The Hatch

[DavidNorcross]

During the summer we started raising Coturnix quail. This bird is a great source of both eggs and meat. From date of hatch they will begin laying eggs in 6 weeks. They will also be large enough within 6 to 7 weeks for processing. Both the eggs and the meat are amazing.

I purchased hatching eggs to build our "flock" and now have around 60 hens and roosters. We eat the eggs daily and they are producing 16 to 20 eggs per day. It takes 3 quail eggs to make the size of a single chicken egg. There is hardly no difference in the taste, but they are known to me more nutritious.

About 2 weeks ago I started to incubate eggs that we produced. I know they were fertile and the whole goal is for these little birds to provide self sufficient food. Well last night while sound asleep after a wonderful evening with WayneT and Mari Jo T our first couple of quail hatched from the eggs we produced. By Monday we should have 10 total.

Thought I would share the experience.

[hoovarmin]

Beautiful! What a great feeling this must be, David.

[Oakgrovebacon]

A fun hobby for sure. I used to raise bobwhite quail. It has been many years, raising kids took over. Amazing how fast they grow.

[DaveD]

The quail, or the kids?? (I know - both!)

[RonB]

I couldn't do that because after the first look at the cute fluffy chicks, my wife would not allow me to eat them.

[TripleB]

Same with me. I could eat the eggs, but I couldn't kill the hens.

[DavidNorcross]

They grow quick and are not cute for very long at all. I look at it like this. The meat we raise has one bad day. We bend over backwards to give them a good life. The meat we buy in stores can’t say the same…

[Grillin Dad]

That's pretty awesome! When my family eats eggs (which is pretty regularly) we go through a dozen in one breakfast. So if 3 quail eggs = 1 chicken egg, I'd be cracking 36 eggs! Think I'll take a pass on that. But still, pretty cool experience for you though

[DavidNorcross]

It is very easy to crack a quail egg. Don't do it like a chicken or duck egg. You use quail scissors, very fast.

[Spinaker]

This is way cool! I love it. Thank you for sharing this with us.

How do you keep all the critters from eating and or killing the flock? My dad had chickens one his lake property at one point but eagles, coons, weasels, coyotes and chupacabra kept eating them!

[DavidNorcross]

The corturnix quail are bred in captivity. I keep them in cages inside. They live life for sure.

Our chickens are in coops and runs that are built with hardware cloth and I have planted hardware cloth around the perimeter. They are safe from predators. We do let them out during the day but we are always near them.

[Carolyn]

The chupacabra are especially annoying.

[PGH_RAM]

Neat hobby!

When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be about chili peppers.

[bardsleyque]

same here!

[bbqLuv]

Spatchcock is in the making.

[tamidw]

Sounds fun. We have chickens for their eggs, but raised meat birds one year. They’re like little velociraptors when you tried to feed them. 🤣 Then we raised turkeys another year, that was a lot of fun. The meat is definitely better when raised yourself.

[texastweeter]

Grandmother used to raise them. Used to hunt them with my grandfather on the other side. My dad grew up hunting them. I love spicy pickled quail eggs, and always keep a jar or two on hand. Also fried quail will cause a fight in our house (my mother included) when it comes down to the last one. Grilled quail is great over rice or in fajitas. Man, I wish we still had some good free rang quail grounds still in East Texas.