Quail Breeding

Quail breeding is a successful and one of the most popular profits making business across the world. It is possible to acquire at-least 200-250 eggs per year from a single quail annually.

There are a variety of types of quail that are popularly bred: These are: Bobwhite quail, coturnix quail, scaled quail, california valley quail, mearns quail, benson, gambel's quail and button quail.

Also known as 'gamebirds', breeding of quail is easy to practise as there are very little differences in the reproduction habits of various quail breeds. Simple methods of quail breeding are accessible that can be used to get the desired outcomes. It should be known that quail egg fertility reduces after 6 months of production and thus it is recommended to rotate breeder stock periodically.

Quail are lovely birds that are useful on the floor of an aviary, but breeding can present problems. The two important things to remember are that the birds are very nervous, and therefore extensive cover and complete privacy is essential; and that only one pair(or trio) of birds can live in each flight. Then if you are lucky the hen will dig a scrape in the ground, lay her eggs and sit tight. But do keep an eye on the cock: if he bothers her or the chicks, put him somewhere else until it is all over. When the chicks hatch, depending on their size, feed them on small insects, an egg-biscuit mixture such as is used for canaries, sprouted small seeds and anything else that might seem appropriate.

If you are keeping Chinese Painted Quail you should be aware that the newly hatched chicks are no bigger than bumblebees and will get through 1.25 cm (1/2 in) mesh, so some sort of protection must be provided along the bottom of the wire panels of the aviary.

How to select good quail species for breeding:

While raising quails, it is very necessary to select a good breed in order to get good quality egg production. Selection of true characteristics is must whenever you decide to breed quails. Also factors like utility have to be considered when you decide to mate quail birds. For example, if you want to produce birds for consumption, it is a common sense to look for large sized healthy birds. If you are raising quails to release them or as a hobby to keep as pets, then you can select those varieties that are quick to flight and have a good behavior respectively.

Methods of quail breeding:

More or less, the methods of quail breeding are same that can be modified as per the specie to maintain their slight differences. People of United States commonly use 'colony breeding'. It allows the use of minimum amount of pen space so that more number of fertile eggs can be produced. Colony breeding guarantees fertility of quail eggs, if comparable male-females are appropriately used. In this method, a ratio of 2-3 females to one 1 male has to be applied. Quails are caged in a small enclosure that may measure up to 18" x 20". This size may differ as per the choice of the breeders and the cages can be easily accessed from most of the breeding equipments supply centers. Just ensure proper maintenance for timely cleaning of bird droppings and facility to collect quail’s eggs before buying a cage to breed quails. For this, it is advised to have a floor suitably angled to let the eggs spin to the front side to enable gathering of eggs.

The other popular method to breed quail is 'individual cage method'. It is in fact the most successful method that is used to breed quails. In this method, a ratio of 1 male to 1 female is used where only one or two pair is kept in each cage. This way, it is costly to maintain a separate arrangement for every pair as compared to the colony method.

During quail breeding, a good hatch totally depends on proper incubation. You must provide required temperature, humidity and frequent turning of the eggs.