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I can't find my folder with all my dates and measurements, and Mrs. ruck_feddit isn't here right now to find it for me. All of this will be from memory, but I promise my approximations will be pretty spot on. The bird weights are all of live birds. Put them in a pre-weighed plastic cup so they hold still, and stick it on a scale.

I didn't want to order eggs online. I found a nice little old man about 1.5 hours away from me on craigslist. I paid $3 per male and $4 per female and left with around 16 birds. If I had to guess, those birds were about 4 weeks old. In 2 weeks, the first eggs started to show up. In 2 more weeks, each hen layed an egg pretty much every day. You want a 5:1 ratio of girls to boys (I think I had 13 girls and 3 boys to start).

Here's a common misconception: Big birds come from big eggs. This isn't really the case in my experience. Big eggs hatch birds that lay big eggs, and big birds lay eggs that hatch big birds. You want to combine these 2 features. My first birds weren't world record sizes: males averaged 11oz-12oz, females 12oz-13oz. Eggs averaged about 9 grams. I save eggs for 5 days before sticking them in the incubator. To start, I only incubated eggs over 10 grams (not the huge double-yolkers, they don't hatch). Once those birds were laying eggs, I kept only the largest as breeders. After a couple generations, I had 12-13oz males and 13-14oz femails averaging 10.5 grams eggs. Fuck yes, but I wasn't done. A few more generations got me males averaging 13.5oz and females 15oz (or even the occasional 1lb beast). Currently, my eggs are 12+ grams with double yolkers up to 20 grams.

https://files.catbox.moe/z67d1h.jpg - I wanted to eat birds during this process, so I would separate the "breeding" eggs from the run of the mill ones doomed for the freezer. The small container is lower, so they don't look much bigger. We're only talking a couple grams difference.

https://files.catbox.moe/43db14.jpg - Here are some runty ones next to what I'd call average size. Look at all that leg meat!

If you started with 10F and 2M, saved eggs for 5 days, and started incubation, expect to put 40-50 eggs into the incubator. You should end up with ~25 adult birds (on the low end) ready to lay in 10 weeks from the day you started the incubator. By the time those 25 are laying, you could have 10 more sets of ~25 birds at 1 week intervals following them. Nothing, including rabbits, can produce numbers like this. In just the warm months of the year, those dozen birds can put 700+ birds in your freezer. That's easily over 300lbs of quail meat and an obscene amount of eggs.

I only keep ~15 birds through the winter. That's 70+ eggs per week. In the spring, I can jump my breeders up to 75 birds (60F:15M) very quickly. This produces 4-5 dozen eggs each day. Even being super selective gives me 200+ eggs over 5 days to incubate. You can do all this in your backyard without your neighbors even knowing about it.

If any of this is unclear, I'll do my best to answer questions.

I can't find my folder with all my dates and measurements, and Mrs. ruck_feddit isn't here right now to find it for me. All of this will be from memory, but I promise my approximations will be pretty spot on. The bird weights are all of live birds. Put them in a pre-weighed plastic cup so they hold still, and stick it on a scale. I didn't want to order eggs online. I found a nice little old man about 1.5 hours away from me on craigslist. I paid $3 per male and $4 per female and left with around 16 birds. If I had to guess, those birds were about 4 weeks old. In 2 weeks, the first eggs started to show up. In 2 more weeks, each hen layed an egg pretty much every day. You want a 5:1 ratio of girls to boys (I think I had 13 girls and 3 boys to start). Here's a common misconception: Big birds come from big eggs. This isn't really the case in my experience. Big eggs hatch birds that lay big eggs, and big birds lay eggs that hatch big birds. You want to combine these 2 features. My first birds weren't world record sizes: males averaged 11oz-12oz, females 12oz-13oz. Eggs averaged about 9 grams. I save eggs for 5 days before sticking them in the incubator. To start, I only incubated eggs over 10 grams (not the huge double-yolkers, they don't hatch). Once those birds were laying eggs, I kept only the largest as breeders. After a couple generations, I had 12-13oz males and 13-14oz femails averaging 10.5 grams eggs. Fuck yes, but I wasn't done. A few more generations got me males averaging 13.5oz and females 15oz (or even the occasional 1lb beast). Currently, my eggs are 12+ grams with double yolkers up to 20 grams. https://files.catbox.moe/z67d1h.jpg - I wanted to eat birds during this process, so I would separate the "breeding" eggs from the run of the mill ones doomed for the freezer. The small container is lower, so they don't look much bigger. We're only talking a couple grams difference. https://files.catbox.moe/43db14.jpg - Here are some runty ones next to what I'd call average size. Look at all that leg meat! If you started with 10F and 2M, saved eggs for 5 days, and started incubation, expect to put 40-50 eggs into the incubator. You should end up with ~25 adult birds (on the low end) ready to lay in 10 weeks from the day you started the incubator. By the time those 25 are laying, you could have 10 more sets of ~25 birds at 1 week intervals following them. Nothing, including rabbits, can produce numbers like this. **In just the warm months of the year, those dozen birds can put 700+ birds in your freezer.** That's easily over 300lbs of quail meat and an obscene amount of eggs. I only keep ~15 birds through the winter. That's 70+ eggs per week. In the spring, I can jump my breeders up to 75 birds (60F:15M) very quickly. This produces 4-5 dozen eggs each day. Even being super selective gives me 200+ eggs over 5 days to incubate. You can do all this in your backyard without your neighbors even knowing about it. If any of this is unclear, I'll do my best to answer questions.

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[–] • 0 pt

Cool sub OP, keep up the good work.

[–] • 0 pt

Thanks. I'm not done yet!

Get some quail. Sell some to people in your area. If catastrophe strikes, you can always get your genetics back.

[–] • 0 pt

Good shit. Quail are very low maintenance in my experience. What was your feed mix?

[–] • 1 pt

Up to 8 weeks - 28% protein crumble. Over 8 weeks - any old layer feed for chickens/ducks that has some calcium content. I'm lucky that I can buy what I need really cheap from the local amish.

[–] • 0 pt

Bro, you are the fucking man. Thanks for sharing so much knowledge.

[–] • 0 pt

Wait 'till you bite into your first quail leg.

[–] • 0 pt

Are there any vegetable scraps that you shouldn't feed to them? Anything poisonous?

[–] • 0 pt

You're not supposed to give them certain plant leaves, but idk which ones. I just don't give them anything out of the garden besides lettuce. Mine will eat any grain or popcorn or seeds. They ate a piece of pumpkin this fall and some melon. Small worms out of the ground or dried meal worms are a good treat.

If it's something dry, I just toss it into their sandbox. If it's small enough to fall through the wire, put it in a shoebox lid or something. Put a bowl of shaved ice in there in the summer. They go absolutely nuts and like standing in the water when it's super hot.

[–] • 0 pt

You're not necessarily trying to save money and be 'self sufficient' correct? It's not really, correct?

Do they reproduce well in captivity, in other words can you raise them?

[–] • 0 pt

Firstly, I like eating quail. Having it on hand, was my first goal. When people hear you have quail meat/eggs, they want it. Especially people over 50 for some reason.

In my location, I can buy really great, fresh, cheap feed from the amish. This allows me to raise quail for less $ per pound than many people can raise chicken (the standard cheapest meat to raise). If the world ends, the amish will still be there.

I consider this to be "self-sufficient", moreso than someone with cows that buys literal tons of corn and hay.

I don't understand your last question. The post has examples of my quail program.

[–] • 0 pt

Last question was, basically, is it cheaper (for you particularly, all factors considered) to buy quail or raise them?

Is it 'difficult' as well? Is it a pain? Is there a lot of frustration involved lol.

Always wanted to raise them as well, they are considered 'clean' and more fussy about what they eat, unlike chickens.

[–] • 0 pt

It's way cheaper for me to raise them compared to buying them. In fact, I can't buy quail meat or eggs here. There is an asian market in the city I've heard will sometimes sell quail eggs.

https://familyfarmlivestock.com/the-cheapest-meat-animal-to-raise/ - I can beat chicken's $0.97 per pound by a fair margin. I don't calculate water costs like the chart probably does, because a single rain barrel will always provide enough for my quail.

It's not difficult at all. I had a learning curve and all the quail youtubers weren't really a thing yet. My feed/water system can go a full week in summer without me touching it and 3 days in the winter. If you're in it for eggs, it's easier than chickens. If you're in it for meat, it's way easier than plucking chickens even pound per pound.

They're much cleaner than chickens. The eggs are cleaner. Their poop falls under the hutch and stays dry. As long as its dry, you won't smell it unlike chickens/ducks. They're also not fussy eaters. What I feed them is simply to maximize size as quickly as possible. What I get in 8 weeks could take 10 or 12 with shitty feed.

Check out some of my other posts and pop in often or subscribe. I've got a lot more stuff to add on here. I hope you end up getting some and sharing your program. It's a cheap experiment if you end up not liking it.

[–] • 0 pt

Ever release any to build a local wild population?

[–] • 0 pt

My breeders don't want to leave. Younger birds (~6 weeks) seem very interested in the sky. They'll hop out of the tractor if you let them. A few have evaded me and made it over my fences. They deserved freedom.

One in particular could be spotted around my driveway all the time last summer. I even found an egg in my front yard while mowing. I've also heard one crow outside my fence a few times.