What can quail do for you? Part 5 - Make that money!!
Weve learned that their meat and eggs can provide a great benefit to your health, as well as being an efficient means of poultry and eggs on your farm. But can you make these profitable? Short answer, YES! Quail can be a great source of income and trade for your homestead or farm. Here are a few ways you can make them profitable.
1. Eggs
Selling eggs is the most obvoius choice, but what most dont know is eggs can sell for as much as $4 a dozen! All my eggs are sold as "fertile" but may not be hatchable. I like to sell eggs in a couple of different ways.
Fresh and unwashed
These I store in an egg turner inside a cardboard box and will collect batches for 3 days. You can collect Fertile eggs like this for up to 5 or 6 days, but I like to take an extra measure and gather only 3 days giving my customers a better chance at a higher hatch rate. This is the most popular way I sell eggs.
Washed and chilled
These I will wash thoroughly and store in the fridge. These are designed for eating and usually sell for a tad less than Fresh and unwashed. Eggs that I have had stored for more than 5 days unwashed will become washed eggs. If in the rare event I am unable to sell the cold eggs within 21 days, I will pickle or cook them for our own use at the homestead.
2. Meat
Quail can be quickly processed, packed, and sold in the ballpark of $12-$16 a pound. Check your local regulations on selling meat before selling! I will sell smaller birds (4 oz +/-) in 4 or 8 packs, and larger birds (Jumbos ranging from 12-14 oz) in 2 or 4 packs.
3. Live Birds
One of the quickest ways I make money with quail is selling chicks. I will begin selling them at 1 week old, however as each week passes, their price goes up. At chicks, they will go for $1.50-$2, Once full grown at 6 weeks, they can sell for $4-$6 per bird! If you have large hatches of 50+ every 17-20 days you can easily sell enough birds to pay for all the lifetime expenses of your flock in one hatch!
There are also other breeds of quail you can raise to gain more value from your birds. There are hunting reserves you can stock land with, and very beautiful types that are sought after by artists and bird lovers. Currently I only have the Coturnix quail, but I plan to have 4-5 more species in the next year.
I hope you found this information useful and I am so thankful you stopped by to take a read today. Please upvote, resteem, comment and thanks again for stopping by!
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I adore quail and you're right, they can make the money! They also seem to be a growing trend - I'm noting increasing enquiries about them in the UK. Don't know if it's the same over there in the US?
They have been becoming very popular here in the US. Every time its mentioned that I raise them amongst friends and such i get a ton of questions and alot of people want to try them here. Also, the fancy restaurants here charge a premium for meat and eggs.
Love it. The bottom line for our farm is that all our animals have to make money because that is how we make our living. You have really gotten my attention with your quail post. I am starting to get excited about getting quail.
Thats the way we feel too. Everything needs to pay for itself bare minimum. I hope you get them soon and cant wait to see what you do with them!
This is my first breed I keep them at home because it's cold outside and there is a fox visiting our home everyday. I'm not sure if I do it right.
I wouldnt mind having a closer look at your birds, do you have some closer pics? Are you keeping them in a cage?
Yes they Are in a Cage in my basement I made sure they have enough sun and a warm heating.
They seem like they are big, which is good. Their feathers look a little thin though. What kind of feed are you using?
I feed them some bird corn and mix it with some worms which they love and some corn specialy made for them. I sometimes give them vegetables.
That sounds like a good diet> I like to feed them with 30% protein mix, then also meal worms and such. They are quite big and I would keep an eye for disease. Are you breeding them?
No I don't know how to breed them without harming them the males are aggressive
You need to have 3 or 4 females per one male. If you have more than that they will overbreed and act aggressively. Do you know how many boys and girls you have?
This is so cool. Our kiddos are raising 30 quail chicks right now. It's been so fun watching them learn responsibility of caring for animals. Loved your post. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading! Ive started to offer starter coveys to a few family's kids for that very reason. They are a great way to learn about raising animals in my opinion.
I know you live in our area, where do you sell your eggs? We want to have quail this spring, and I'd like to get them locally so they are already acclimated.
I have been selling them on FB when I can and also to neighbors. Hit me up on discord or steemit.chat and Ill trade contact info with you! :)
Good to know some of the economics of quail. Thanks!
To get a bird to the jumbo size you mention how much would feed cost?
I will be starting my jumbos here soon, but form what I have been told they take about $1-$1.50 per bird to get to full size. For the standard coturnix, it takes .50 to $1 to feed.
I get a game bird starter with 30% protein that costs me around $13. I feed them that for their entire life. I intend on getting a fodder system set up to help reduce some of that cost. I have never actually done the exact math though, which just gave me another idea to write about! Thanks! :D
No problem, I always get ideas for posts from comments too. Thanks for the reply!
I may have to pick up some live birds from you sometime soon!
That would be great! The cold snap has prevented me from getting more chicks in the incubator, but I will be restarting that in the next week!