Features of breeding quails at home. Tips for beginner quail growers. Important nuances of breeding quails at home

In order to get healthy young animals, which in the future will give high-quality products, it is necessary to pay attention to the features of growing quails. At home, quails have lost the ability to incubate offspring. Therefore, it is better to use special incubators at home or lay eggs under another bird (the first option is used most often).

The incubator must meet the following requirements:

1. Automatic egg turning is desirable.
2. The temperature of the incubator does not go beyond + 37 ° С - + 39 ° С.
3. For breeding birds, you can use the usual chicken incubator, but remake the cells for quail eggs.
4. No less important for healthy young animals is the selection of eggs from which chicks hatch.
5. Pick up eggs in the incubator of the correct form, which do not have age spots and have a smooth shell (do not use elongated or very round eggs).
6. Choose only clean eggs. If dirty eggs are of high quality, then wash in a solution of potassium permanganate and dry before laying.
7. Before laying, check the egg for integrity. Do not use eggs with spots on the inside or several yolks, a displaced yolk or a large air chamber.
8. Do not use for laying eggs in the incubator that are stored for more than a week.
9. The quality of incubation is also affected by temperature and humidity. Features of the microclimate:
10. The first 15 days - humidity does not exceed 60%, temperature - within + 36.6 - + 37.7 ° С.
11. From day 16 until hatching - humidity - 48% during the hatching period and up to 92% during the hatching period. The period from hatching to hatching may take only 5 hours. Although in rare cases it happens after 2 days.

Types of quails for breeding at home

Those who decide to breed quails at home must decide for themselves which quails are best for beginners : meat or egg-bearing. Based on this, you can choose one of the most popular quail breeds for breeding at home:

1. Japanese quail. The most popular breed for the purpose of obtaining eggs (1 bird can lay up to 300 eggs per year). They do not need special conditions for their maintenance, they are resistant to diseases. The first eggs begin to bear after 1.5 months.
2. Pharaoh. One of the best meat breeds. Has gained high popularity among farmers around the world due to the rapid weight gain up to 300 gr., Although the egg production is low.
3. White Texas quail. Bred for meat. With the right approach to breeding, males grow up to 350 grams, and females by 50-70 grams. more. They gain weight quickly, do not require special conditions of detention.
4. Estonian breed. Popular among lovers of egg-laying breeds. The average number of eggs per year from 1 female is 280 pcs. The first eggs can be obtained after 45 days.
5. Golden Manchurian quail (or Chinese breed). The annual number of eggs does not differ in the best indicators, but the mass of the egg itself is larger than usual and can reach 16 grams. The attention of farmers to this breed is also due to the fact that they are resistant to diseases and do not need special selection of food and conditions.

Breeding quail laying hens at home: video

The conditions for growing quail laying hens are the same, both when breeding in the country and at home. Those who are not familiar with how to breed quail laying hens at home should explore these features.

How to breed quail laying hens in the country

Quail breeding in the country for beginners It will not be difficult if you approach the work comprehensively. To do this, pay attention to the correct conditions of detention and a balanced diet.

Despite the fact that quails eat little food, it should be saturated with essential vitamins and minerals. Be sure to purchase drugs in advance to prevent and eliminate the most common diseases that suffer quail. Complete breeding and cultivation technology while it must be sustained.

Peculiarities

Those who breed quails should know the physiological characteristics of the bird and pay attention to several important factors when breeding them:

1. The highest productivity of poultry is maintained at a room temperature of +18 - +20°C. At elevated temperatures, female productivity decreases, low temperatures can provoke the death of young animals.
2. Take care of special cages for quails. You can buy them or make your own from plywood or metal mesh. Keep in mind that more space is required for egg breeds.
3. Take care of the proper nutrition of the bird: add finely chopped greens, chopped grain, mineral supplements to the diet.

IMPORTANT! When placing cages, keep in mind that this is a shy bird that does not like extraneous noise or harsh sound. These are stressful situations for them, which can provoke injury or a decrease in egg production.

rules

Successful cultivation of quails in a country house or in an apartment depends on a few simple rules:

Breeding quails on a private farm requires the same conditions.

Quail fattening for meat: feed recipe

Feed for poultry that is raised for meat can be bought at the store or prepared by yourself.

It is necessary to mix the following components thoroughly:

• corn, ground into flour - 0.8 kg;
• barley, ground into flour - 0.2 kg;
• wheat, ground into flour - 2 kg;
• bone meal - 2 tsp;
• unrefined vegetable oil - 1 tsp;
• salt - 1 tsp

rules

To saturate the body of quails with essential minerals, vegetables and fruits should be included in the diet or cleaned in a puree state. Before using the products, be sure to wash them and remove rot, if any.

Transfer young animals to the fattening diet gradually over 4-7 days by reducing the old feed and increasing the amount of new food.

To get tasty, tender meat without an extra unpleasant odor, the main thing is not to feed the bird with fish, garlic and onions, and pine needles.

The birds selected for fattening should be in small cages that will limit their movement, accelerate weight gain.

Fattening methods

Feeding poultry for meat does not differ significantly from feeding those intended for egg production. In addition to meat breeds, you can add or increase the amount of cornmeal and feed fat.

As an option, it is allowed to use feed for broilers, which is supplemented with boiled peas (4: 1).

Feeding the bird for slaughter lasts about a month, after which the bird is ready. Growing such a breed of quail, it is imperative to keep females and males separately. Breeding quails in an apartment for beginners requires similar feeding conditions.

IMPORTANT! Is it profitable to breed quails at home? Experienced poultry farmers claim that high profits can be made with at least 5 thousand quails.

Conclusion

Breeding quails requires a lot of attention and effort: you need to take into account the type of bird, adhere to the microclimate conditions and make special cages. Proper care is the key to tender, juicy meat or excellent income if you grow quails for sale.

» Quail

Breeding and growing quails at home is not the last place in the farm. The bird gained its popularity thanks to tasty and healthy eggs. But quails are bred not only for this reason. Many breeders keep them for the sake of obtaining dietary tasty meat, which many breeds of poultry are famous for.

The common quail is a small bird pheasant family, the smallest representative of the chicken order. Its body length is only 20 cm, and the weight of an adult is from 80 to 150 grams.

Feather color quail common beige with spots and strokes. Males have a darker color of the goiter, and around the eyes there is a pronounced dark spot that looks like a helmet. Females do not have these spots.

By its nature, an ordinary quail is very shy bird which is very difficult to see in nature. Quails grow very quickly, they fledge by two weeks. Since that time, young birds have been trying to fly. The quail is one of the migratory birds of the order Galliformes. Therefore, it is necessary to keep a bird in captivity in cages.

Breeders have bred many breeds of quail, which are bred in a private farmstead in order to obtain meat and eggs. The growth rates of these birds are quite good. live male weight domestic quail ranges from 110 to 180 grams, depending on the breed. Moreover, domestic quail females are much larger than males. Their weight can reach up to 250 grams. oviposition begins early, at the age of 50 days. Some breeds start laying eggs a little later. Each female produces more than 300 eggs per year, which are used for culinary purposes and for incubation. The mass of one egg is up to 14 grams.

Quails are grown not only in the country farmstead. In order to obtain good meat carcasses and dietary eggs, quail farms were built. Quail breeding- this is the most cost-effective occupation, for starters, you can use an ordinary barn.

Varieties and their characteristics

Many types of quails have been bred that conquer breeders with their qualities. Broiler breeds able to provide a large amount of meat at minimal cost. Egg-bearing breeds contain mainly to obtain a large egg, which is in demand in the consumer market.

texas

This breed of bird was bred for meat. Texas quails outperform other breeds. A broiler-type bird, for the creation of which meat breeds of quails were used.

Peculiarities

Texans have a snow-white feather color, for which they are popularly nicknamed albinos or white giants. Sometimes on the white feather of a bird you can see small black blotches. This is the norm.

Externally, the quail of this breed large. Chest pronounced meat type: rounded, wide. The paws, tail and neck of the bird are short. The tip of the beak is dark, the eyes of the quail are black.

Meat qualities

The average bird of this breed gives up to 250 grams of meat. At proper feeding and content, it is able to gain up to 550 grams.

Important! You need to feed the bird with special feed and monitor its weight. Obese females are unable to lay eggs. As a rule, males are kept for fattening.

egg production

First egg in females of this breed it is formed by the age of two months. The eggs are quite large. In one year, the female is able to lay up to 280 eggs, with an average weight of 12 grams.

Manchurian

Interesting! This breed is one of the most famous in the world. The most popular among breeders.

Description

Manchurian quails are very beautiful birds. Feather color combines yellow and brown feathers. In the people, these quails are called golden. On the breast of the female, one can notice characteristic black blotches that the male does not have.

Define quail floor you can be 100% only by looking under the tail of a bird. The male has a gland between the tail plumage and the cloaca, when pressed, a white substance is released. Females do not have this gland.

Poultry productivity

The Manchurian quail breed is known for its meat and egg qualities. Egg laying of females is up to 180 eggs per year, but they are much larger than others. The average egg weight is up to 18 grams.

Males of this breed gain weight of 150 grams, but with proper fattening, birds are able to give high rates. Average carcass weight- 300 grams.

Meat quail breed Pharaoh

The main feature of these birds is good meat carcass.

Characteristic

Outwardly, the birds of this breed resemble wild relatives. plumage color pharaonic greyish brown. Females have white and black stripes on their breasts. The weight of females significantly exceeds males.

Meat qualities

Pharaohs are meat quails. Average female weight reaches 300 grams, and the male is somewhat smaller. The distinctive quality of this breed is precocity. Already by two months, slaughter can be carried out. Quails of this species need a balanced diet.

oviposition

The female Pharaoh begins egg-laying at approximately 45 days. However, the first eggs cannot be used for incubation. Egg weight is up to 15 grams. The average female is able to lay up to 200 eggs in one year of intensive oviposition. To produce eggs, females must be well fed.

Californian

California quails are not widely used and are kept mainly for beauty. Raising these birds is unprofitable. Low survival rate of young animals, poor growth performance.

Japanese

Reference! Japanese quails are divided into three types. Birds of the egg direction, meat and mixed meat and egg direction.

Description

The plumage of the Japanese quail has a rusty brown color. In males, the collar zone is darker than in females.

Productive characteristics

Bird weight fluctuates, depending on the breed line. On average, it is up to 150 grams. Egg bird species are well laid. Average egg production b females is more than 300 eggs per year.

tuxedo

This breed originated from the crossing of white and black English quails. Outwardly, a very large beautiful bird.

Characteristic

The bird has a tuxedo feather color. On the breast, the feather is light in color, and the back is darker. Females and males of this breed are the same in color.

Productivity

These birds are bred more for decorative purposes. Female weight is only 180 grams, and males do not exceed 150 grams. The bird has good egg production. Tuxedo quail females lay up to 280 eggs per year.

Breeding features

Breeding quails in a summer cottage is quite simple. They do not require a lot of space, high financial costs and are unpretentious in care. All a bird needs is warmth, light and a balanced diet. big advantage quail are eggs that can be consumed even raw. The bird is not affected salmonellosis.

To breed poultry, the breeder needs to decide on the breed and purpose of breeding quails. All breeds are divided into several types:

• meat quail;
• egg birds;
• meat - eggs kinds.

The last type of bird is most in demand. This is due to the fact that in addition to eggs, you can also get good meat.

Egg incubation

For quail breeding you need an incubator. It can be a homemade device or purchased from a store. A typical small incubator can accommodate up to 400 eggs.

Important! The female domestic quail has lost the ability to incubate eggs. Young animals need to be hatched only in an incubator.

Incubation period lasts an average of 17 days. On the 18th day, the incubation ends. If the required temperature regime is observed, the output of young animals is very high.

The entire incubation period temperature in the chamber is maintained at a level of 38–38.5 degrees. Humidity should be over 50%. Under these conditions, the excretion takes place amicably and ends after 6 hours.

Raising and caring for chicks

The hatched young are distinguished by their mobility. Contain quail need in a special brooder, where the required air temperature is maintained. First 14 days the temperature should not fall below 38 degrees.

Important! You can determine the comfortable temperature by the behavior of the chicks. If the young are in a heap, then the quail is cold. At normal temperatures in the brooder, the chicks lie on their sides around the entire perimeter, stretching their legs.

From day 15 the temperature in the brooder is lowered to 25 degrees. By the age of one month, the chicks should be accustomed to normal room temperature, which is 20-22 degrees.

24/7 light mode support for the first 14 days. Further, the bird is transferred to a normal light day.

Remember! Quail prefer moderate lighting. Birds fight in bright light. Red lights can be used to prevent pecking.

Quail feeding at home

From the moment they hatch, chicks need vitamins and minerals. You can use quality compound feed for young animals, which contains all the necessary substances. In the absence of food, boiled eggs can be given to quails, which are crushed and placed in a bowl.

Important! Remove excess food regularly. In hot conditions of the brooder, the feed quickly turns sour, and the birds can be poisoned.

From day 4 small crushed corn grits, cottage cheese and complete feed for young animals are introduced into the feed.

8 to 20 days in the main diet of young animals, only compound feed. You can add greens, carrots, meat waste.

Remember! All offered products should be given little by little and monitor their freshness. To prepare the feed, you need to grind all large and hard pieces well.

From day 20 feeding young quails is no different from feeding adults.

By week 10 young growth completes growth and begins puberty. From day 45, most breeds begin oviposition.

Important! Quails are fed from vacuum drinkers, which should not be too deep and wide. Young chicks can drown in drinkers, to avoid this, pebbles are placed at the bottom of the drinkers. Drinking water must be boiled.

Feeding adult quail

For feeding adults feeders and drinkers taken out of the cell. Birds stick their heads through the bars to feed. This method of feeding reduces the cost of compound feed.

adult birds fed 3 times a day, while spending 30 grams of feed per individual.

For females, the best nutrition is a balanced feed for laying hens. Sometimes grain, waste from the garden, greens and fruits are added to the feed. Crushed shells, chalk, sand, boiled fish must be present in the laying ration.

Important! Females need to be given food strictly according to the scheme, not exceeding the dose. Obesity of birds leads to loss of egg production.

Feeding birds for meat

Upon reaching the quail one month old they are separated by gender. Males and culled females are planted separately and fattening for meat begins.

Fattening is carried out at a temperature of 22 degrees and reduced lighting. Feeding mode for these birds is different. Quails are fed 4 times a day, and in large doses. Green fodder is added in the first half of the day, and grain waste is given in the evening. The fattening period is about 60 days.

Slaughter is carried out as soon as the bird gains the required body weight. Before slaughter, quails are not given food for 6 hours. Leave only water in the drinkers.

Features of winter cultivation

1. Quails are kept in low cages with a mesh floor, which facilitates the cleaning process and reduces the risk of diseases.
2. in winter poultry house temperature should not fall below 16 degrees. With sharp jumps in temperature or at too low its indicators, the egg production of females drops sharply. A comfortable temperature for the development of the bird should be at the level of 22 degrees.

Quail diseases

Most often, the livestock starts get sick due to food change, poor conditions of detention, poor-quality feed, lack of nutrients.

Improper nutrition and content

Quails suffer from vitamin deficiencies, which develop with a lack of nutrients or a violation of the diet, a change in food.

To the symptoms of the disease can be attributed:

• disheveledness feathers;
• loss appetite;
• lethargy;
• tilting heads;
• stretching neck.

Birds change their diet, introduce more nutrients, monitor the feeding regimen.

In case of violation of the conditions of poultry keeping susceptible to the following diseases:

• dropping out oviduct;
• cannibalism;
• dropping out feathers;

enough to adjust conditions of detention and the birds are back to normal. Change the brightness of the lighting, reduce the number of individuals in the cage and introduce the missing vitamins and minerals.

Did you know that the interest in raising quail for dietary meat and eggs has a long history dating back to ancient China? In Russia, quail breeding has been developing for only the last fifty years, but there are already a lot of developments in this direction.

Why more and more people are fond of breeding quails at home and in the country?

Because it is a great alternative to classic poultry farming. There is no need to build a large chicken coop, organize walking and puzzle over what and how to feed a chicken or goose herd.

For five dozen quails, a few square meters of space are enough. And provided that it is properly organized, you will get about 45-48 eggs per day, which is equivalent to 8 chicken eggs, and they bring much more benefits.

You can talk endlessly about the benefits of quail eggs and meat. But let's list them all:

1. Quail meat is considered dietary, and also very rich in the content of B vitamins, iron, copper, potassium, useful amino acids.
2. It can be stored for a long time, since it does not lose its beneficial properties after freezing.
3. The product is recommended for people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, diseases of the heart and blood vessels, diabetes, tuberculosis, asthma, anemia.
4. Quail eggs can be used in baby food from an early age because of their benefits and nutritional value: compared to chicken, they contain several times more potassium, iron, phosphorus, cobalt, copper and B vitamins.
5. The great advantage of eating such eggs is that they can be eaten raw, as quails are not carriers of salmonellosis.

• acquisition of adults;
• rearing your own chicks.

The choice of breed for keeping at home

There are several dozen breeds of quail - in different catalogs there are from 44 to 50 varieties.

The choice of breed for home keeping is based on unpretentiousness in feeding and keeping, as well as high egg production and early maturity of an adult bird.

Currently the most popular breeds in Russia:

• marble;
• Japanese;
• British;
• "Pharaoh".

Marble
Japanese Pharaoh

Reference: As a result of crossing, the breeds are mixed, so it is quite difficult to find purebred quails of any breed.

egg-laying

Japanese quail have the same plumage color as that of a wild bird. The mass of males reaches 130 grams, females - up to 150 grams. Egg laying begins at the age of 40-60 days, and the total number of eggs per year reaches 300-320 pieces; egg weight - 9-11 grams. Perhaps this is the most unpretentious breed of domestic quail in the care and maintenance.

Marble and British quail descended from the Japanese as a result of selection and differ from them only in plumage color. They have approximately the same egg production - 280 pcs. per year with an egg weight of 10-11 grams.

Meat

Pharaoh bird refers to meat breeds of quail: the mass of females can reach 230-240 grams, males - 200-265 grams. In a year, the female lays about 220 eggs weighing 12-18 grams.

In the table below you can see the general characteristics of quail breeds:

Buying adults

You need to purchase adult quails at the age of one and a half months. At this age, the individual is already ready to rush. It is best to buy birds on quail farms, from official breeders. Moreover, this can be done at any time of the year, since the productivity of quails does not depend on the weather. Everything is in your hands, as they say, what conditions you create, you will get such a result.

When purchasing quails from a breeder, do not forget about food. It is important to buy exactly those feeds that the birds are already accustomed to.

The fact is that a sharp change in diet can lead not only to a decrease in the number of eggs, but also to indigestion in general. Within 3-4 weeks, you will be able to gradually transfer the birds to a new diet and do it painlessly for them.

Egg incubation and hatching

Domestic quail females do not have a brooding instinct, so incubators are used to remove young animals.

A device for artificial breeding of young animals can be purchased at the store, or you can build it yourself.

Quail eggs are small in size and any small-sized incubator is fine for you if you do not plan to breed a large herd. In a standard incubator, 370-390 eggs can be placed - 2-3 times more than chicken ones.

In the table below, we have presented a comparative analysis of several of the most popular models of quail egg incubators:

So, if you want to purchase a ready-made device, do not forget to consider the following important points:

1. The most economical option is a foam incubator. It will not be very durable, but it will not ruin you for the price either.
2. Automatic egg turning incubators are expensive and are most often used in industrial production.

   The dimensions of such a unit are rather big. For domestic use, such designs may involve mechanical turning of eggs using a special lever.

   Manual turning is not very convenient, it can damage the eggs, and the quail incubators themselves most often break in these places.

The photo below shows one of the options for ready-made quail incubators:

Household incubator with automatic flip

Experienced quail breeders recommend making do-it-yourself incubators from a variety of improvised materials - from old bedside tables and refrigerators to solid wood and plywood construction. Read this article to learn how to make a high-quality, reliable and convenient quail incubator with your own hands.

The main thing is that the temperature in the incubator should be maintained at 37-38 degrees, and the room should not be colder than 20. To maintain optimal humidity (65-75 percent), it is necessary to monitor the amount of water from special incubator trays.

To hatch the young, eggs are collected immediately after laying and stored for no more than 7 days. After 17 days, the first bites begin, and within a few hours all the chicks hatch.

Very often you can hear the question about the natural incubation of quail eggs. As personal experience shows, small chickens, decorative breeds, bantams, for example, do an excellent job of this. It is risky to lay small eggs under larger birds, most likely they will simply crush them.

So, in your incubator there are pereplyata. They weigh only 8 grams, but are already able to move and eat on their own. What to do next:

1. Transplanted into juvenile cages. For these purposes, you can use cardboard or plywood boxes measuring 60X60X20 cm.
2. Chicks need to be kept warm. To do this, use a lamp or an electric heater.
3. Birds need to be provided with access to water and clean sand.

• daily chicks need a temperature of 37 degrees;
• in the first week - 35;
• on the second - 31;
• on the third - 27;
• on the fourth - 22-24.

Remember that dampness, drafts and temperature changes are detrimental to babies.

As for lighting, for the first two weeks it should be round-the-clock, then it is gradually reduced and by the age of 45 days it is enough to turn on the light for 12 hours. After you transfer the grown birds to cages for adults, the daylight hours should be 17 hours a day.

Feeding and watering

From the first days of life, chicks need protein, minerals and vitamins..

1. For the first three days, quails are fed with finely chopped boiled eggs, poured into a flat wide dish.
2. Next, cottage cheese and corn grits or special feed for newborn chickens are added to the diet.
3. From the 8th day, the chicks are fed only with purchased compound feed for chickens, and from the 20-28th day their diet is no different from adults.

Quail will be watered only from vacuum drinkers with warm boiled water. In the very first days of life, for the prevention of diseases, the chicks are fed a solution of levomycetin.

By 8-9 weeks, quails complete growth, and from 40-50 days they reach sexual maturity and can lay eggs.

Basic rules for successful breeding in the country or in the apartment

In cages 30x30 cm in size and 25 cm high, 3 females and 1 male can be kept. The floor of the cage for keeping quails should be covered with straw, shavings or hay. The bedding is replaced when it gets dirty.

Some poultry farmers practice an increase in daylight hours, due to which they receive 2 eggs per day. It must be remembered that a decrease in rest time can lead to an increase in the aggressiveness of the bird.

The technology of winter keeping of quails implies that the temperature in the room, even in winter, should not be below 16 degrees, otherwise the egg production of birds drops dramatically. The room should be warm enough, with good ventilation, but without drafts. Humidity is 60-70 percent, the optimum temperature is 19-21 degrees.

In the photo below you can see what a proper quail cage looks like:

Metal cage for quails

Feeding adult birds

It is best to place feeders and drinkers outside the cages., but freely available to birds. If quails stick their heads through the bars for feeding, cleanliness is maintained in the cage, and food is also consumed less.

Feed the bird 2-3 times a day at the same time at the rate of 30 grams of the mixture per 1 individual. The easiest option for the diet of female quails is ready-made food for laying hens.

Poultry consumes well and any grain waste, greens, chopped root crops, sprouted grains, any vegetables, sunflower seeds, boiled potatoes, small boiled pasta.

Bone or fish meal or boiled fish is added to the feed 2-3 times a week. From mineral additives, chalk, lime, shells, as well as small pebbles are needed..

We bring to your attention an interesting video about quails with useful information about their maintenance and breeding:

Quail diseases

So, a few words about what diseases quails are prone to and what healthy birds should look like.

Healthy quails stand firmly and straight on their feet, have a clean, bright and smooth plumage.

Quail diseases:

1. Injuries and bruises;
2. Pecking and cannibalism;
3. Feather loss;
4. Avitaminosis and lack of shells in eggs;
5. Prolapse of the oviduct.

In each case, the adoption of their own adequate measures is required, in some situations the owner can handle it himself, sometimes the intervention of a veterinarian is required. Read more about diseases, their diagnosis, treatment and prevention in this article.

Preparation for slaughter

For fattening, chicks after 30 days of age are divided by gender. Males, as well as culled females, are placed in a separate fattening room, keeping them separately from each other.

Air temperature at fattening - 20-24 degrees, light regime - reduced intensity.

Poultry is fed 3-4 times a day in large volumes: 2 times a day a green mixture of herbs (nettle, corn) is given with a small addition of fodder fat, 2 more times - grain waste. The term of fattening usually does not exceed 50-60 days.

The bird is slaughtered when it reaches a mass of at least 120-150 grams. Before slaughter, quails are not fed for 6 hours, giving only water..

The slaughter is done with a small hatchet. After draining the blood, the lower part of the legs and wings is cut off, the carcass is plucked and gutted. This process, unlike slaughtering chickens, takes only a couple of minutes. After preparation, the quail carcass is ready for cooking.

For information on how to properly slaughter and subsequent cutting of quails, see the video:

Thus, breeding domestic quail is no more difficult than raising chickens or other poultry.

The main thing is to observe the simplest conditions of detention, maintain cleanliness in the room, as well as feed and water the bird correctly and on time. In this case, providing your own diet with fresh eggs and quail meat is guaranteed!

Recently, quail breeding has become very popular among poultry farmers, as it requires a minimum of care costs and provides a good profit. Breeding quail at home is the most progressive and actively developing branch of the household.

Breeding Benefits

If breeding chickens and ducks has been practiced for a long time, then breeding quail at home is something completely innovative, but why did all business executives simultaneously begin to show their interest in this?

If you are thinking whether it is profitable to breed quails, you should first of all mention the eggs of these birds, since it is unlikely that you will be able to find a product comparable to them in terms of numerous useful qualities. These eggs are a real storehouse of vitamins, minerals and other useful substances, so it is not surprising that they are often used in baby food and diet menus.

Unlike the eggs of any other birds, these do not cause allergic reactions, the risk of salmonella infection if they are eaten raw is minimal.

Another plus is a long shelf life, so you can send large batches for sale at once without worrying that the product may deteriorate. It is beneficial to keep quails at home and because there are always eggs on hand, which act as an excellent prophylactic for pulmonary and gastrointestinal diseases. Scientists have found that this product is able to remove even radionuclides from the body, in other words, the benefits for humans are obvious.

Proper quail breeding is a very profitable industry. With a relatively small cost, you can get large volumes of the product. For clarity, you can compare the egg production of chickens and quails. If the first egg mass is only 8 times the weight of the bird, then the egg mass of the quail is 20 times the weight of the bird.

The profitability of breeding quails of meat breeds is more than 200 percent, and for the egg direction this figure is even higher. There are no secrets or huge secrets in this, everything has its own logical explanation. The fact is that keeping quails is possible without the presence of special expensive equipment - cells can be assembled independently from improvised materials. Secondly, quail feeding involves the use of no more than 20 grams of feed per day, which grows only 1-1.5 kilograms per year.

Another fact that influenced the popularization of this industry is the absence of the need to allocate a separate room. It is quite common to keep quails in an apartment. One bird takes up a little space about the same as a budgerigar, but it is much more useful. One quail is enough for 100 square centimeters of area. That is why in our time keeping quails in an apartment is a completely standard situation, some manage to breed up to 200 individuals.

This bird is popular because of its unpretentiousness, because pensioners and even schoolchildren can provide quail care and maintenance that meets all standards. Perhaps the most stringent maintenance condition, which must be monitored with particular care, is moderate lighting and the constant availability of fresh water. For the most part, quail breeding is also simplified by the fact that the bird is completely picky about food. You can use mixtures designed for parrots, canaries, millet, greens and other simple additives.

The main advantage of quail is resistance to infectious diseases, which makes their meat and eggs highly ecological and safe products even without serious processing.

Breed selection

Before you figure out how to keep quails, you need to choose a suitable breed that meets all the requirements and the existing conditions of detention. As in any other area of ​​poultry farming, all existing breeds are divided into four groups - egg, meat, mixed and decorative. It must be said right away that there are no significant differences between the egg and mixed directions. Differences in weight and number of eggs laid become apparent only in the case of large-scale quail keeping, when we are talking about thousands of individuals.

The choice of breed mostly depends on the need to obtain one or another resource from the herd. The most prominent representative of the egg direction is the Japanese breed. The domestication of this bird took place, as you might guess, in Japan many hundreds of years ago, but only recently did a line with a high level of egg production, suitable for industrial breeding, appear.

Due to the fact that the breeding and keeping of quails is carried out by man, they completely lost the incubation instinct, in return for which they showed year-round egg production, which allows one individual to produce up to 300 eggs per year. The live weight of the female is 150 grams, and the male is 120 grams. In laying hens, egg-laying begins at the age of 40 days, subject to good conditions. The average weight of one egg is 12 grams. This breed confirms the assertion that such a bird is not demanding on the breeding site. Many breeders use it to create new lines and species.

From the meat and egg direction, it is necessary to single out the Tuxedo breed, which appeared during the crossing of black and white English quails. The body of the representatives of the breed is divided by color into two parts: the upper one is dark brown, the lower one is white. The breed was classified as a mixed direction due to the relatively low egg production - up to 270 eggs per year.

Surprisingly, in the meat direction there is only one breed - the Pharaoh, bred in America. Its distinctive feature is its impressive size, because the weight of the male is 270 grams, and the laying hens are over 300 grams, but the egg production is several times lower in comparison with the breeds of the egg direction - 200 eggs per year. The egg-laying process begins at the age of 45 days, if all conditions are created for the layers, and the average egg weight is 18 grams. The only significant drawback is the wild coloring of the plumage, which significantly spoils the presentation of the carcass, which complicates the life of a novice entrepreneur.

All breeds are quite universal, although they belong to a specific direction, the choice depends directly on what it is planned to breed and keep quails for.

raising chickens

If you want to know how to breed quails, then understand the peculiarities of keeping chickens. Only chicks hatched from eggs should be transplanted into special cages for breeding young animals. If you do not want to purchase expensive equipment, you can use simple plywood or cardboard boxes for this purpose. At first, babies will need an increased air temperature, so you can not do without the use of an electric heater and a powerful lamp for lighting.

Daily domestic chickens must be kept at a temperature of +37 degrees Celsius. After a week, you need to lower it to +35 degrees and continue to decrease throughout the month, when the air temperature in the cage does not reach +20 degrees Celsius with a humidity of 55 percent. In no case do not leave the cages outside even on a sunny day, even a small draft can harm the brood. The same situation with lighting. In the first week, chicks should be kept under 24/7 light, and over time, begin to reduce the period of light so that at the age of 45 days the bird spends up to 12 hours in the light per day.

Feeding the chicks in the first week involves the use of feed mixtures consisting of a quarter of protein and boiled quail eggs. Chicken eggs are not recommended for use, as they can be infected with viral bacteria that infect the young organism of domestic quail. It is recommended to give fish oil to chicks when feeding. It can, for example, be bred in the total feed mass so that 1 gram of fat falls on 10 heads.

The nutritional norm for keeping quails at a week of age is 5 times, over the next three weeks they need to be fed 4 times a day, and up to 45 days of life, the number of feedings is reduced to three. From days 29 to 42, chicks are fed adult formula, but their protein intake is reduced to 17 percent, which prevents early puberty in birds. After the 43rd day, you can keep on two meals a day. At the same time, there is a reduction in the volume of succulent feed. It is important to achieve a high energy value of food - at least 290 kilocalories per 100 grams of feed. A video that tells about the features of the process of breeding quails will tell you more about working with chicks.

Keeping quails in the country or in the apartment

When a simple man in the street is interested in how to breed quails, in most cases he is stopped by the fear that he simply does not have a place to comfortably accommodate cages. The issue of lack of free space when keeping quails is solved quite simply. If in the warm season the cages can be put in a barn or working outbuilding, then for year-round home maintenance you will need a warmer and more comfortable place. That is why many poultry farmers create the necessary conditions in their apartment or in the country - they install cages, select the optimal light and temperature conditions, and purchase high-quality feed. Simply put, they do everything to keep the quails comfortable for both the bird and the poultry farmer. Small cages are used, in which feeders or drinkers must be installed.

A comfortable condition for home maintenance is the presence of 150 square centimeters of space to accommodate one individual. To prevent egg fights, the cages are slanted so that the eggs roll out without damage. The choice of drinkers is completely dependent on the poultry breeder, because you can find a detailed review on each of the existing species on the network, on the basis of which you can make your choice. Pallets are installed under the cage to collect litter, which is important for summer cottages. If you dilute the litter in water at a certain concentration, we get an excellent fertilizer that saturates the soil with nitrogen.

For normal home maintenance, it is necessary to set up the correct lighting so that the daylight hours in the cells last no longer than 17 hours a day. Do not forget that the main condition is the dimming of the lighting, since too high brightness can cause aggressiveness in the bird. To avoid this problem, it is recommended to keep quails in a room without windows, or place the cage away from them.

The optimum temperature at which you can breed a bird is +15 - +26. If quails are kept at lower or higher temperatures, egg production may decrease and serious diseases may develop in the weakest individuals. If we are talking about breeding in a summer cottage, the cages can be installed on the street, but they must first be protected from drafts and rain.

For those who have figured out the breeding of quails, caring for an adult bird will not be difficult. The creation of the correct lighting and temperature conditions has already been mentioned above, so it is worth considering the issue of feeding in more detail. An adult female eats up to 35 grams of food per day, which is about 10 kilograms per year, and with proper care brings up to three hundred eggs. Someone will argue that it is profitable to breed chickens, because the productivity of one chicken is the same - up to 300 eggs per year, taking into account the consumption of 10 kilograms of feed. But keeping quails still remains more profitable, since cages with 50 quails replace 10 hens. Accordingly, such breeding makes the poultry farm an excellent investment opportunity with the possibility of making a good profit.

To obtain maximum productivity, quails need to be fed with complete feed. But it is not produced on an industrial scale, so poultry farmers, who care about the full content of quails for maximum profit, need to cook it on their own. In this matter, it is important to remember that quails need protein, only with a sufficient amount of this substance does the level of egg production increase and mass gain occurs more actively.

These basics allow you to breed quails for your own use or to obtain goods for sale. Be guided by the rules presented in the article and you will be ready for any difficulties that may arise while working with quails.