Fattening quails up for meat.

Hi all

what do all of you think of this. right im hoping to start up again with Quails as Im missing them to bits.
anyway if im breeding them and get mainly cock birds I useally neck them or give them away but I thought of keeping them and fattening them up for meat. would that be ok? or would they explode?

Im talking about the coturnix breeds.

Thanks
Craig

i'd be interested in this too.
can't get turkey feeds etc. so my boys just on a mix of layers and chick crumb.
anything easy to get hold of that would give them that extra boost?
oats? some kind of bird seed? boiled eggs? what works?

Hi usally just feed my quails on chick crumbs, layer pellets and meal worms etc.
like you say turkey feed would be ideal. I might be able to get that.

Craig

Hi,

I breed quail mainly for eggs and for the table, And I generally only keep the birds that can be sexed at an early age ( Normal, Cinnamon and Fawns). I find the brown and fawn coloured "Range" type smaller.

At Two weeks of age, the sexes are both seperated into single sex groups. The Females are fed a standard chicken grower crumb, but the males are reared on a Turkey grower crumb.

I find feeding the males on a turkey rearer crumb for three weeks, and then moved onto a finisher turkey grower for a further week, you can get a normal japanese quail to dress out at nearly 7 oz, compaired to a normal quail fed on just chicken grower/finisher at 5½ oz dressed, This is only possable if the "day lenth" is over 20 hours.

I'm now waiting to get some "Jumbo quail" eggs to hatch out, so that I can keep the males, to pair up with my own strain of females. I'm intrested to know if by puting jumbo to normal size quail will inprove growth rates.
Derek.

I would be intersted in the outcome of that. It's got to make sence to eat the males or it's just a waste of life, at least if they are fattened they have/had a purpose in life.

How do you cull them? do you have one of these hand held things or do them by hand?