Who else has quail?

[PrideRavyn]

Took a little break from this forum over winter due to not much happening in the garden but since I went I have acquired a trio of quail, two girls and a boy, with the hope to add another two or three girls this spring and have a nice little group, but I don't know anyone else who owns them and everyone I tell about them looks at me like I am mad and asks why I didn't just get chickens instead...well the easy answer to that is if I had chickens they would have to have only a basic amount of space whereas I have plentiful space for a group of quail, so it seems fairer on the birds, IMO.

Does anyone else keep quails?

[pink-angel29]

Hello i have chickens and quail.
I havent been keeping quail for long either i have 9 altogether

[PrideRavyn]

Mine seem very easy to care for, the girls particularly are quite friendly now, it's strange as I have read all sorts about quails, that the males are friendly, then on the next site it says they are vicious, etc, but mine are lovely and started laying on the day we picked them up last October!

I still have trouble coming up with something to do with the eggs but it will be easier when I have a bigger group as at the moment I have to save up the eggs for about a week to get enough to do something for 2 people!

[Hilary B]

Look out for my daughter Corax Aurata on here. She has quail experience (not sure if she has any just now, but I think so).

[Bramble-Poultry]

try hard boiling the eggs and then packing them into glass jars (shell on) in a sweet brine. they make a really nice change to ordinary pickled eggs. Dont use vinegar as it will disolve the shells!!

we have japanese and Texas AM (meat) quail here but always on the lookout for more types to keep

[jessmorris]

QUOTE: I still have trouble coming up with something to do with the eggs but it will be easier when I have a bigger group as at the moment I have to save up the eggs for about a week to get enough to do something for 2 people![/QUOTE]


Hard boil them, coat them in cream cheese with a bit of celery salt and roll in parma ham - a faff, but delicious!

[PrideRavyn]

I must admit I've never even tried a normal pickled egg! I do like the odd mini pickled onion so a mini pickled egg would probably go down a treat! I love the idea of the cream cheese and parma ham, but I'm on a new year diet and I'm not sure cream cheese or parma ham have a place in it, but bet they'd be lovely as a treat!

Bramble-Poultry - originally I had ideas of rearing on a very small scale for meat as well but when I voiced the idea to the house, it didn't go down too well! So I wouldn't have any help in doing the dispatching and preparing them, and I'm not even convinced I could do it anyway, and would probably end up with a hundred boys running around the garden!

[grenhouse]

I have 4 coturnix quail. I hatched one over a year ago with a batch of chicken eggs, turned out to be a boy, got him a girl and then hatched 6 under a broody silkie last year. I kept 2 girls and sold the rest, very nice birds they are.

They are something a little different I think, funny to listen to, mine are always chirping away! Eggs are a bonus, but like you say have to save up for a week before I can eat them!

Steve

[p54jes]

All this sounds good so what do you need to keep them?

[bishop]

hello pr, i have several quail, there is some piccys of them on some of my other posts, or on my homepage, they are fab, as bp said pickle the eggs or hard boiled like jm said, i have 2 males 1 will sit on my knee and eat off my hand the other pecks me every time i go near it, i find 1 of my girls to be more vicious than my males she is evil, i get 1 egg a day off my girls, nice to see other people keeping these birds , p54, i keep mine in a home made aviary 8x6 and 6 ft high, quail are like harrier jump jets they fly 6ft straight up, and are fab at escaping.

[PrideRavyn]

Hi bishop, nice to meet another quail owner - can't wait to expand my little collective! This evening I had a quorn grillsteak with a lovely quartet of fried quails eggs on top None of mine try to peck even when they are being handled and checked over, the male is quite bolshy with his girls though in his normal manly way, I feel for them, it'll be good when I have a few more girls to keep him entertained!

Mine are currently in a big indoor rabbit cage in the shed because we got them quite late last year and they were kept basically indoors with the breeder and it felt too mean to put them outside for winter. When the weather picks up they'll be going outside