Breeding quails at home is a cost-effective business that is available to almost everyone. It does not require large investments in the initial stages and is very promising. First you should find out as much as possible about this bird, as well as where to start breeding quails.
Breed selection
At home, quail of the following breeds is bred:
- Japanese The body of the Japanese breed is slightly elongated, with a short tail. Females and males have some color differences: the former have gray feathers on the chest, and brown on males. The live weight of the bird is small, about one hundred and thirty grams. Females begin to lay eggs at the age of fifty days. In a year, a bird can bring up to three hundred eggs, each weighing about eleven grams. The Japanese breed is easy to care for, practically unaffected by disease and able to give an egg year-round.
- Manchurian gold. This is an egg breed with an unusual golden color. The live weight of females reaches one hundred and seventy grams, and males are slightly smaller.
- Estonian. When crossing the pharaohs and the Japanese breed, Estonians were obtained. They are characterized by a rounded body shape with a slight deflection of the back. In terms of productivity, Estonians are classified as meat-and-egg type. Egg production of females reaches 280 pcs. The bird begins to lay eggs at the age of forty days. This breed is considered the most unpretentious, as it is characterized by a high safety quail after withdrawal.
- English For re-breeding, this breed is considered one of the most promising. The bird is characterized by white color, individual feathers may be black. The female begins to lay eggs at the age of forty days. The weight of an adult reaches two hundred grams. During the year, the female lays about 280 eggs weighing 11 grams.
- English black. The color of the feathers can range from brown to black. By productivity, black British are the same as white, and by weight - larger.
- Tuxedo. The color of the bird is dark brown, with a white breast. The breed was obtained by crossing white and black British. Females begin to lay eggs at the age of six weeks. The weight of the bird is 180 grams.
- Pharaoh. This is the most popular breed of meat. By the fifth week of life, the bird gains weight of 150 grams. The bird begins to lay eggs only after the eighth week of life. This breed is demanding on the conditions of detention, so it is not suitable for everyone. For a year, the female lays up to 220 eggs weighing 11 grams each. The weight of an adult is 300 grams.
Before you start breeding quails at home, you should choose a breed. It is best to try with two or three breeds that do not need special care and gradually move on to others.
Preparation of the "home" for the bird
To breed quail at home, you need to take care of the cells in advance. They should be free and not hamper the movement of the bird. In a cage with an area of one hundred square centimeters, about eighty birds can easily accommodate.
In each cage there should be provided drinking bowls, egg collectors, feeders, trays for collecting litter.
Quail breeding cages can be placed on top of each other to save space. With this arrangement, the lower tier should be off the ground at a height of at least ten centimeters.
The height of the cages should be small so that the bird cannot damage itself: quail is a shy bird that bounces at loud noises, often they break their heads on the net.
A brooder will be needed to keep the chickens. It should be warm, closed. Inside is a heating source, a thermometer, a lighting device.
In the winter season, the bird needs heating. To ensure optimal conditions for her, the cells are placed in a warm barn, garage or other place that can be heated. Usually, heating is required in cases where the bird is low in content and it is not able to heat itself, as well as when growing on an egg. If the place of keeping is not heated, then when the temperature drops below fifteen degrees, the quail will stop laying eggs and start to freeze.
Plant a bird
After preparing the place of keeping and choosing the breed, the question arises about how much the quail costs for breeding. The tribe should buy adult birds aged 30-50 days, no more. It’s best to get exactly thirty days. After moving, they will need two weeks to adapt to new conditions, after which most breeds begin to lay their eggs.
Do not buy old birds for quail breeding at home, as they are poorly carried and difficult to adapt. Also, do not buy chicks, as with the slightest violation of the rules of detention they can die.
If there is no experience in growing quail, then only "teenagers" are worth buying. Other options are not suitable. If you have experience breeding other birds, the same chickens, and it is planned to raise the bird only for a personal table, then you can buy hatching eggs.
When purchasing birds for business, you must immediately purchase at least three hundred heads. And for every four females of the breeding herd there should be one male. Usually at least fifty birds are used on a tribe.
Quail prices are different in different regions; on average, one individual in a country will cost two hundred rubles, which is not very expensive. Hatching eggs cost from five rubles apiece.
Sex determination
Breeding quails for beginners involves knowing how to distinguish a male from a female. The most accurate and reliable way is to examine the secretory glands.
To see the floor, you need to take the bird in your hands and turn it upside down. Then the fingers of the cloaca are gently pushed apart with their fingers and examined. In females, the surface is dark pink, without a tubercle. Males have noticeable growths - tubercles. If you gently press on them, a foamy liquid will appear from the cesspool.
Quail Content
Successful breeding and keeping of quails requires compliance with certain requirements. This bird is heat-loving, therefore, an open-air cage (except for the summer period), as well as unheated rooms are not suitable for it. In order for the quail to feel comfortable and stably lay eggs, it is necessary to provide the correct conditions:
- Lighting and temperature. For birds, the optimum temperature is twenty degrees. The place of detention should not be drafts, sudden changes in temperature. Lighting should be at least fifteen hours with a brightness of 20 lux. If you reduce this indicator, the egg production decreases. You should also maintain a certain level of humidity - at least 60%.
- Ventilation. Quail need fresh air. To ensure its inflow, it is necessary to mount a good ventilation system. Do not place bird cages near windows.
- Soundproofing. The room in which the bird is kept must have good sound insulation. From sharp, loud quail sounds they are stressed, cease to lay eggs, bounce, breaking their heads on the ceiling of the cell, and may also start pecking their neighbors.
If possible, it is better to provide a room with an area of about 20 square meters, divided into four sections. The first will contain adults. The second section is intended for young animals, the third is for the incubation of eggs, and the fourth is the place of storage and preparation of feed.
Zones can be fenced off with simple partitions made of plywood or other light, opaque materials.
Bird feeding
Is it profitable or not to breed quail as a business? This question can be answered in two ways. It is advantageous to keep the bird for those who do not buy food or partially purchase it. But the bird eats little. About 35 grams of feed per adult. The quail is fed 2-3 times a day. If a person plans to keep a bird for personal use, then 10-20 goals are enough. In winter, they can be put on meat or transferred to the balcony, to the veranda.
Quail quickly grow: in thirty days the bird is gaining enough weight to start laying. Fodder birds consume about thirty-five grams, but drink a lot of water. They should always have fresh, clean water. It is changed at least twice a day.
For normal growth and development, quail must be given:
- wheat, barley, corn, millet;
- oilcake, sunflower;
- shell, chalk;
- mineral supplements, vitamins.
Meat and bone meal or fishmeal and milk powder must be added to the feed.
To save time, you can purchase ready-made compound feed PK-5, PK-6 - for young people and Pk-1 or PK-2 - for adults.
Feed the bird two to three times a day, at the same time. In the warm season, green herbs, vegetables are added to the feed, and in winter - onions, oats, sprouted millet.
When breeding quails for meat, fattening begins at the age of thirty days. For this, the proportion of corn and feed fats is gradually increasing in the diet. A sharp change in diet should not be allowed so that the bird does not die. With such a monthly diet, the bird quickly gains up to two hundred grams of weight.
Quail Breeding Business
Having an understanding of the breeding and content of quail, you can draw up a business plan. It should reflect the following data:
- The cost of quail.
- Incubator.
- Cells.
- Feed, dietary supplements, vitamins.
- Electricity consumption.
- Transport and other monthly expenses.
When calculating, it is necessary to take into account that not all birds will carry an egg: approximately 70% of the total livestock will not give eggs. Poultry carcasses can also be sold, but it is better to do this on order.
It is beneficial or not to breed quail as a business - everyone will have to decide for himself. Usually in the first year, the bird does not give income, but only returns the cost of maintenance, purchase of the tribe and equipment. And only in the second year of quailing does profit begin.
The most difficult thing when breeding a bird is to find a market. The maintenance of hundreds of goals already requires somewhere to sell an egg, not to mention a larger population. You can sell products in sanatoriums, medical institutions, shopping centers, restaurants, catering points, sell on the market, in barbecue, bars.
Incubation
A feature of quail breeding is egg incubation. For this, eggs are collected from the breeding herd, and then they are sorted. For incubation, only smooth eggs are selected without flaws, growths, dents, cracks. They must have the correct oval shape. Egg weight should be about eleven grams. You should not take too large and too small eggs, since nothing will hatch from them. For incubation, eggs are taken from birds aged two months, but not older than a year. The age of the egg should not be more than ten days.
To lay the incubator, it is not possible to collect the required number of high-quality eggs per day. Therefore, they are provided with proper storage at a temperature of ten to fifteen degrees. Do not keep eggs at room temperature, as this shortens the shelf life. When storing hatching eggs, humidity of 80% is required.
When hatched, the temperature in the incubator is maintained at 37.7 degrees, and from the thirteenth day to the fifteenth, it is lowered to 37.3-37.5 degrees. During withdrawal, the temperature is lowered to 37.2.
Some farmers breed birds at temperatures from 36.6 degrees to 37.0. Such indicators are not random, since everyone has different brands of incubators. To determine the temperature of your incubator, you need to conduct the first incubation and assess the percentage of brood, its health. Only by trial and error can we precisely determine what temperature should be, which places warm up well, and which ones are weak.
From the first day, you need to turn the eggs at least four times a day. In automatic devices, this is done by the device. Some poultry farmers do not turn the egg over, but this is wrong. The chicks adhere to one of the inner walls: the chance of survival of such embryos is zero.
If the incubator is warming unevenly, then change the egg trays once a day.
With proper incubation, chicks will hatch on about the seventeenth day (the incubation period is different for different breeds). Usually all chicks are born within nine hours. The babies are left in the incubator for several hours until completely dry and only after that they are transferred to the brooder.
Other quail breeding methods
Some practice quail breeding on the balcony. This method allows you to keep a small number of birds. Usually in such conditions they hold up to five hundred heads, but if the balcony is large, then more is possible. The only drawback is the smell. Quail produce a large amount of ammonia, nitrogen. You can cope with this smell if you clean the birds in the morning and evening.
You can do quail breeding in the country. Usually, when keeping a bird for themselves with the onset of heat, summer residents buy about twenty heads of females and keep them in aviaries in the country. In autumn, the bird goes for meat. This method allows you to get a long period of home-made egg, and then tasty, healthy meat. You can arrange a whole quail farm in the country , but this can only be done with year-round living near the bird: you can hire staff who will take care of the farm.
Conclusion
It is difficult to breed quail only in the first year, because it is at this time that the poultry breeder begins to get acquainted with the bird, to learn its habits, preferences, and living conditions. Another difficulty to be faced is the marketing of finished products. Another disadvantage is the inability to go on vacation, as the bird requires daily attention: quails need to be fed, collect eggs, cleaned cages, washed pallets, mixed feeds, and incubated eggs. Responsible and patient people are awarded, the desire to profit from the farm to bear fruit: in a year with 700 goals, the farmer will be able to get about $ 1000 per month profit (the figure is approximate and depends on the region).