It is my 4th year of owning and taking care of quail.
I enjoy it as a hobby and it also helps me to get away from industrially produced foods.
That being said, if at all possible, I would recommend chicken over quail.
quail vs. chicken
pro ✔️ con ❌
| QUAIL | CHICKEN |
|---|---|
| can NOT get salmonella ✔️ | can get salmonella ❌ |
| need only one vaccination ✔️ | might need some more vax ❌ |
| are small ✔️ | ...not so small ❌ |
| first eggs after 10 weeks ✔️ | first eggs after 6 months ❌ |
| rooster crows ✔️ | rooster will wake whole neighbourhood ❌ |
| will run away any chance they get ❌ | will roost at home ✔️ |
| are super scared ❌ | are easily scared ✔️ |
| do not forage well ❌ | can forage / free range ✔️ |
| can not eat kitchen scraps ❌ | loves kitchen scraps ✔️ |
| need very high protein feed (soy) ❌ | wide range of possible feeds ✔️ |
| will get attacked by everything ❌ | will eat a mouse ✔️ |
| extremely stupid ❌ | plain stupid ✔️ |
| can not really be pet ❌ | might tolerate human contact ✔️ |
| will lay eggs anywhere ❌ | usually use the nesting box ✔️ |
some thoughts
Of course, it all depends on your context, your situation.
If you want to get away from large scale farming, quail are a start, but not ideal at all.
They need a high protein diet. In nature, they would eat a lot of insects.
If you buy the feed, you pretty much have to rely on soy for protein, which kind of defeats the whole idea of going into the direction of self sufficiency.
Free ranging them is impossible. They will just run away.
For example: Geese can actually graze. They can and will also defend themselves well.
However, geese can get terribly loud. And like with all water fowl, I do not like their smell.
Chicken will mess up your garden, but at least they will get back into the pen in the evening.
Chicken are so much better than all other birds 😍
1 regular chicken egg is as big as 8 regular quail eggs.
They eat leftover pasta and all sorts of things.
Meanwhile, I saw a quail almost choke to death on a spinach leaf.
Quail are very scared of everything, and even though I raised some of mine literally by hand, after a week of only short daily contact they became extremely scared of me.
If I offer them insects from my hand however, they will forget all fear and peck at my hand.
To me, it's frustrating.
Chickens are stupid, but nowhere near as stupid as quail are; Their instincts take over so quickly and they will forget everything when their hunting senses kick in or when they get scared.
This should be enough reason:
100 quail will produce less calories for you than 10 chicken will.
There are only very few situations where quail make sense, if you want them for food:
- If you have only very limited space (like a balcony)
- If you want to eat eggs raw and are scared of salmonella
...can't think of any other advantages...
... it is also impossible to take a good picture, as they are constantly on the move:
As a final thought, if you plan on selling some eggs, they might fill a niche and some people might pay a good price for them, while the market for chicken eggs might be oversaturated.
To me, their eggs taste just like chicken's eggs and cracking 10 of them is quite a hassle for a few calories.
I will always recommend you try to produce your own food.
It will make you appreciate life more and appreciate the people who do this for a living more - even the industrial, big scale commercial farmers; Without them, we could not feed humanity.
...but go for chicken, if you can. Silkies are the best 😉
Lol at a quail nearly choking on a spinach leaf... oh dear.
Poor thing. Poor stupid, stupid thing
Well I might have to reconsider the quail idea for now... might just need a bit more thought
You eat the birds as well as the eggs? How long till they're fully grown?
Economically, it is best to eat them at 6 weeks.
After that, their growth slows.
I eat the males, as you can only have one per 10 hens.
I do not like to eat them, I just do not want to waste anything.
Yeah I get that. Waste not want not. It's a pretty quick turnaround.
The feed is the sticking point... having to buy in high protein stuff all the time, like you say
Could culture protein for them
I wonder if they'd eat worms? Then the kitchen scraps could go to the worm farm instead... maybe mealworms would be more their size...
🤔
They love worms and all bugs.
Oats and worms would work fine, I think.
Pelletized feed does it for me, as I can be sure the pellets contain everything they need.
The 5 birds in the picture eat 20 kg of organic feed per year (never really checked tbh) @ 30€ cost.
But yeah: That is mainly soy and that is not environmentally friendly, I think.
I am not culturally well versed, is a soy boy someone who eats soy products himself or even soy-fed livestock as well would be a soy diet?
Nice. I like the personalization in your comparison (extremely stupid vs plain stupid) - Chickens are the better bird for us, but we also have quail at the moment. In fact, our oldest daughter is hatching more quail right now.
Ok.
I think you are living life the right way. You got your shit together and from what I can tell you provide for your family the best way possible. Hats off.
When it comes to Steem and Hive, you fucked up.
You took 190k HP in votes, have the highest reputation of all accounts and never gave a shit about giving anything back to the community. You were a chosen dolphin and your job was to spread power amongst the users. You only took. Like a complete dickhead.
I will forever downvote your blog and not stop until you get no more than 1$/post.
That all being said, I appreciate the comment.
Hope it all works out for you. Just not here on Hive.
Fuck you
!popcorn
Jeebus, that was brutal.
Pretty interesting info about these two species and nice comparison table.
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My Rooster is an asshole, so I might get some Quails just to fuck with him. 😄