Watermelons And a Quail Recipe

Quail

Male Jumbo Coturnix

 In the Spring of 2020 with COVID on the rise, we sat down and thought together about raising meat.  We had been raising dual purpose chickens (dual purpose being fresh eggs and meat) for 11 years and were just not overly thrilled with the meat side.  Goats and sheep did not seem like a good option for us with the expense of feed and necessary work involved (although we do enjoy both goat and lamb/mutton).  As we began to research, quail kept popping up as a possible option.  The small space required, the high rate of laying eggs, the feed to meat ratio, and the time from starting a hatch to maturity (roughly 9 weeks) made this something worth investigating.  We decided to go ahead and give it a try and Mr. Marvelous built a quail tractor.  

We were uneducated newbies at that point so we did a lot of things that make us shake our heads now but we had a season of raising quail, hatching quail, trying to figure out what to do with excess quail eggs, and discovering that smoked quail is pretty good (and pretty filling) meat. 

 After we moved to NowHere in 2021, we started over and this time we did things a bit differently.  We learned that quail flush ~ they jump straight up in the air and flutter ~ and if the top of their enclosure is more than 15 inches or less than 6 feet, there is a great risk they will break their necks.  We learned that if the wire of the pen they are in is bigger than hardware cloth, rats will get in and kill the quail and eat their eggs.  We learned that no matter how warm the heat is in the brooder, if the ambient temperature outside that brooder is less than 50 degrees, the babies will die.  We learned that quail are masters at finding creative ways to die.  We learned that it is a bad idea to just build an enclosure on top of concrete; they will develop all kinds of foot problems.  We learned that quail can knock the top off a water bucket, no matter how securely you think you put it on there, and jump into it and drown.

As we (meaning Mrs. Nowhere) were at the height of quail-frustration, Mr. Marvelous discovered Zach Greene at Myshire Farms in Ohio.  Zach’s YouTube videos are an educational treasure.  Then we learned that Zach was going to collaborate with two other quail breeders ~ Jasmine Bass of Thyme and Timber Homestead, and Linda Easton-Waller ~ to offer an on-line course on raising quail, Quail University, and offer this for $49.  We jumped on the opportunity and are still thankful we did this!  We continue to go back and look things up and use the resources offered through the course.

Since that time we have dramatically expanded our quail operation.  We raise jumbo Coturnix quail using a line from Myshire Farms.  During the colder months, and for the first three weeks of life, the quail are kept in cages/brooders in a quail shed.   

 During the warmer months (which would be late February through about December!), they are now kept in 6 foot tall quail tractors designed to fit between garden rows thus allowing the quail to help us keep the garden weeded.  

 We are inspected twice yearly and certified free of disease (various salmonellae and mycoplasmas, as well as Avian Influenza) through the National Poultry Improvement Program or NPIP.  We have also obtained a commercial game bird breeder certificate from the state.  These things allow us to offer eggs for eating and for hatching as well as birds ranging from new hatches to adults ready to harvest or even harvested and ready to cook.

Let us know if you want to try out the quail adventure; eggs or birds,we're happy to help!