggs twice now and they grow so quickly and lay eggs at 6 weeks of age. I found them easy to incubate and I think you should go for it. The eggs are very good for you (and my dog loves them hard boiled) I have the Japanese Jumbo Quails and feed them Turkey Pellets and small Parrot Mix. They Love having a dust bath in some clean sand too.

 

[Whiskybear]

If you start incubating today, you start the clock on needing a housing solution. I assume if you have an incubator, you have a brooder; but they will be ready to go outside 3 weeks after hatch.
that being said, I can say I’ve found very few downsides to raising quail.

 

[Nabiki]

How are you with culling and getting rid of extra males? If you're willing to do that, then hatch. If not, see if you can get somes hens from that farmer instead.

I f you hatch, you will end up with about 50% males. If you have more than one male, they will fight and it will get bloody and probably fatal.

 

[jna]

Hi jna I have Quails they are amazing. I've incubated their eggs twice now and they grow so quickly and lay eggs at 6 weeks of age. I found them easy to incubate and I think you should go for it. The eggs are very good for you (and my dog loves them hard boiled) I have the Japanese Jumbo Quails and feed them Turkey Pellets and small Parrot Mix. They Love having a dust bath in some clean sand too.

I don't think I have ever heard of Japanese Jumbo quail. Do you have pictures? I wasn't even thinking about feeding eggs tonthe dogs but that would be a plus too!

 

[silkiechicken]

If you want them and have suitable housing, give them a try. They are adorable babies. That said, it's a lot of work to eat them and their eggs because even the "Jumbos" are still pretty tiny. Their poop is high in ammonia so you'll need good ventilation and they are very flighty compared to even a leghorn. But they are small and easy to contain. I've done them time to time for entrainment value, but they are not my thing.

 

[jng]

I don't think I have ever heard of Japanese Jumbo quail. Do you have pictures? I wasn't even thinking about feeding eggs tonthe dogs but that would be a plus too!

 

[jng]

This is a photo above of 2 of my Jumbo Quails. Brown and white one is a Tuxedo. In Western Australia we need a licence from the Dept of Agriculture & Food to keep Quails.??

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They're quite the little savages. Not only will males kill other males, males will kill other females, females will kill other females and females will kill other males, all if they just decide they don't like them

 

[CliftonQuail]

I've been raising quail for a little over 9 months. Mine are Coturnix, which are also known as Japanese. I have the Jumbo Wild, or Pharoah, type. They take a little over 2 weeks to hatch, need to be in a brooder for about 3 weeks and then can go into their grow out or breeder cage at that point. They need a higher protein feed than chicken. Start them with a game bird started with 28% protein. Advice varies on when you can reduce protein, but I try not to get lower than 22%.
As others have said, they can be quite savage. I've had several scalped by others because I didn't spot the aggressive behavior soon enough. Yesterday was my first cull/harvest of excess males. I'd probably let some of them grow too long, but wasn't ready to start that process till now. It went surprisingly well and I don't think any of the birds suffered much. I've currently got 2 breeding colonies of 1 male and 5 hens each. I also have seven 3 week old birds, 3 male/4 female, that will be going into grow out cages this weekend. I've got an additional 36 eggs that will start hatching next week.
I have enough cage space to handle what I've got and the next hatch. What I would have done different if I could have would be to have more cages, or the materials to build them, along with more space. Currently, they're in my garage and doing fine. Within a few months, I'll be moving to a 2.5 acre property and will have a lot more room for the birds, so more cages to come.
I enjoy the birds and plan to keep them. I'm getting plenty of eggs and hope to be able to start selling some to help recoup the cost of feed.
If you don't want to raise them for meat, I'll echo @Nabiki and suggest just getting hens from the farmer instead of hatching eggs. It may cost a bit more, but getting rid of excess males can be difficult if you don't want to harvest for meat.