Japanese Quail – Short Talk (Groat Street Festival)
By Urban Farm Living 2017
- Easiest of the quail to raise & Look after
- Flighty, shy birds that can be aggressive to other birds including quail when territorial
- Can be racist. Some birds (males & females) will not accept other coloured birds introduced to their cage
- 40 Colour variations
- 4 Size categories – Standard less than 300, Jumbo 300 – 350, Giant 350 – 400, Colossal over 400
- Sexual maturity at around 8 weeks except in winter it tends to slow down so around 11 to 12 weeks.
- Egg laying from 8-9 weeks
- Sexing of male & females
- Males, crow, smaller, bulbous, foam
- Females, wider hips, no crow, tend to be larger than the males, no foam, large vents
- 300 eggs per year – almost an egg per day
- Life span 3 to 5 years
- Males life span the same but fertility drops
- Ratio 1M to 3F
- The do molt and can have similar illness to chooks.
Housing
- Predator proof (cats, dogs, foxes, crows)
- 5 square foot or 45 cm square per bird of floor space
- Places to hide, not necessarily for nesting or laying eggs.
- Tend to lay where ever they like
- Need 16 hours of natural light for optimum laying.
- Too much space and they can get territorial.
- Flooring, mulch, sand, wood shavings
- Cleaning depending on flooring every week to once every 3 to 4 weeks & dependant on number of birds.
- Need shelter from harsh sun, wind and rains.
Feed
- Herbs, greens, meal worms
- Balanced feed of Gamebird Starter/Maintenance/Finisher depending on where they are in their growth stage and why you are keeping them.
- Feed Containers that they can’t step into as they kick out their food or poop in it.
Raising Quail
- Require artificial incubation as the Japanese Quail have had their natural instinct to nest, brood and raise chicks breed out of them.
- Incubation is 18 days.
