The quail is a very beautiful and interesting bird! The usefulness of its meat and eggs has been spoken about for a long time and a lot, so more and more people start quailing. For this, it is not necessary to have a large area, these birds can be safely kept and raised in the country or even in the apartment, they do not require complicated care. What is the breeding of quail at home, where to start it, we will deal today together!
Quail on the farm has already ceased to be a curiosity. In Russia, quail dishes have long been prepared, they were considered a delicacy, their meat was available only to the nobility. However, today everyone can afford to indulge in such a delicacy. Even the one who lives in the apartment and does not think about keeping someone more serious than a cat. Quail due to its miniature size can live even in cages for parrots. If you plan to breed quails at home, then you need to take care of the incubator.
In the process of domestication, the quail females almost forgot what it is to incubate eggs, in contrast to their wild relatives. Therefore, to see in captivity a female quail on the nest is a rarity. If you have bought or raised a livestock that is not bad for exterior and hereditary signs and are considering expanding the economy and raising quail, you are sure to be able to make an incubator yourself.
The size of the design for hatching quail eggs may vary. The main requirement is to maintain the temperature at 36-39 C. In the video below you can see how the simplest homemade incubator looks like.
Eggs should be heated evenly from all sides, if this is not provided for in your design, then you must manually turn the eggs at least 4 times a day. In the incubator, it is advised to lay fresh eggs, no more than 7 days from the time of laying. The period is 17 days (for chicken 21 days) and does not have any features, so breeding quails is not more difficult than breeding other birds. Quail hatch together, within 4-6 hours they, as a rule, already all come out of the egg.
Many breeders do not recommend leaving those chicks that hatch much later than their counterparts. Unfortunately, they rarely survive anyway and in the future bring a lot of worries to the breeder. The newborn quail looks like a yellowish lump with two brown stripes on the back. It weighs only 6-8 g and is very mobile from the first days of life.
Rules and Features
If your family has small children, pregnant women or people suffering from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract or heart, quail meat will be very helpful. It is considered dietary, rich in B vitamins. It contains the amino acids necessary for the human body, iron, copper and potassium. Even after freezing, all useful substances in quail meat are preserved. They deserve special attention. Besides the fact that they are very useful, they can be eaten raw without fear - quail cannot tolerate salmonellosis.
We have already made a reservation that the content of quail is realistic to start even in an apartment. It is very convenient if you have a summer house or a personal plot, in the summer you can keep the birds there, and in the winter move them, say, to the balcony. Quail cultivation is possible even in small cages for parrots or canaries. But still, most breeders recommend using cages directly for quail. For example, in a design of 30x30 cm and a height of 25 cm, 3 females and a male can be comfortably accommodated.
A cage is performed, the purpose of which is to breed and maintain quail, usually from metal rods. Sawdust or wood chips are laid on the floor, the litter is changed as necessary, avoiding severe pollution. Some breeders practice increasing the daylight hours of quail, so they manage to get 2 eggs a day from quail. However, you should not get carried away too much, if the bird does not have enough rest, it can become aggressive.
For quails, as well as for chickens, the presence of a male is optional, the eggs will be anyway. It goes without saying that if you plan to breed quails, then you can’t do without a male. In addition, courtship of the current male is so touching that many breeders do not deny themselves the pleasure of observing quail families.
Room requirements
- The main material is a galvanized mesh.
- Feeding troughs and drinking bowls are not located inside the cage, but are taken out of its limits. Make sure that the distance between the rods of the grid from which the frontal part of the cage is made, allows the bird to stick its head in them to eat food.
- Do not make the cage too high, its height should be about 20-25 cm, quail can bounce up and get injured.
- Nests in the cage are not needed; quails do not sit in them, but lay eggs directly on the floor. Therefore, worry about having an egg collection tray so that they are not contaminated with droppings.
- The presence of a litter tray, in this case, bird care will be much easier, and the cage will be kept clean.
Quail cages very often put one on one, which saves even more space. In the room where you plan to keep and breed quails, there should be good ventilation, the flow of fresh air is very important. The optimum temperature for the content of quail is considered - 20-22 C, permissible - 16-25 C, humidity is recommended to maintain at 60-70%. For high egg production, quail needs a daylight length of about 17 hours, so you can not do without a source of additional lighting.
Feeding
The daily dose of food for one quail is 25-35 g. If you follow the advice of experienced breeders, then this norm is better to observe, because when overeating or fasting, the egg production can sharply decrease. There is no full-fledged compound feed specifically for quail. Experienced breeders insist on this and give advice to beginners not to believe if someone says the opposite.
But a good alternative for a quail diet is a starter with the marking PK-5-2. This type of food contains the necessary quail protein for high egg production. In addition to this compound feed, quails are advised to give any kind of grain. They must be crushed so that it is convenient for the bird to consume them.
The quail menu does not do without greens. Feed small birds 2-3 times a day. Of course, they do not forget about clean and fresh water. For quail drinking, as a rule, nipple drinkers are used.
Care
Quail care is reduced to maintaining the optimum temperature, lighting and timely feeding. Naturally, do not forget about cleanliness, wash shelves and feeders on time, change the litter, remove the litter. Avoid drafts in a room with quails, if you notice that feathers have started to drop out in your bird, pay attention to drafts. Once a week it is recommended to put a container of sand in a cage, the birds will be happy to bathe in it, it is useful for their health. This is the minimum care for which the birds will be very grateful to you.
Quail breeding and quail rearing also includes periodic thorough inspection of the livestock. Among quail there are cases of biting or even cannibalism. Inspection will also allow timely detection and elimination of diseases.
The difficulties that may await you in the winter season when keeping quails are reduced to fluctuations in temperature and humidity. You should try as much as possible to make these fluctuations invisible to your bird. If the birds live in your apartment, then everything is quite simple, but if you keep them, say, in the country, then the room for the birds needs to be well insulated before the onset of frost. Some breeders increase the density of planting in the winter, so the quail will warm each other.
They also monitor the age of the birds, young quail tolerate the cold better due to the fact that their plumage is more dense. Also, when buying or self-manufacturing cages for breeding quail, it is better to give preference to those in which only the frontal part will be trellised. And the back and side walls are wooden or plywood, in such cells the heat is retained better.
To maintain humidity at the proper level in a winter room, it is recommended to hang a damp cloth or put a bucket of water. Protein-containing food is introduced into the winter quail diet; for these purposes, sunflower oil is added to the feed or grain. The content of quail in winter implies a more nutritious diet, because the bird will spend additional energy on heating.
Video “The device of quail and breeding quail”
A detailed video on how to start rearing quails from scratch is presented below! It is worth noting that on the Internet there are a lot of videos about these birds, so everyone who decided to engage in quail breeding can easily find the information he needs.
Quail is a great choice for a poultry farmer who wants to get meat and diet eggs. The miniature size and unpretentiousness of this bird makes the cultivation of quail in a private courtyard or even in an apartment available for both experienced poultry farmers and beginners from scratch. Breeding does not require special conditions or material costs, is characterized by productivity and promisingly as a business.
Breeding quails 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 quailing in Japan, where this tradition spans several centuries. Now the descendants of the Japanese version are grown for meat or for egg products in small farms and industrial enterprises.
Breeders brought representatives of the egg and meat directions. The domesticated variety that is grown on eggs is characterized by the following characteristics:
- weight of quail - 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.
To get a delicious dietary quail meat, broiler breeding has spread around the world. Representatives of this direction weigh from 250 to 500 g.
Quail broilers
Breeds
Quails are grown in egg, meat and meat-egg directions. A lot of breeds allows you to choose the right herd in accordance with the main product received:
| Breed | Direction | Color | Weight g | Egg production,% | Weight of egg product, g |
| Japanese | Egg | Tan | 130 (males); 150 (females) | 90 and above | 9-11 |
| Manchurian | Meat and egg | Tan | Up to 300 | 85 | 13-16 |
| English white | Meat and egg | White | 280-350 | More than 85 | 13-15 |
| Pharaoh | Meat | Yellow brown with stripes | 320-360 (female); Up to 280 (male) | 85 | 12-16 |
| Phoenix | Meat and egg | Yellow gold | 250 | More than 85 | 12-18 |
| Texas white | Meat | White with a black spot | Up to 500 | Up to 85 | 14-16 |
Quail breed Pharaoh
Productivity
Quail has an intensive metabolism and high productivity. A quail weighing 120 g lays annually more than 300 eggs, and the egg mass is 20-24 times more than the female’s weight. They are superior to chicken in nutrition, they have no cholesterol. They are also used raw, since quail does not suffer from salmonellosis. Five quail pieces, equal in weight to the 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-motley 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 ovomukoid that is contained there suppresses it. Recommended dosage: for an adult - from 4 to 6 units, for a child - from 2 to 3 daily.
The 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. It is recommended for disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, diabetes mellitus and other diseases.
Quail eggs are a valuable dietary product
Breeding
Quails are carried without a male. But if your goal is breeding, then you will need representatives of both sexes. To do this, it is better to buy young growth (age - a month or a half). Young quails are easier to tolerate the stress of travel and a new place of residence. When purchasing livestock, carefully examine it. In healthy specimens:
- clean plumage around the cloaca;
- average weight (not exhausted and not overfed);
- dry, without deformation, beak;
- pure sound breathing;
- smooth, clean feathers without fragments of dirt or excrement.
For breeding, choose females 3-8 months old, quail males -3-6. Cross specimens of the same breed, avoid closely related mating.
Quailing in the process of selection lost the instinct of the hens. Use hatcheries to breed from scratch and produce young animals.
Better use models in which the eggs turn over automatically or semi-automatically. Eggs for hatching are taken from females 2-10 months old, fertilized, not older than a week, weighing 9-11 g.
You can assemble the incubator with your own hand (when keeping and breeding in the apartment):
- place a soft litter in a cardboard box;
- install a medical thermometer;
- fix the lamp of 40 watts from above;
- adjusting its height, achieve a temperature of 37.5-38.5 degrees;
- put a saucer with water next to it (to maintain humidity);
- put the net on the bottom;
- place on the litter no more than 20 eggs of the same size and turn them 3-5 times a day.
Young growth will hatch after 17 days. They appear simultaneously, within five or six hours.
Quail chicken
Progeny
Chicks weigh 6-8 g, they are active from the first hours of life. Brown fluff covers them, on the back there are two bright stripes. If you do not keep track of them, then the young growth is clogged in the cracks and suffocates, drowns in a saucer with water. Be vigilant and, when the chicks dry, transplant into a brooder - a room covered with wire mesh, which will fit in the apartment. The size of the brooder is determined by the number of healthy quail.
Complete quail technology content is simple. They feed on their own. Make them a diet of protein feed. In the early days, give finely chopped boiled protein and yolk 5 times a day. From the third or fourth day add cottage cheese, a combined feed for chicken young (type "Start", after processing in a coffee grinder). On the seventh day, give chopped greens. For 21-28 days feed as adult quails.
Chicks with an intensive, balanced diet increase their weight 20 times during the first two months. For watering, use vacuum or nipple drinkers to prevent young growth from drowning. Give boiled, warm water. For prevention, drink quail with chloramphenicol in solution.
In the first 14 days, apply lighting in the brooder for 24 hours, then reduce to 17. Young growth needs a dry and warm (35-38 degrees) room with ventilation.
If the chicks are cold, then they stray together and squeak (in this case, lower the lamp below). If they stand around the perimeter, opening the beaks, 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 to 22.
Forty-day quail ready for breeding
After 21 days, the quail will show external signs of sex. Males acquire a red-brown mottled coloration of the neck and chest, in females these places are light gray in speck. At 8 weeks of age, the young male sex stops growing, by the 40th day they are ready to breed. 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
If the height is more than 25 cm, then cover the ceiling with soft material so that during take-off the inhabitants of the cell do not break their heads. When kept in an aviary with a high ceiling (1.5 m), they do not reach the top.
On an industrial scale, enclosures for 700 animals account for up to 20 square meters of area. Cell complexes (multi-tier batteries) are also used for maintenance, in which 250 heads are placed. The complex consists of several cells with drinking bowls, feeders and egg collectors. This design is easy to make independently of plywood, wire mesh and metal sheets.
Quails do not need nests or perches. They lay their eggs on the floor. Place the flooring there: straw, shavings, paper, hay. Keep your bedding clean and regularly change to fresh. Daylight hours for a quail family - no more than 20 hours at a dim source. With lighting lasting less than 17 hours, productivity decreases, more than 20 - the inhabitants of the cells show aggression, and this leads to the death of the livestock. At poultry farms, daylight hours last 18 hours (then alternating three times for 2 hours of darkness and light).
Quail Cage
When equipping a cage or aviary, take care of ventilation, but without drafts (otherwise feathers will fall out). The content of quail requires a dry, warm room with a temperature of 20-22 degrees (fluctuations are allowed down to 16, 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 a quail room is 60-70%. Make sure that this indicator is not less than 55 and more than 75%. To maintain humidity, spray air with spray water or water the floor (in winter). Along the perimeter, install the ash baths so that the quail will arrange dust procedures and get rid of insects in the plumage, and a excrement tray.
Daily clean the floor and remove the litter, which is especially important when keeping in the apartment. Once a week, carry out a full cleaning for both young and adult specimens.
Diet
When equipping feeding and watering places, use remote containers. Feeding troughs and drinkers of the flute type are placed outside along the perimeter of the cage, and its inhabitants stick their heads out to satisfy hunger or thirst. This measure maintains cleanliness in the room. Feed quails 2-3 times a day, allocating 25-30 g of food per head. Do not overfeed the quail family, this reduces egg production.
Quail food
In the diet of birds include:
- chicken feed;
- cereals (oats, barley, millet);
- greens (sprouted wheat, onions, lettuce and clover);
- vegetable peeling (boiled or raw potatoes, cabbage, carrots);
- sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, chopped eggs;
- fishmeal, chopped raw or boiled fish;
- crushed chalk, crushed eggshells, shell fragments (2-3 times a week);
- fish fat.
When feeding, avoid offering greens tomato, potatoes, parsley, celery. Indigestion and poisoning are caused by nightshade and buttercup plants, buckwheat, rye.
Keep an eye on the color and texture of the quail droppings. A healthy bird has dense dark excrement with white stains. If the litter is liquid and dark green - this is a sign of illness. Yellow bowel movements indicate a carbohydrate excess. If the herd has diarrhea, give together a tincture of water on oats or rice.
Take care that the quail family has boiled, warm water. Watch for its cleanliness, freshness, regularly change. Use grooved, microcup or nipple drinkers. Wash gutter containers daily.
Health
Watch for changes in the behavior of the quail family. If the bird does not eat, passive and inactive, isolate it from others and consult a veterinarian. After physical injury (peeling due to bright light, lack of space), send the quail in a separate cage until recovery occurs. Females often die from damage to the oviduct due to too much laying. Reduce protein in feed, reduce daylight hours.
Quail health needs to be carefully monitored
Fattening and slaughter
Quails intended for meat are divided by gender. Young animals of males and females are kept separately. Lighting and temperature are reduced. Heated cells - up to 24 degrees. It is better to dim the light, creating twilight. In such conditions, males do not conflict, mobility decreases, and food consumption increases. Eating 3-4 times a day. The quail is fed with greens, grain with a 5 percent addition of feed 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 the completion of intensive oviposition. Before the process, the birds are not allowed to eat and plenty of water.
When slaughtered with a sharp knife blade or kitchen hatchet, the head is cut off. Let the blood drain, cut off the legs with scissors at the level of the lower leg and wings to the second joint. Hold the carcass with your belly up, tear your skin with your thumbs and remove with the plumage. Gut the quail by opening it with a knife or finger.
Quail carcasses must be thoroughly cleaned
Additional Information
- birds are also used as fighting birds; in some places, quail singing is valued;
- in Japan, their breeding spread after the explosions in Hirasima and Nogasaki (eggs entered the school menu to suppress the symptoms of radiation);
- if the birds fight, put the instigator of the conflict in another cage or separate it from the herd by a partition;
- quails do not tolerate stress well - take care of the absence of irritants;
- do not place paper or newspapers on the floor of the brooder so that the chicks do not move apart.
Growing quails at home, subject to the rules of care and feeding, will bring the expected result. They are suitable for meat, egg products or for decorative purposes. Given the unpretentiousness, rapid growth and low feed consumption, quailing will become a profitable business.
Breeding poultry is a familiar activity for many. However, most often people choose chickens or ducklings. And in the 90s on the territory of the Soviet Union they started talking about very useful products - meat and quail eggs. In an era of total shortage, it was unrealistic to see these products on store shelves, but stubborn rumors claimed that quail meat and eggs were almost daily on the tables of the country's political elite. Fortunately, today these diet foods are commercially available everywhere. Yes, and everyone who wants to can breed this unique poultry.
Quail in a cage
How to choose a breed?
Despite many years of domestic breeding, quails remain semi-wild birds. Most often, the choice is stopped on the Japanese breed of birds, because it has a high egg production, and is quite unpretentious in care. In addition to them, birds of Chinese, Virgin, Marble and English breeds are bred. Despite the fact that the main parameter during breeding is egg production, it is worth paying attention to the size of individuals, and when kept in urban apartments, the noise of birds.
The most common Japanese quail in our farms are the quietest. Their second name is Mute. The mass content of this breed of birds causes increased interest in breeding, due to which several pedigree varieties have appeared. So Marble and English breed is derived on the basis of the Japanese. The main differences are the color of the plumage and character.
Of the meat breeds, optimal is the breeding of quail Pharaoh. They are bred not only at home, but also in serious farms.
Quail can be bred in the apartment
Subtleties of maintenance and care
It is advisable to have the ability to connect backup power when the lights are off. Since in order to maintain productivity it is important that the cells are illuminated for at least 15 hours a day.
The technology for keeping quail in farms is based on 18-hour continuous lighting. Then follows 2 hours of total darkness, then 2 hours of lighting and again 2 hours of complete darkness. If the duration of the illuminated period is higher, then the birds age faster, and food consumption increases. With a decrease in daylight hours, birds starve and rush worse. In windowless industrial poultry houses, UV lamps should be switched on periodically.
Industrial quail cages
If the poultry house is not equipped with a stationary heating system, then portable heaters are installed in the winter. This is necessary because the temperature must be at a certain level. In order not to lose the egg production of the females, their overcooling must not be allowed. The optimum temperature for birds is + 18 ° C. It is permissible to increase it to + 25 ° C, but it should not fall below + 10 ° C. The temperature + 5 ° С can become critical for the stock of birds; they will die from hypothermia.
Cages with quails should not stand in direct sunlight, from this the birds are overexcited.
It is undesirable to place winged pets near noisy tracks and airfields, near establishments with a high noise level: industrial workshops, cafes with live music, karaoke.
If breeding is planned not in an apartment or a house, but in a special industrial house, then it can be placed no closer than 300 meters from the housing. Breeding in industrial houses also requires cages.
Ventilation and cleanliness requirements
The ideal option is the creation of two-level ventilation. The upper level, located under the ceiling in the house or barn, will remove ammonia from the room, and the lower level - hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In this case, the upper level can be provided by installing a forced draft or sub-ceiling pipe. At the lower level, you can arrange household fans, the main thing is not to direct them to one point, but to set the rotation mode. This will provide the necessary flow of air into the cages with the bird, and will accelerate the exchange of air in the house or barn. In winter, it should be possible to temporarily block the sub-ceiling pipe to maintain the temperature regime. But we must make sure that the smell in the room with closed ventilation does not become too strong, and with the ventilation pipe open, the temperature does not fall below the permissible level.
Quail can be kept in the yard
In the apartment, the cells can be arranged in the kitchen or on a heated loggia. If a balcony or a loggia is not heated, then sharp temperature fluctuations make these rooms unsuitable for keeping quails, especially in winter. In summer, it is easiest to provide for normal ventilation in these rooms. However, care must be taken to prevent drafts, since quail is prone to colds.
One indicator of drafts is feather loss. This should be a signal to inspect the room or redirect the air flow from the fans.
It is important to understand that no ventilation system can replace cleaning the room and cage. Care for quail involves cleaning the litter in the summer - 2 times a week, and in the winter - once a week. Daily cleaning of industrial households exposes the bird to stress, which leads to nervousness and reduced egg production.
How to equip a cage? Options for settling quail families
For quail maintenance in a city apartment, ordinary cages for decorative and songbirds are suitable. The pallet is covered with sand, sawdust or covered with thick paper, cardboard. Care for quail in a residential apartment involves daily cleaning of the cage. This will prevent an unpleasant odor that can bother not only you but also your neighbors. Birdcage nests are not installed. Quail rushing straight to the floor. Various poles and perches are necessary only to the California breed of quail. For the cell, you need to choose a quiet and warm corner, but not a brightly lit window sill. Otherwise, quail will fight, and peck laid eggs.
Decorative quail enclosure
For egg and meat quails, a compact cage with a mesh floor can be equipped; for decorative breeds, spacious but enclosed aviaries are suitable.
There are several options for families to get eggs:
- One male settles in the cage, and with it up to five females. For the Japanese breed, the cage is not higher than 17 cm, so that the quail does not hurt, trying to fly up. The size of the cell floor is approximately 50 by 25 cm. Such breeding is possible in the apartment.
- A young female at the age of 25 days is planted in a cage, the floor size of which is a square with a side of 15 cm. The cage can be multi-level, one female settles on each floor. In this case, the quail lays eggs every 16-20 hours. Such a settlement facilitates care, suitable for installation in a residential apartment.
- Settlement in cells for 30-50 individuals. The floor of the cage is not less than 60 by 60 cm, under a slight slope (up to 12 °). On the front side, the floor of such a cage is pushed out and bent so that the eggs roll, but do not break. Floor cells 15x15 mm. The distance between the rods is not more than 25 mm, so that birds can stick their heads out for feeding, but do not crawl between the rods. On the floor, under the cages, trays for litter are installed, which must be regularly cleaned so as not to worsen the smell. By the way, litter can serve as an excellent fertilizer for a summer cottage or indoor flowers.
If the breeding of quails led to the content of birds of different ages in one cage, then they must be marked. Quail of the same age can be ringed with wire or marked with paint.
What else do you need to know about leaving?
Metal quail cages
The breeding room must have a certain air humidity. The minimum figure is 50%. If you notice that the plumage in birds is brittle and disheveled, the beak is open, and breathing is quickened, this indicates that the room where the cells are placed is overdried. This is especially true in winter, when the air in the apartments dries up due to the inclusion of batteries. Lack of moisture, as well as low temperature, can affect egg production. It is advisable to carry out wet cleaning more often in the apartment, and to install an air humidifier in winter.
Quarterly it is necessary to carry out disinfection of cells and premises. For this, birds are planted in a free cage or aviary. Disinfection is carried out with cleaning or antibacterial drugs. The cells are thoroughly dried after cleaning.
Getting young. Incubator
Quail is not able to hatch the young on their own, because they actually have no instinct for hatching. If you want to breed, you will have to equip a special incubator. Ready-made incubators can be purchased in specialized stores, but the smallest of them is designed for 300 eggs. For home use, this is a lot, so it's worth making an incubator yourself. To do this, you need a box and a layer of roll insulation. For ventilation, make a pair of holes that can be periodically opened and closed.
Quail Incubator
The principle of manufacture of the incubator:
- The box must be covered with polystyrene foam and sheathed with plywood, from the inside lay out a layer of roll insulation.
- Make several holes in the bottom.
- Cut a window in the lid and close the window with a glass to control the condition of the eggs and the temperature.
- Electrical wiring and lampholders are made in each corner of the box.
- The quail egg tray is mounted on a support 10 cm high.
- A metal mesh is pulled over the tray.
- At the bottom of the box are placed containers of water. From above they are covered with a fine wire mesh so that newborn chicks do not get into the container.
The temperature in the room where you install the quail incubator should not be lower than 20 ° C. The temperature in the incubator itself is 38 ° C, humidity is about 70%.
Hatching eggs must be fresh, the maximum age is 5 days. The process itself takes 17 days, the nestling of the chicks can last several hours.
Growing process
Breeding and rearing quails is a very interesting process. Daily chicks, after they have dried, are placed in a box with high walls. The box should be in a warm room where the temperature is not lower than 36 ° C. The box in which the first days of life are spent is called a brooder. Here the daily subsistence quail will live the first 14 days.
Inside the egg, the quail was rolled up in a compact ball. After biting, it is covered with fluff, has eyesight, is able to move around, drink and take food on its own. Daily chicks weigh approximately 8 g. Cultivation of hens and males occurs together. Gender separation occurs in the third week of life. At approximately the eighth week, males reach maximum growth, and at 35-40 days reach puberty.
Growing females of young animals takes a little longer. Their growth lasts 9 weeks. The mass at this time becomes about 135 g.
Breeding young animals is facilitated by the fact that the behavior can be used to judge the state of the chicks. Chicks are naturally mobile and active. If they have strayed together and loudly express dissatisfaction, then it is cold in the brooder. If the boxes are scattered around the perimeter, sit or lie with their beaks open, then the chicks are hot.
Growing chicks requires attention, as they have a habit of hiding in corners and crevices. It is necessary to ensure that the young growth does not get stuck anywhere, otherwise it may die.
For 14 days, the brooder with the chicks is illuminated around the clock, then the illumination is gradually reduced and brought back to normal mode.
Starting from the tenth day of life, the temperature in the box where the young growth is located is gradually reduced to + 30 ° С. In the third week, chicks can be moved to adult quail cages.
Quail chick
The difference in feeding of young and adult birds
Feeding the chicks is not very difficult, given that from the very birth they can eat on their own. The first time a quail is to be interested, by knocking a thin object near the feeder. The chicks will decide that it is an insect and begin to peck. Baby foods should be high in protein. The composition should be vitamins and minerals. This is due to the fact that chicks grow rapidly.
The first three days, finely chopped boiled egg is used as food. As a feeder, you can adapt a small but wide bowl. Then, cottage cheese and crushed corn begin to be added to the egg. The next step is to add chopped greens to the feed. After two weeks, you can start feeding compound feed for chickens.
In the third or fourth week of life, you can transfer the chicks to feed standard feeds.
Regarding water, it must be in the brooder necessarily. At first, they used vacuum drinking bowls for decorative birds.
Feeding adults is done by the hour. Feeders are placed on the outside of the cages so that the birds stick their heads through the rods. This is done in order to reduce the spread of feed and reduce their consumption. Food should be three meals a day, at the rate of 30 g of feed per bird. It is possible to feed quail compound feed for laying hens. Top dressing is made with chopped herbs, seeds, sprouted grains, boiled vegetables. Twice a week, bone meal and boiled fish are added to the diet. Of mineral additives, chalk and crushed shells are used. As a treat, they offer earthworms, various insects and larvae.
Quality quail food
If breeding is not egg, but meat breeds, then males and females are kept separately. Lighting is reduced, and the temperature is set within 20 ° C and above. In this case, feeding is performed 4 times a day, the portions for each adult are increased. Twice a day they give cereal waste or grain, and another 2 feedings consist of chopped greens and corn. Technical grains are added to cereal portions of feed.
What should be included in cereals, animals, vitamin and mineral feeds?
- Cereal feeds may consist of: beans; wiki peas; boiled buckwheat; hemp seeds; maize; oats; millet; millet; wheat; barley and other crops.
- Animal feed is: feed fat; blood and blood meal; sour milk; cottage cheese; bloodworm; flour worm; earthworm; maggots; shredded fish; fish fat; chicken and quail eggs.
- Vitamin feed is: boiled potatoes; greens; cabbage; carrot; bow; beet; pumpkin; coniferous or grassy flour.
- Mineral additives are coarse quartz sand or finely crushed gravel; bone flour; special mineral chalk; coarse salt; crushed shells; eggshell.
In the diet can be protein-vitamin supplements, yeast and permixes. Veterinary drugs are available to stimulate growth.
A varied diet is the basis of population health
Owners should not take birds in their hands without special need. This causes not only a nervous shock, but also pain from the displacement of the feathers. Quail - a careful bird and a coward. She tries to break free from the master's hands and comes to herself for a long time. Also, you should carefully approach the cells. You can not make sudden movements, clothes must be selected in bright colors. If the Japanese quail is frightened, then it raises a panic among the inhabitants of its cage, and tries to take off. This leads to head and wing injuries.
When breeding quails, you must always have a supply of feed. If, by negligence, it has ended, then you can feed the bird carrots, cabbage or greens with the addition of protein. Tanks with feed should always be tightly closed, as they provoke the appearance of moths and rodents.
In early spring, quails are useful to feed the shoots of nettles and dandelions. They must be collected in clean places, away from roads.
Japanese quails are stressed by the appearance of other birds. You can’t build pigeon houses next to the quail house. Also, do not temporarily plant pigeons or larger birds for quails.
When transplanting young females from brooders into a cage with an adult male, care must be taken to ensure that the female does not suffer from excessive attention.
Conflict can occur in a tight cage
Who is more profitable for home maintenance?
If we are talking about city apartments, then it is difficult to find a more profitable option than the content of quail. On a relatively small area, you can place up to 50 individuals in cages at several levels.
Consider the fact that females of the Japanese breed begin to rush from one and a half months, and chicken - from 6 months. Ostriches generally begin to lay eggs from 2-3 years. Quail has a high percentage of hatchability, is rarely ill, and has valuable dietary meat. Quail eggs have a high nutritional value, low cholesterol content, and are considered suitable for allergy sufferers and people on different diets.
So do not be alarmed by the alleged difficulties and feel free to take care of providing the family or the nearest grocery store with healthy dietary products.
Keeping and breeding quails is a very useful and profitable activity. The meat and eggs of these small birds contain animal protein, which is important for the human body, as well as a balanced complex of substances useful to humans. Many say that quail eggs have healing properties. Quails grow and develop very quickly, they are prolific, so during the year the available number of birds can be increased tenfold.
Quail Overview
The following directions of development of these birds exist: egg, meat (broilers), fighting and decorative. The most useful and profitable is the breeding and maintenance of quail eggs.
Quail in terms of egg production is leading in comparison with even thoroughbred chickens, because a female quail is capable of produce about 300 eggs per year. The ratio of egg weight to body weight of quail is the highest among other industrial birds. The standard weight of a female quail egg is from 9 to 12 g. The color of the eggs is variegated, the spots are usually dark brown or blue. Each quail has its own special pattern on the shell.
Birds of different breeds and hybrid forms have differences in appearance, color of feathers, weight, performance and other features.
The only minor drawback of quail is their small size. But due to this “drawback” undeniable advantages emerge: quail meat and eggs do not lose their taste, egg production does not deteriorate, and susceptibility to diseases does not increase, which is typical for large birds due to a constant increase in their body weight.
Females of quail have a larger body mass than males. Captive quail ripen for egg laying in a month and a half. Individuals of these birds are less likely to become infected with bird flu because they are kept indoors.
Adults quail. Breeding, maintenance and care
When purchasing birds, know that it is better to take individuals aged from one to one and a half months. Young quail without much stress will endure transportation, get used to a new habitat, a new daily routine, diet and light regime. pay attention to bird appearance. There are several signs that indicate an individual’s health:
- The quail beak should be dry, there should be no growths on it.
- The feathers near the cesspool should be clean.
- The bird should not be obese, but it should not be too thin either.
- Extraneous noises such as whistling or wheezing should not be heard in the breath of a quail.
- If the bird is sick, then lethargy and disheveled will be present.
Decorative quails are kept outdoors in spacious enclosures with a ceiling height of at least one and a half meters. Quail meat or egg orientation settle exclusively in the cells. In the room where birds are kept, artificial lighting and a ventilation system should be equipped. There should be no drafts, otherwise feathers will suddenly drop out in birds.
It should be warm in the house. If necessary, install an additional heat source. It is not necessary to heat a room with adults, it is enough to insulate it well. The optimum temperature for adult quail is considered t 20–22 ° C, a possible allowable variation is from 16 to 25 ° C. If the temperature drops below 16 ° C, the quail will not lay eggs. And if the temperature drops below 5 ° C, the birds may die.
In a room containing quail, it is necessary to maintain air humidity of 50–70 percent.
Signs that the air is not humidified enough:
But even in rooms with high humidity, birds will not feel comfortable.
When keeping quails at home, ordinary cages for poultry or even simple boxes may be suitable. The floor must be covered with sand, hay, sawdust, straw, newspaper. The litter needs to be replaced every day with a new one. If this condition is not observed, the room will have the smell of bird droppings, which is not only unpleasant, but also harmful. The quail females do not need nests; they lay eggs directly on the floor.
The cell must be placed in a quiet place where the ambient temperature is close to room temperature. The loggia for the location of the cell is not suitable, since the air temperature there is subject to significant fluctuations. Also, you can not put the cage on the windowsill, because from the bright sunlight the quail will be restless, aggressive, can peck eggs and beat each other with beaks.
If, however, the birds began to fight, then there several ways to calm them:
- transplant the "brawler" into another cell;
- using an opaque material, fence off an angle for an aggressive bird in a common cage;
- slightly darken the cell;
- remove the cage to a dark place and leave it for up to 5 days, not forgetting to feed the birds.
The optimum daylight hours of quail lasts seventeen hours. Bright light these birds do not like. Subdued light calms quails, they do not fight among themselves and do not peck eggs. It is recommended to turn on the light at 6 a.m. and turn off at 11 p.m. If you make quail daylight hours more than seventeen hours, you can increase the egg production of females, but this will negatively affect the duration of their productivity, in other words, they will age faster. Feed consumption will also increase. In the case when the daylight hours of birds last less than the standard value, egg production will decrease, and the quail will have time to get very hungry for the "long night".
At least once a month, the cells in which the quail live must be thoroughly cleaned. Such a method may be used. Remove birds, carefully wash the cage with a brush, hot water and detergent. Then douse the cell with boiling water and dry it.
Growing young
Right after the birth of the hungry quail chicks squeak loudly. After a short time, they become calmer, sleep for a long time, peck food and drink water between the phases of rest. The quails are covered with brown down, two light streaks along the back. Their weight reaches only 8 g. You need to carefully monitor the kids, because the chicks are clogged in various slots, holes or holes and may die as a result.
After hatching, the quail chicks are placed in a box with high walls and with a top covered with a metal mesh. During the first two weeks, t 35–38 ° C should be provided, during the third and fourth weeks the temperature gradually needs to be reduce to 20-22 ° C. To regulate the heat in the box, you can use a conventional electric lamp by raising or lowering it. If the chicks get together, they squeak all the time, which means that the temperature is not high enough, and they froze. And if the little quails are standing alone, opening their beaks, or just lying, it means they are hot, and the temperature needs to be slightly reduced.
It is important to ensure the optimum lighting mode for the quail chicks. It should not be too bright. Quail - “girls” grown under too much light will subsequently produce small eggs. The first two weeks of life, quail chicks need to be lit around the clock. After their daylight hours smoothly brought up to seventeen hours a day.
When the chicks turn three weeks old, they are transplanted into cages for adults. It is not easy to distinguish males from females, but by this age they are already distinguishable. In “boys”, the plumage on the chest and neck is darker, brown with a reddish tint and with black dots. In females, the feathers on the breast are light gray with large black dots. If young quail is replanted later than 21 days later, this will lead to a delay in their egg production process. Excess males are transplanted into cages for further feeding.
Males become adults and stop growing at the age of eight weeks, puberty occurs in 35–40 days. FROMamki grow up a little slower and gain weight up to 135 g by the age of nine weeks.
The safety of young animals in quail, subject to normal conditions, is about 98 percent, which is much higher than that of other birds. Chicks are growing rapidly. Within two months they reach a mass exceeding the original 20 times. This indicates a rapid growth rate, and, accordingly, an intensive metabolism in these birds.
Feeding and diet of adults
The main quail food components:
Inadequate or excessive content of a component affects the health status and performance of quail.
The best food for these birds is special feed for quail. It is possible to add root crops (potatoes, carrots, beets) to the feed. You also need to feed the birds with finely chopped greens (cabbage, dandelions, alfalfa).
To meet the need for quail in protein, you need to feed them with cottage cheese, minced meat, fish, fish or meat and bone meal, sunflower seeds, flax. To ensure a sufficient amount of minerals in the feed, shells are used that need to be crushed well. To improve the digestive process, quails need to be given gravel.
Birds should be provided with water around the clock. Drinking bowls are installed outside the cage so that the quail can drink water, sticking its head out between the bars. Twice a day need change water and wash the drinker. Sometimes, for the prevention of intestinal diseases in water for drinking, you need to dissolve several crystals of potassium permanganate to obtain a faint pink color.
Feeding and diet of young animals
Quail chicks almost immediately after birth can eat themselves. The necessary diet for them is a feed containing a lot of protein, vitamins and minerals. During the first two or three days they will quail you can feed a boiled egg, which you need to grind and put in a wide low capacity.
On the third day, you need to add the cottage cheese and finely chopped corn or mixed feed for chickens to the egg. On the sixth - seventh day, finely chopped greens can be introduced into the feed. During the second week of life, quail chicks can peck compound feed intended for chickens. And after reaching three to four weeks, the content and diet of the chicks are similar to adults.
In the first week of life, the quail needs to be fed 5 times a day, in the second and third - 4 times, starting from the fourth week the number of feeds is reduced to three times a day. The amount of food for the chicks does not need to be limited. Two hours after eating, the excess food must be removed.
Water for chicks, like food, should be clean and fresh. Drinking water is necessary change twice a day, drinkers should be clean, it is better to give boiled water. You only need to use vacuum drinking bowls, as in others the quail can drown. It is also possible to use conventional nylon lids for cans as drinkers. In water, it is necessary to dissolve several crystals of potassium permanganate to a barely noticeable pink color. Food and water should have a temperature close to room temperature.
From two weeks old, quail chicks should be given gravel and crushed shells. And when you reach three weeks of age, you can give sand, but only when the well-fed are quail. Otherwise, they take sand for food and can poison them by eating a large amount.
Breeding and keeping quail at home is a very interesting, uncomplicated and profitable activity. The main conditions for ensuring good egg production are compliance with temperature and light conditions and the use of balanced feed.
Japanese quail is very beneficial for keeping: breeding at home these small birds practically does not require a place. They can live in cages equipped with feeders and drinking bowls, and in a warm house. According to those involved in poultry farming, the cost of acquiring chicks, feed and equipment for maintenance pays off in 3-4 months. Subsequently, quails bring net profit. A quail egg is rather expensive in the agricultural products market, and its prime cost is not particularly high.
Poultry house and bird acquisition
The body weight of most quail breeds is only 100-150 g. These are small birds that do not need any area for walking or a spacious house. Quail can be raised even in a city apartment: many contain them in cages for parrots or hamsters. For a family of 5 birds (1 male and 4 females), a cell measuring 30x40 cm is sufficient. It is believed that too large a territory negatively affects the egg production of quail. On a large scale, the recommended bird density is 50 heads per 1 m².
Particular attention should be paid to the height of the cage: ideally, it should not exceed 25 cm. If the ceiling is high, then it is imperative to tighten dense tissue to protect the bird from injury. Biologically quail adapted to hiding, and then fly up at high speed. In nature, such a maneuver serves them to save from a predator, confused by the sudden appearance of a bird. When kept in a cage, this can lead to the death of a quail crashed on the ceiling.
Equipment should consist only of a feeder and a drinking bowl. Quail spend their whole lives on the ground and rush in nests dug in the ground. In the cage, they don’t need poles; it’s enough to lay a bed of shavings or straw on the floor and change it as it becomes dirty.
When acquiring a family of quail for breeding, you need to choose young birds (1-1.5 months). You can buy very small chicks, and bred young growth (3-5 weeks). In the latter case, the quail will begin egg laying in 1-2 weeks.
When choosing a quail, special attention should be paid to the purity of plumage or fluff near the cloaca (under the tail). Contaminated fluff indicates diarrhea, which can occur with poisoning and with infectious diseases. A healthy quail should have clean legs and a beak, shiny, close-fitting plumage. The grown young should not be feeble: in a properly grown bird, the breast bone does not protrude and is hidden by muscles.
Healthy young quail are distinguished by their mobility, they readily peck food and constantly squeak quietly. It is almost impossible to distinguish small chicks by sex, so it is better to purchase more than required. When the males begin to show themselves, caring for the females, it will be possible to choose the desired number of active individuals, and feed the rest for meat.
Among a large number of quail breeds, 2 main areas are distinguished:
- meat, or broiler (the most common breed - Pharaoh), are characterized by rapid growth of muscle mass and can reach a weight of 200-230 g;
- meat and egg (Japanese, black and white English, marble, kaitavers) - with less body weight, but capable of laying up to 400 eggs per year.
Having determined the desired direction of his mini-farm, the owner can choose one of the breeds. In addition to birds in production areas, there are decorative quail, which contain for other purposes.
Rules for keeping and feeding quails
Growing quail at home for beginners may seem very simple with a superficial acquaintance. In fact, caring for a bird includes many subtleties that you can only understand from your own experience, faced with any problem. But there are general rules for quail care at home, which must be followed to ensure that the pets are healthy and well carried.
The most important thing for cold-sensitive birds is the temperature in the room. Quail can easily endure small daily fluctuations within + 16 ... + 25ºС. These are the conditions of an ordinary city apartment, where they can be maintained with the same success as on a country farm. But lowering the temperature below + 15ºС for 1-2 days can cause the termination of oviposition. In a cold room, not warming above + 10ºС, the quail gets sick and dies.
Another important factor is the lack of drafts. Ventilation of the room where the quail is kept will have to be done quite often, especially if the number of birds is large. But when airing, there should not be a strong movement of cold air from the street. Sometimes novice poultry farmers complain that quails lose their feather. Most often the reason for this is just a draft.
The presence of dampness in the room where the quail is planned to be grown is unacceptable. At home, it is difficult to determine the percentage of moisture without special equipment. It is necessary to focus on the fact that the litter in the cells is clean and dry. The fogging of the windows in the room can indicate the humidity of the air when the outside temperature drops. When containing a large number of quails for industrial purposes, the recommended humidity in the house is 60-70%. To determine its level, a special device (psychrometer) is required.
How to feed quail chicks?
The basis of the diet of young animals is crushed grain. The grinding fraction should be such that the quail can swallow food without any problems. A small number of birds at home can be fed wheat and barley groats of food quality. It is best to mix different types of grain in approximately equal proportions. It is not recommended to feed the quail with millet: the refined grain contains fat, which quickly rancid and can lead to poisoning. If desired, you can buy unpeeled millet in the market and add it to the feed.
In order for young growth to grow well, quails at the age of 5-7 days can be added to the feed fish or fish and bone meal. In its absence, you can use inexpensive fresh fish, boiling it or passing through a meat grinder. Fish supplements are used at the rate of 1 g per 1 head per day. As the bird grows, the amount of additives increases to 3-5 g. The fish must be mixed with dry grain in one of the feedings.
Fresh greens can also be used to prepare the mash. Quail yarns, dandelion, young nettles eat well. In winter, they can be given dried herbs, crushed into flour, or to germinate grain, onions in boxes, to plant lettuce bushes.
A very important feed additive is coarse river sand. The fraction of grains of sand should be 1-2 mm (as millet or crushed grain). When kept in urban conditions, you can purchase ASG or marble chips in a construction company by selecting the appropriate fraction. Mineral additives are necessary for grinding grain in the poultry stomach. Sand is added directly to the feed mixture in an amount of 5% of its volume.
Adult bird feeding
When the quail reaches its productive age (45-50 days), their feeding should be varied and contain supplements rich in calcium. A large amount of this substance is spent by the bird on the formation of egg shells. With a lack of calcium in food, it is excreted from the skeleton of the quail itself, which leads to brittle bones and diseases. The eggshell becomes very thin or disappears completely. The collection of such eggs is difficult, and most of them are usually broken by quail itself.
It is possible to enrich the diet with calcium by adding ground eggshell, chalk (fodder or building), shell rock or marble chips to the feed. It is best that a separate feeder with a mineral supplement is constantly in the cage. To enrich the diet with calcium, you can use special premixes (Ryabushka, etc.) for laying hens.
If it is possible to purchase full feed for rushing birds, then there will be no difficulties with feeding quails. It is enough to comply with the standards specified by the manufacturer and not overfeed quail. A fried bird begins to rush worse.
With independent preparation of feed, you can take the following recipe as a basis:
- wheat - 30%;
- oats or millet 25%:
- barley - 30%;
- sunflower seed - 10%;
- corn grits - 5%.
It is recommended to feed the bird 2-3 times a day, adding boiled potatoes (not more than 30% of the volume of the mash) to the dry mix, raw grated carrots, beets, swede, squash or pumpkin. The amount of feed must be adjusted so that the quail eats it in 25-30 minutes. Leave the mash for next feeding is not allowed. When containing a large number of birds, the diet is calculated based on the norm of 25-30 g of grain per 1 head per day.
Water should be in the drinkers constantly. Sometimes, 1-2 times a week, you can pour a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate. This disinfects containers and is beneficial to the birds themselves as a source of trace elements.
How to breed quail at home?
Domestic quail have no instinct for incubation. If the novice poultry breeder decides to continue their maintenance, he will have to deal with the details of how to breed quail using an incubator. Currently, there are many modifications of these devices with automatic control of temperature and time of turning eggs. All of them are designed for a small number of eggs and are designed specifically for lay people. Therefore, you should not create home-made designs, using not quite suitable electric lamps and boxes for this.
To obtain an incubation egg, the presence of males at the rate of 1 quail per 4-5 quails is necessary in the herd. The egg can be collected and stored at room temperature for no more than 7 days. For incubation, you need to select round, even eggs weighing 9-11 g. What could be accumulated over the specified period must be simultaneously placed in the incubator chamber.
Before laying eggs, warm up the device and adjust it so that the thermometer located on the egg tray shows a temperature of + 37.5 ... + 38.5 ° C. Containers with water must be in the incubator to maintain the necessary humidity. The incubation period is 17 days. On about the 7th day, you need to examine all the laid eggs, shining them with a powerful lamp: the unfertilized ones will remain transparent, it is better to remove them from the tray. Chicks begin to hatch on day 18 of incubation. Usually, withdrawal lasts 5-6 hours.
The quail can be left to dry directly in the incubator, and then transplanted into a box, where the temperature will be maintained at about + 37ºС. For this, incandescent or infrared lamps are used. At the age of 2 weeks, chicks are gradually accustomed to room temperature, reducing it gradually over a period of 7-10 days.
Breeding and keeping quails at home is not a particularly expensive undertaking. It is important to provide young and adult birds with acceptable conditions and suitable food. Healthy quails always gratefully respond to care and can even lay 2 eggs a day, regardless of the time of year.
