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Quails are most often bred for their eggs, although their meat also has valuable qualities. Small birds can be kept in a non-residential area apartments, at the dacha in a summer kitchen or any other similar place. But don't think that quail farming it's a simple matter. The bird requires comfortable conditions, cleanliness and good care. Now we will talk about how quails are kept in the country, and we will also touch on all the intricacies of caring for feathered creatures.
Choosing a place to raise quails
In small quantities, quail will not bring much trouble to the owner. If you decide to have birds at your dacha in the summer, you need to think about where to install the cages in advance.
So, it was decided that only one bird cage should be installed at the dacha. So, where is the best place to place it? The optimal place would be a remote corner of the living room or summer kitchen. However, it is advisable to install the cage away from food products, because small particles of feathers will fly off the birds.It’s not bad if your dacha has a closet or a well-kept barn. It’s not scary that the building does not have large windows. Quails in the wild live among dense grasses. The bird is comfortable in twilight, and it rarely goes to sunny areas. Similar living conditions must be created for quails in captivity.
Quails do not tolerate heat well. When choosing a room, you need to take into account that the temperature here on the hottest day does not exceed +30OC. Good results in ensuring comfort for birds are achieved by installing exhaust ventilation. You can simply install a fan in the window, but it should draw air out of the room, and not force it inside from the street. Daily cleaning of the cage will eliminate the spread of the unpleasant smell of quail activity. However, you should not place a bird close to the bedroom, even in a clean and neatly made house.
Incubators for chicks
When everything is ready for breeding quails, it is time to take care of purchasing chicks. Experienced poultry farmers who have been breeding quails for many years have acquired incubators. You can buy this device ready-made in a store or make it yourself, for example, from an old refrigerator. It is not profitable to constantly buy new chicks. In addition, long-term transportation, plus adaptation to new living conditions, negatively affects young animals. Sometimes this process is accompanied by a large mortality rate of birds. IN incubation quail very unpretentious. Even an inexperienced person can hatch chicks. The main thing is to maintain the temperature and humidity inside the incubator.The only problem can be purchasing high-quality quail eggs for the first time. If this is not possible, you will have to buy chicks for the first hatch. When the quails grow up and will start laying eggs, you can start raising your young in the incubator.
Time to purchase eggs for an incubator or ready-made chicks
Quails grow very quickly. The incubation period also does not last long. The first chicks will appear from the eggs laid in the incubator on the 17th day. At two months of age, the female reaches maturity and begins to lay eggs. At the same time, quails can be slaughtered for meat. Taking these dates into account, the owner himself determines the time when it is better for him to have quails at his dacha.
List of important issues that need to be taken into account when breeding quails
To understand exactly that raising quails in the country is your business and you need it, let’s cover a number of important issues. These small birds are highly sensitive to good care, as well as the surrounding microclimate. If you neglect something, the quail will not live up to your hopes or, in general, will die. So, it’s time to touch on important issues related to quail breeding:
- The purpose of quail breeding and the number of individuals kept. There can be only two purposes: to obtain dietary eggs or to raise poultry for meat, sale, etc. The quantity is determined on the basis that there should be 3 or 4 females per male.
- Quail habitat. A cage with 20–40 birds will fit in a remote corner of any room.If appetites begin to grow over time, you will have to occupy new space to install additional cages.
- Choosing the optimal cage design. It is unprofitable to occupy useful space with a cage in which a male and four females will live. For quails, it is better to make sectional multi-tiered cages, each of which will contain up to 30 adult birds.
- Maintaining daily care. We must remember that quails are living creatures. They require daily feeding, clean water, constant cleaning of cages, and collection of eggs. This whole procedure takes a certain period of free time.
- Finance. Here you will have to balance the debit with the credit. Initially, cash costs will be required to purchase chicks, eggs, an incubator, and cages. A certain amount will need to be allocated for the ongoing purchase of feed. Profit can be made from selling eggs, chicks or carcasses for meat. If everything is satisfactory and the appetite has increased, it will not be possible to keep a large number of quails in the house. You will have to build a shed, and this is already a serious investment for a summer resident.
So, if all the issues considered are feasible for you, you can safely start breeding quails.
Everything you need to know about quail cages
Most poultry farmers quail cages are made independently. Any sheet materials and always metal mesh are used. Cell designs are very different. Many drawings can be found on the Internet. Typically, a quail cage is a box of a certain size. To save space, a multi-tier battery is made from several cells.
In addition, birds love to fly. If the enclosure is not covered, the quail will fly away, and poor shelter can be dangerous for the bird. Cages are made with a height of at least 200 mm. The area depends on the number of birds, but one quail should cover about 200 cm2 free space. This is approximately a rectangle measuring 10x20 cm. The floor should have a slope of about 12O towards the egg collector. The egg collection tray itself is mounted outside the cage. Flooring for quails is optional. Sometimes you can put clean straw. Once a week, the quails are placed inside the cage with any box up to 80 mm high with dry sand. Birds love to swim in it. Before throwing out the sand, you need to check whether the female has buried eggs in it. It is optimal to place feeders with drinkers outside the cage. The quail should reach them only with its head stuck through the net.
Microclimate for quails
Quails are sensitive to the surrounding microclimate. First of all, this affects the development of chicks and the number of eggs laid. The following conditions are considered optimal for poultry:
- There should be fresh air without drafts inside the room where the quail cages are installed. It is optimal to maintain the temperature within 18-22OWITH.
- The humidity level affects egg production. The optimal value is from 60 to 70%. Deviation from this indicator will affect the smaller number of eggs laid by the quail.
- Quails do not require artificial lighting. They have enough daylight. If you want to increase productivity, daylight hours can be extended to 18 hours. To do this, turn on a low-power light bulb in the room, but always at the same time.
Well, in addition to all that has been said, do not forget about the timely cleaning of cages with quails.
Feeding quails
It is important to follow the correct diet for feeding chicks from the first day of life:
- After hatching, the chicks are fed a hard-boiled egg for the first three days. It must be cut into small pieces.
- Next, the chicks begin to mix a little cottage cheese into the boiled egg. You can add purchased feed for newborn chicks.
- Only boiled water is given to drink. It is optimal for disinfection to dissolve a chloramphenicol tablet in it.
- After 8 days, the grown chicks begin to be mixed with compound feed with microelements for chickens, after which the young animals are transferred completely to this feed.
- Starting from the twentieth day of life, mixed feed for adult birds is mixed, and on the twenty-eighth day they are completely switched to it.
At one month of age, grown quails are divided into two groups. One batch is used for fattening, the other for laying eggs. It is advisable to keep each group of quails in different rooms. Naturally, feeding for birds will be different. Adult females are fed with compound feed for laying hens. Each quail is given 30 g of feed 2-3 times a day. It’s a good idea to mix crushed egg shells, chalk and bone meal into the feed. Birds love fresh cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Excess males and culled females are fattened for meat. For them, the diet is increased, giving food up to four times a day. Here it is possible to add feed fats and grain waste. A quail is slaughtered for meat when it reaches a weight of approximately 150 g. The video shows the structure of a sparrowhawk:
Raising quails in the country is as easy as raising chickens, geese or any other poultry.If you get into the swing of things right away, a home poultry farm can even bring profit.
