Basics of Raising Quail: From Incubation to the Kitchen

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You’ve Decided to Raise Coturnix Quail- Now What?

So you’ve fallen in love with the idea of raising your own coturnix quail. It’s understandable- speaking as someone who is “mildly” obsessed. They’re cute, efficient and easier than other poultry.

You guys have asked me so many great questions! I would be delighted to wax poetic on everything I love about quail, but I’ll save that for another another time. For now, I’m going to (try) to stay focused on answering your questions about the basics of getting started with quail: from incubation to the kitchen.

Incubating

Incubating quail eggs is very similar to incubating chicken eggs, but faster! Quail eggs only take about 18 days to hatch, compared to 21 days for chickens.

Temp

Incubation temperature for quail is the same as chickens- about 99.5 F (+/-.5) for a circulated incubator with a fan. Still air incubators require a slightly higher temperature, with recommendations up to 101-102F (at the top of the egg level). Follow your incubator manufacturer’s instructions.

Some incubators fluctuate more than others, which can be stressful. After chewing my fingernails off I found this reassuring bit of info:

“The acceptable range is 97° to 102°F. Mortality is seen if the temperature drops below 96°F or rises above 103°F for a number of hours. If the temperature stays at either extreme for several days, the eggs may not hatch. Overheating is more critical than underheating” ThePoultrySite.com

The above article is for poultry in general, but has a lot of good technical information.

Humidity

Humidity of 40-50% is ideal for the first stage of incubating quail eggs. During “lock-down” (the last 3 days of incubation) humidity can be increased to 65-70%. If I’m having trouble getting humidity up, I add a damp paper towel in a jam jar lid to the incubator. Remember, hatchlings are very susceptible to drowning: Sponge GOOD. Open water dish BAD.

Turning

Like other eggs, quail eggs should be turned at least 3 times per day. I set my automatic egg turner to the maximum turn interval of 180 minutes, so my eggs rotate 8 times/ day. If your incubator does not have a turning feature, you will need to turn your quail eggs by hand for optimal embryo development.

Timeline

As I mentioned, quail eggs only take about 18 days from set to hatch. Day 1 is the day you set your eggs into the incubator. On day 15, remove egg turners and add a hatching mat to your incubator floor. After setting eggs on the hatching mat, replace lid and increase humidity to 65-70%. On day 16 your eggs should start to pip, and after a looong rest your chicks should finish hatching on day 18 or so.

Brooding Requirements

Brooding baby quail is very similar to brooding chickens. The 5 Essentials I wrote about in a previous post are the same: Time, Shelter, Heat, Water, Food. With some minor adjustments to your chicken brooder setup, you can successfully raise quail chicks, too. If you need a more detailed tutorial on brooding you can find my post here.

Time

While quail hatchlings are super tiny and fragile for the first few days of life, they feather out and grow to adult size within 4-6 weeks. In the warmer months they may be off heat and ready for their permanent home in as little as 3 weeks. If you are brooding during a cool season, you may want to give a couple of extra weeks to wean them off the heat and get used to lower outdoors temperatures.

Shelter

You’ll be amazed at how quickly your quail develop and are able to “popcorn” up higher than the brooder walls. Be sure you have a lid! I’ve used a Sterilite lid with the center cut out and zip-tied an insert of 1/2″ hardware cloth (for ventilation). I’ve covered half the brooder top with a cookie cooling rack and the other half with a burlap sack. An old window screen, chicken wire.. be creative. Just keep those babies from flying out of the brooder and be mindful not to put flammable things (like burlap) beneath or near a heat source.

Heat

Just like chickens and other baby birds, quail hatchlings need heat. Remember to warm up your brooder BEFORE you introduce the babies, so their new home is nice and cozy. Hatchlings should be completely dry and fluffy when you take them from the incubator.

Adjust the height of your heat source to give the day old quail a spot that is slightly too warm (105F) so they can dash under and warm up real quick. The brooder should be big enough that the babies can get away from the heat too!

After the first few days you can start to raise the heat lamp so that the brooder is about 10F cooler each week. As they grow their big feathers, I lower the temperature more rapidly so that the brooder is only around 70F during the 4th week.

It kinda depends on if your brooder box is in the living room, the garage, or shed, and how warm or cool it is outside. Adult quail are very adaptable and hardy to different temperatures with good shelter from the wind and rain. Try not to stress about the temperature too much after 4 weeks or so.

Feed

Quail chicks are actually gamebirds. They grow extremely fast and therefore have higher protein needs than baby chickens. I use Modesto Milling 28% Turkey and Gamebird Starter from Azure Standard. Any gamebird starter/grower feed with around 28% protein should work for your young quail.

Water

If you thought chicken chicks were tiny, wait to you see quail chicks! If you’ve raised chicks before, you know they are susceptible to drowning. Well, quail are so tiny that even a “chick waterer” can be too deep and wide for the first few days. I always start with a jar lid full of marbles, rocks, etc. so they don’t dampen their little tummies and catch a chill.

After a few days you can graduate to either a chick mason jar base (with marbles) or a quail waterer mason jar base.

In just a couple of short weeks the baby quail will be almost fully feathered and only a little smaller than adult sized. At this point I switch to my favorite- the nipple waterer.

Adult Quail Requirements

Different from chickens?

If you have raised chickens, you will find many similarities to raising quail. There are, however, a few key differences. Quail are full grown and ready to lay/harvest by 6-8 weeks. Unlike chickens, quail do not roost, use nest boxes or free range, so their housing is very simple.

Feed

Laying Hen Feed

Once your little ladies start laying, you can switch them to their adult rations. A mash or crumble is appropriate for their little beaks. Laying quail should ideally have around 20% protein and 2-3% calcium according to the Mississipi State University Extension (more nerd material).

To be honest, I had trouble finding The Perfect Feed which is also available to us in Southeast Alaska. Sometimes you have to compromise and work with what you can get.

If you choose to feed a higher protein starter/grower feed like Scratch and Peck Chick 20% Starter Mash, you may want to offer calcium on the side. If you choose a layer crumble like Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles or Manna Pro All Flock Crumbles with plenty of calcium, you may want to offer high protein treats periodically.

Unless you are a breeder you probably do not need to worry too much about the nutritional analysis. Lots of people successfully raise quail on all different types of feed.

What I feed my quail

After reading lots of nutrition labels and comparing the costs of shipping organic feed to Southeast Alaska, I decided use Scratch and Peck Chick 20% Starter Mash from Azure Standard. This is well within the % protein suggested for adult quail. I also use this same feed for my dual purpose heritage breed chickens and they look soooo flossy.

To compensate for the low calcium, I supplement with inexpensive Microna Poultry 6×10 Grit Calcium Carbonate and I feed their ground up egg shells back to the laying hens. So far this is working well and the egg shells are strong. I will keep you posted if I get new information.

Grow-out Male Feed

I keep the young “grow-out” males separate from the young ladies and they continue the 28% Turkey and Gamebird Starter from hatch until Butcher Day. Any gamebird grower feed should be fine.

Treats

Arthropods like roly-polies and dried mealworms induce a feeding frenzy in quail. Kids love to find bugs from the yard and toss them into the quail hutch. My quail also enjoy shredded dandelion greens. Sometimes the hens will even eat from my hand! I feel just like Snow White.

Water

Providing water for your quail can range from simple to sophisticated. Just be sure they have access to clean water at all times.

Simple

If you have the time and proximity for a more hands-on approach, water can be provided in a simple shallow dish, refilling each day.

Advanced

Many seasoned quail keepers use drinker cups or water nipples. As you’ve seen on my tutorial, the nipples are a very versatile option. You can add them to practically any sized container.

Professional

The pro move is to combine the nipple waterer system with PVC piping into the quail hutch, with a 5 gallon bucket on top. I plan to build out something like Coturnix Corner’s gravity fed watering system in the future, and when I do I will tell ya all about it.

Housing

One very important consideration for housing your adult quail is their natural defense of flying straight up (flushing) when startled. Sometimes, this leads to fatal head injury. Prevent “head boink” there are couple of routes you can take: a high ceiling or a very low ceiling.

Aviary with high ceiling

If you have space for a larger enclosure for your quail, you can build an aviary with ceiling at least 6 feet high. You can experiment with bedding, but in my aviary I have a substrate of gravel and sand, and thick layer of wood shavings for bedding. My quail love to hide in piles of sticks, hollow bark rounds and fluffy dried grass.

Hutch with low ceiling

Many recommend keeping adult quail in a very short pen, with a living space as low as 9″ in height. The idea is that quail cannot get enough momentum to hurt themselves when they jump up.

I built a hutch for my quail based on a free rabbit hutch design I found online, with some modifications. I used the sloped roof to shed heavy rainfall, but it’s in the “head boink danger zone”, so I added a soft “sub-roof” out of plastic mesh deer fencing.

Wire Flooring vs Bedding

Commonly, hutch raised quail are on a wire floor, like 1/2″ hardware cloth. This allows droppings to fall away from the birds’ feet, keeping their space sanitary and simplifying clean-out. When quail are raised indoors, you can install a droppings tray beneath the hutch. This tray can be sprinkled with pine shavings and scraped as often as necessary to keep the poop smell down.

In my hutch I did install a wire floor, but I love the idea of deep litter for the comfort of the animals, especially in our cool, damp winters. This past winter, I layered cardboard on top of the mesh to prevent the bedding from falling through. Whenever the bedding is too soiled I just add a new layer on top of the old. When the hutch gets full or I’m eager for compost material I roll up the cardboard and start over. Then when summer finally gets here, I can still use the hardware cloth flooring to keep things fresh and breezy.

You already know, as a busy mom I don’t want to spend a lot of time each day doing animal chores! (But I have plenty of time for indecision and overthinking #priorities.)

Space Requirements

Space recommendations for Jumbo Coturnix Quail vary greatly. Some insist 2+ square feet per bird is best. Others prefer to keep their quail densely at just 6 square inches of floor space per bird.

I’m not judging because people have to eat. After watching videos of Dexter’s World in the Phillipines I see how quail can be humanely raised for food en masse.

I always check the recommendations of Zack at Myshire farms. #WWZD (What Would Zack Do). These guys grow thousands of quail each year and they have kept notes to achieve maximum productivity, which includes stress reduction.

For a cage or hutch Zack says:

After extensive testing, we found that 1/3 square foot per bird (or 3 birds per sq. ft.) works best. At this density, there’s not enough room to establish territory, so they are a lot less likely to fight!

And for aviaries:

In this system, you can give birds more room. We recommend 1-3 square feet per bird. The key here is to give them lots places to hide from each other.

Those of you who like going down a rabbit hole will find lots of informative material at Myshire Farm’s website and Youtube channel.

I couldn’t decide on One Best Option, so I made an aviary and a hutch. The aviary has plenty of room and hiding spots. The square footage of the hutch is tighter, so that’s where I keep a small breeding group. I find the quail seem just as happy in the hutch as in the aviary.

Laying

Timeline

Around 6-8 weeks your new quail will START LAYING EGGS- can you believe that? Chickens take 6-8 MONTHS, for a point of reference.

How many eggs?

I was surprised by how many eggs Jumbo Quail lay. With supplemental lighting each hen can lay around 300 eggs per year! Since they have a better feed conversion ratio and need a fraction of the space of chickens, quail end up being more efficient in terms of egg production.

Do quail need nesting boxes?

The simple answer is: no, quail do not require nesting boxes. They will not hop up like chickens into a special box you set up for them to lay in. The usually seem to drop eggs wherever they happen to be.

That said, I noticed if I provide them with a mound of fresh dried grass or a little hidey hole they will all lay in a cute little clutch. Full disclosure: my real motive for setting up the aviary is to coax out the rarely seen natural brooding behavior. WHEN it happens I will spam pictures so stay tuned 🙂

Culling Extra Males

Whether you have hatched your own quail eggs or acquired young quail chicks, you will find out around 5-6 weeks who’s going to be a trouble causing boy bird, and who will be a sweet little egg layin’ hen.

M to F ratio

If you are planning to keep a male quail with your laying hens the best ratio is around 4-6 hens per cock. The hens can get a little “overworked” when your ratio has fewer hens. With more hens you may not get the highest fertility rates.

Aggression

Once the cocks start to crow, they may start to get violently aggressive. Something must be done!

Currently, I leave the young males in the brooder (after the girls move out) with plenty of space and low lighting. Supposedly the low lighting helps them get fat and mature more slowly. Apparently being out of earshot of the females is helpful too.

The first batch of males I separated went into a small hutch next to my females. The next morning, I was horrified to find that one of the males had pecked his brother to death! After removing the aggressor, another male filled the alpha killer place in the ecosystem. I had 3 dead males in 3 days before I got wise and put them back in the brooder (without the heat lamp). They lived out the rest of their days in peace until Butchering Day.

Butchering Day 

When your Quail are 50/50 male to female and you need less males..well, you gotta get rid of the extra males somehow. You may be able to sell or give them away, but if you’re here to eat like I am, you’ll probably process the excess males for meat.

I’m working on a photo heavy post that goes into ALL the details of how I process my quail for “freezer camp”.

Good Eatin’

Meat

Processing meat is never easy for me, but watching my family enjoy meat that we raised together is deeply satisfying.

Quail meat is a flavorful and tender delicacy enjoyed around the world. I like to marinate and roast 8 or 10 birds for a rich and filling meal for my family of 7. For serving sizes, figure about 2 birds per adult and 1 per kid.

Eggs

We use our quail eggs everyday. Fried, hard-boiled, in baked goods- any time you would use a chicken egg you can use a few quail eggs. Quail egg scissors make it even easier to use your harvest.

What could be better than enjoying the fruits of your labor? With a steady supply of fast maturing quail for eggs and meat, you can have fun experimenting with new recipes for your family.

Be sure to let me know if you have any more questions! Thanks you guys 🙂

Helpful Online Resources

For more info than you ever wanted to know about keeping quail, here are some of my favorite online resources:

Myshire Farm

I ordered my original Jumbo Coturnix Hatching eggs from Myshire. Their website and YouTube channel are chock full of everything you might ever wonder about raising coturnix quail. They also have a couple of really good e-courses.

Coturnix Corner

Another great YouTube channel. Terry interviews other coturnix enthusiasts and many interesting and helpful ideas are presented, from basic to advanced quail keeping.

Slightly Rednecked

Chris from Slightly Rednecked is just plain likable. His approach is accessible, easygoing and still very legit. His YouTube channel has really good tutorials on quail keeping and many other sustainable, backyard homestead topics.

The Silver Homestead

Tay at The Silver Homestead has nailed it in the aesthetics department. If you’re looking for inspiration and eye candy check out her beautiful blog.