Quail are small birds that grow wild, but can also be kept in cages in the backyard. Unlike chickens, most city ordinances do not prohibit people from keeping quail. Quails are quiet, small and well-controlled animals that can lay 5-6 eggs per week. Make sure that you provide them with sufficient light, water, food and hygiene while you are keeping them.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Preparing for Quail
Step 1. Think carefully
Quails are quite small and easy to care for, but while keeping them you should spend a fair amount of time feeding, refilling drinking water, cleaning the cage, checking their health and collecting their eggs. You may also face problems when raising quail for the first time.
Step 2. Find an airy space in the yard or balcony where you can hang the quail cage
Clean and empty the surface of the field. You need to put hay here to collect and remove dirt.
Step 3. Buy a long, skinny cage and hang it on your porch, garage, or balcony
Choose a place with good lighting, but protected from strong winds. Most quail cages are made with exposed wire mesh, as quails need shelter, as well as plenty of air.
Quail should live in a place away from the reach of predators
Step 4. Hang lights around the cage
This will increase the production of quail eggs in the autumn and winter months. Quail need 15 hours of light per day to produce eggs.
Step 5. Decide when you want to mate the birds or incubate the eggs
A quail can be purchased for around IDR 65,000, 00 or you can also buy 50 quail eggs for about IDR 260,000.00.
Step 6. Determine the number of birds you need based on your egg consumption rate
Calculate the number of consumption of your chicken eggs. Five quail eggs equal one chicken egg.
- Plan to keep one female (through hatching or mating) for every egg you eat.
- Quail eggs can be consumed like chicken eggs; however, you need multiple birds to produce the same number of eggs.
Part 2 of 3: Buying and Hatching Quail Eggs
Step 1. Find a breed of laying quail
The coturnix breed is the most recommended because it not only produces a lot of eggs, but is also easy to care for and the meat is edible. However, if you are looking for a breed of quail that can produce larger eggs, choose the coturnix jumbo breed.
- Coturnix quail is also known as Japanese quail. You can also get coturnix quail in different colors such as white and brown tuxedo quail.
- Coturnix quail usually start laying eggs between 6-8 weeks after adulthood. After that, this bird will produce 1 egg every day.
- If in doubt about keeping coturnix quail, you can also buy other breeds such as scaled quail, gambel quail, or bobwhite. It's just that, for starters, the coturnix quail is preferable.
Step 2. Search online or look in the local paper first
The best way is to get birds that are adapted to your local climate from your local cattle shop or urban farming community.
Step 3. Look for hatchable eggs on eBay
Eggs will be sent by mail; However, the chances of the eggs failing to hatch are higher than if you bought them from a local store.
Step 4. Try to find it in supply and feed stores
If the shop doesn't have regular quails like chicken and guinea fowl, you can order them specifically.
Step 5. Purchase at least two female quails for each male, and separate each male
Egg production can be guaranteed a lot if you have many female birds in your pet bird flock. At the same time, you may only be able to keep one male in each cage. If you keep two or more quail in the same cage, the dominant male will try to kill the other males to ensure that only he can mate with the other females.
Step 6. Try raising well-known quail breeds such as the Coturnix Quail, Blue Quail, Gambel Quail, or Bobwhite Quail
Coturnix quail is highly recommended for people who are just starting to raise quail.
Step 7. Purchase an incubator at a supply and feed store if you want to incubate eggs
You can also order it online. The incubator you buy should have an egg inverter.
Step 8. Keep humidity as high as 45 - 50 percent in the incubation process and 65 - 70 percent on the 23rd day of hatching
Place a humidifier and dehumidifier around the incubator to regulate humidity. Humidity will prevent the loss of moisture in the egg that is not supposed to be.
Step 9. Adjust the incubator temperature to 37.7 degrees Celsius
It is very important to keep the temperature at that level. With this temperature, Coturnix quail eggs will hatch in 16-18 days, while for other types of quail eggs it will take 22-25 days.
Step 10. Do not turn on the egg-turning until three days after the eggs have begun to hatch
Then, the cross section should rotate 30 degrees alternately on each side to prevent the embryo from sticking to the eggshell.
Part 3 of 3: Keeping Quail
Step 1. Keep the quail in a small room after hatching
Adjust the temperature from 37.7 degrees Celsius to room temperature by lowering it by three degrees each day. Chilled chicks will fall on top of each other.
Step 2. Keep up to 100 quail chicks in an area of 60x90 cm for the first 10 days
Then, give more space for the chicks.
Step 3. Provide appropriate food for quail chicks until they are 6-8 weeks old
These foods contain more of the nutrients they need, and once they are more than 8 weeks old, they are no longer needed.
Step 4. Make sure that each bird has 1 m of space2 in the cage.
Step 5. Provide clean drinking water for quail
Clean and refill the water reservoir daily.
Step 6. Change the hay under the cage daily
You can use used straw to make compost. Quail manure is high in ammonia, so the straw should be changed regularly.
Step 7. Clean the cage if dirt remains
Wash the cage once per week to avoid disease in the quail.
Step 8. Begin to adjust the conditions and change the diet to a mixed poultry diet when the bird is 5-6 weeks old
Specialty mix feeds are available at most animal feed stores. Ask if the food is good for the female laying eggs before you buy it.
Step 9. Keep the quail calm after they are more than 6 weeks old
The female will start laying eggs and will have a poor egg production rate if she is not protected from other animals, noise, or other disturbances.
Step 10. You can add fresh vegetables, seeds, and small insects in the quail's diet
The Things You Need
- Hatchable quail eggs
- The pair of quails to be bred
- Incubator
- Room humidifier
- Lowering the humidity level of the room
- heat source
- Thermometer
- Small box for newborn chicks
- Wire mesh cage
- Straw
- Water
- Water container/bottle
- Mixed food for quail
- Grains
- Green vegetable
- Insect
- Light
- Disinfectant to clean the cage
