Growing quails in a private backyard. Feed should be included in the diet

“Small, but daring” - this can rightfully be said about quails. It is very profitable to breed small birds, including in the country or even on the balcony. Their meat and eggs make an excellent alternative to chicken products, while quails need much less space and feed.

The benefits of quail breeding

Quail meat is considered dietary, it is rich in B vitamins, contains iron, potassium, copper, useful amino acids.

The advantage of this meat is that it does not lose useful properties when frozen, which means it can be stored for a long time. It is recommended for diseases gastrointestinal tract, diseases of the heart and blood vessels, anemia, diabetes, asthma, tuberculosis.

Eggs are healthy and nutritious, they contain many times more useful substances: iron, potassium, cobalt, copper, phosphorus and B vitamins than chicken ones. Moreover, quails do not get sick and do not tolerate salmonellosis, so their eggs can be eaten without heat treatment, retaining all the nutrients.

It is not so difficult to keep quails at home. It is important to observe two main conditions:

• the required temperature regime;
• special cell.

For quails, ambient temperature is very important. At low temperatures below 5 ° C, the bird dies, at 25 ° C and above, it will begin to shed its plumage. At high temperatures and jumps quail significantly reduce productivity.

To increase egg production, you can artificially increase the daylight hours, but quails, like other living creatures, become aggressive when the rest time is reduced. The aggression of birds will have to be pacified either by fencing off a separate corner in the cage for them, or by darkening it for a while.

Today, breeding a miniature bird is no longer a rarity; many people know what a quail is. Keeping at home is possible in good special cages for them, and buying such a cage is not a problem.

If there is a desire and opportunity, a cage can be made with your own hands, observing certain requirements.

Keeping quails at home in winter is, first of all, maintaining the temperature regime. The temperature in the room where the quails are located should not fall below 16-17 ° C, otherwise the bird's egg production drops sharply. At the same time, there should be good ventilation without drafts, since birds in stuffy cages get sick, and air humidity is about 65%. To maintain humidity at this level, you need to spray water from a spray bottle or water the floor with it.

Using the norms of the minimum air exchange in the room, it is possible to calculate what kind of ventilation should be provided if 1.5 cubic meters of air exchange per hour in winter and 5 cubic meters in summer are needed per 1 kg of live weight of quails.

Quail cage

There are some conditions that a “housing” must satisfy in order to be successful in keeping quails at home. Cages with a height of not more than 0.2 m in area are made at the rate of 10 adult birds per 0.2 square meters of floor. Oddly enough, excessive space leads to a decrease in quail egg production, and height - to the fact that jumping crumbs can break their heads by hitting the ceiling.

The fence should be made of metal rods and galvanized mesh so that in the front wall the quails can stick their heads through it, getting to food and water in the feeder and drinker taken outside the cage.

The cage must be equipped with two trays. One is for eggs, which simply roll into it, as quails rush straight to the floor. The second is for litter, otherwise the eggs become contaminated and there is a risk of infectious diseases.

The floor in the cage must be covered with removable bedding. It can be straw, hay, ordinary sawdust or shavings.

You can also keep quails in aviaries, which also need to be covered with a net from above. These are close to natural conditions for keeping quails at home. A photo of birds in an aviary resembles wildlife shots.

Buying quails

Adult quails need to be purchased at the age of a month and a half. This is the age at which the female, having reached puberty, begins to actively lay eggs. The time of the year does not play a role for these birds, since the weather conditions for them still need to be created artificially.

It is best to buy poultry on specialized farms, where professional approach to poultry farming.

Before buying quails, you need to carefully examine them. Feathers under the tail, beak and paws should be dry and clean. A sick bird is lethargic and disheveled, breathes with wheezing and whistling.

The conditions for keeping quails at home are usually quite sharply different from those in which they grew up on farms or with breeders, so at least the usual feed should remain in the first month after the change of residence of miniature birds. Otherwise, not only egg production may decrease, but also quail indigestion may occur. Later, they can be gradually transferred to a different feed diet.

If it is not supposed to breed quails, but you need a bird only for fattening and for the sake of eggs, then it is not necessary to buy a male, females will regularly rush without him.

The choice of quail breed

Like any other representatives of poultry, quails are divided into four groups according to their purpose. They can be meat or egg breeds, meat-and-egg ones, decorative quails are also grown. Breeding and keeping poultry of egg and meat-and-egg directions at home gives approximately the same amount of meat and eggs. The difference between them begins to be felt when breeding on an industrial scale, when the livestock numbers tens of thousands of individuals. But the meat direction in its pure form gives a meat yield of 100-150 g per bird more. For example, if you contain fifty quails, then the difference is 5 kg.

The choice of breed does not have a special effect on the conditions for keeping quails at home.

First of all, the Japanese quail belongs to the egg direction, the female of which produces about 300 eggs per year. The average weight of one egg is about 12 g with a female weighing 130-150 g. The marbled quail, which is a mutant breed of the Japanese, has approximately the same indicators.

Quails of the Estonian kitaverse breed surpass their Japanese counterparts in mass, not inferior to them in egg production. Females weigh up to 210 g and lay 310 eggs per year.

The following can be called black and white English quail, the females of which, with their own weight up to 200 g, produce 280 eggs per year.

The only meat breed of quail bred by the Americans is the pharaoh. The weight of female quails of this breed sometimes exceeds 300 g, they give about 200 eggs per year, however, their weight is about 18 g.

If it is supposed to use meat and eggs for oneself, keeping quails at home, the reviews unanimously name the pharaoh as the best breed for this purpose, since its only drawback is a peculiar, to say the least, plumage color, which negatively affects the presentation plucked carcasses.

Breeding birds in an incubator

Unfortunately, domestic quail does not sit on an egg, so this bird is bred only in incubators. If the task is to gradually expand production, and not just to obtain meat and eggs for our own consumption, then it is much more profitable not to buy grown poultry, but to hatch chickens in an incubator, having bought eggs for the first time in the same specialized farms.

In order to fully comply with the conditions for keeping quails at home, the incubation of quail eggs can be performed in any standard small-sized incubator. It would be better if the incubator is equipped with a device for automatic or semi-automatic egg turning.

A conventional device for seven dozen chicken eggs is even more convenient to use for breeding quails. lined with cotton or soft cloth small quail eggs do not roll around the incubator, and they do not need to be constantly shifted from the edges to the center, where the temperature is slightly higher, since they are already there.

You need to buy fresh eggs, not older than a week, preferably one size. The process of incubation of quail eggs is 16-17 days. You need to turn the eggs at least three times a day, and preferably six.

It is necessary to strictly maintain the temperature regime, checking the temperature with a medical thermometer, since high accuracy of measurements is needed.

The first 10 days the air temperature in the incubator should be 38.5 °C, then it should be reduced to 38.0 °C. The day before the withdrawal and during the withdrawal of the quail, it should be kept at around 37.5 ° C. Humidity should be maintained at 65-75%. For this, special containers with water are provided in the incubators, which must be covered with a mesh with small cells so that tiny hatched chicks do not fall into them. Quails are hatched in a maximum of 12 hours and quite amicably.
Experienced farmers say that late-hatched chicks should not be nurtured, they die sooner or later anyway, only taking time and nerves.

Quail rearing

In the first few days of life, quails are kept at a temperature of 33-35 ° C, which must be gradually reduced to 25 ° C over the course of a month in order to prepare the chicks for release.

For the first two weeks, the quail should be in the light around the clock, then the daylight hours are reduced to 17 hours and no less, since the illumination affects the egg production of the bird in the future.

In addition, newly hatched chicks weigh no more than 8 g and can hide in any gap or become prey to larger domestic animals.

Therefore, for rearing young animals, you need to have a brooder, which is easy to make from plywood and mesh, or any box made of cardboard, plywood or wood can be adapted for this purpose. The top of the box must be covered with a soft mesh.

The box looks like a better option only at first glance. Yes, for growing a small number of young animals, the costs of only purchasing and installing electrical wiring are more profitable. But in this case, the content of the chicks will require close attention. In addition, constant intervention leads to serious stress in babies and even the death of some of them.

In an unsuitable box, a mesh bottom and a litter tray cannot be installed. If you cover the bottom with paper, the quail's legs will part on it. Sawdust bedding is also not good - chicks can peck at it, and you have to change any bedding often, hence the stress. The constant replenishment of the feeders and drinkers inside the box also leads to them. And this is if you do not take into account that in an open drinking bowl, quails splash with pleasure, mixing food and litter there, and turn over a home-made vacuum almost immediately.

Such are the nuances that distinguish the conditions for keeping quails at home. For this reason, raising chicks is best done in a professional brooder, even one made with one's own hands. And its maintenance takes much less time, and the young in it feel much better.

Whatever the design of the brooder, it still needs to be heated and lit.

If the care and maintenance of quails at home (young animals) is limited to one brooder, then one infrared lamp with a dimmer that controls the lighting can be used for both lighting and heating. Enough of its power up to 500 kW.

When mass-growing quails from 500 heads, it is more efficient to use the heating elements of the "warm floor" system with a manual thermostat for heating, and the lighting system with a low-power dimmer is mounted separately.

Feeders and drinkers can also be improved so as not to disturb the kids once again.

You need to bring a hose with a water tank at its opposite end to the drinking bowl from the outside, and a fairly wide corrugated tube to the feeder, through which feed is fed from the outside.

Since the purposes for which quails are raised are different, breeding and keeping males and females at home can also be different. You can separate them as early as three weeks of age. By the color of the plumage on the neck and breast, you can determine the sex of this bird: in males it is darker, and the black specks are smaller.

If breeding is not expected, that is, fertilization of eggs, then culled females and all males are transferred to a separate cage for fattening.

Quail feeding

The diet of young quail is no different from feeding chickens.

The feeders differ in low edges, and only vacuum drinkers should be used so that the quails do not drown in them.

The first food for newly hatched quails is a crushed hard-boiled egg. At the same time, babies should be given a solution of chloramphenicol or potassium permanganate to prevent diseases.

Three days later, you can add cottage cheese to the diet, and for quick weight gain - corn grits. However, you can feed young quails with special food, which is intended for newborn chickens, adding chopped greens to it by the end of the first week. Eight days after the birth of quails, they are completely transferred to purchased feed for chickens, and two weeks later - to food for an adult bird.

Feeding adult quail

In general, the egg mass and the amount of feed eaten are the same for one chicken and four quails, but at the same time, forty quails take up much less space than a dozen laying hens, and it is easier to feed them, it is enough to feed them with a balanced vitamin and mineral composition and protein.

You need to feed adult quails at the same time three times a day, daily rate feed is 25-30 g. The bird eats its one-time portion in about half an hour. Deviations from the norm in any direction negatively affect egg production.

Because one of the most unpretentious poultry in food is quail, keeping at home is facilitated by the fact that any kind of grain feed, crushed grain, nettle, dandelion, borage, yarrow as herbal supplements are suitable for it. In winter, too, there are no problems with plant food. Quail are happy to eat green onions, sprouted grains, crushed corn, sunflower seeds, peel any vegetables from beets and pumpkins to cabbage, boiled potatoes or vermicelli. Birds benefit from fish meal, in the absence of it, you can mix raw or boiled fish ground in a meat grinder a couple of times a week, and sometimes fish oil. Be sure to introduce mineral natural additives into the diet: lime, chalk, eggshell.

Coarse sand or small pebbles should be periodically poured into a separate feeder.

No matter how domesticated the quails are, they are still birds, albeit small ones, and they eat small bugs with pleasure, which in the summer at any summer cottage are abyss, slugs and snails.

Quail should not be given nightshade, neither greens, nor berries, parsley, celery, sorrel, buckwheat, potato tops. But this ban is unlikely to greatly complicate the conditions for keeping quails at home.

Quail fattening

For fattening, females and males are kept in separate cages at the rate of 8.5 sq. cm per individual and preferably in another room, the air temperature in which is approximately 20-24 ° C. To reduce the egg production of females and the activity of both, they are kept in a shady place without intense lighting.

They feed the bird four times a day: twice with corn and greens with feed fats, and twice more with grain waste.

Quails are usually fattened for no more than 2 months. The mass of quail ready for slaughter is from 120 g. Females that have ended their active egg-laying period at about the age of one year are also slaughtered.

For six hours before slaughter, the bird is not fed, but only water is given in unlimited quantities.

The place for slaughter must be specially equipped. The quail's head is cut off with an ax or a large knife, the blood is allowed to drain, the paws and the tips of the wings are cut off with scissors to the shin at the first joint, the carcass is plucked and gutted. This whole procedure, with some skills, takes no more than a minute or two.

“The fairy tale affects for a long time, but the thing is not done for long” - the conditions for keeping quails at home are not so difficult. Temperature, lighting, feeding, cleanliness and a little attention and time - as a result, fresh dietary quail eggs and tender meat appear on the table.

The smallest representatives of birds are quail. These small birds are unpretentious, their care is simple, so even a novice farmer can breed them.

Why it is worth raising quails - economic benefits

Quails have high productivity and an accelerated metabolism. A female with a weight of 120 g produces up to 300 eggs per year, while the total mass of eggs is 20 times the weight of a quail. In terms of nutritional properties, quail eggs are healthier than chicken eggs, they do not contain cholesterol. They are consumed raw, as quails are not susceptible to salmonellosis. At the age of 50 days, quails can already lay eggs. Their egg production is up to 300 eggs per year or more. They grow very quickly, the chicks fledge two weeks after birth.

Quail breeding is beneficial for the following reasons:

• easy care and maintenance;
• low costs for the purchase of eggs for breeding in an incubator;
• fast result.

Quails are bred to obtain lean dietary meat and eggs. This is very profitable business, which does not require large investments, you can start by breeding a small number of birds that can be kept in a barn. Birds raised for meat weigh up to 300 g with a small number of eggs. When breeding for the sake of obtaining eggs, their weight does not exceed 200 g, but more than 300 eggs weighing 10-12 g can be obtained from one quail per year. Chicks hatch after being laid in an incubator after 18 days.

The meat is dietary, contains minerals, amino acids, vitamin B. During long-term storage, it does not lose its beneficial properties. Five eggs are equal in weight to one chicken, but surpass it in the content of vitamins and other substances:

• phosphorus;
• cobalt;
• protein;
• antioxidants;
• nicotinic acid;
• iron is 4.5 times more;
• potassium - 5 times;
• vitamins B1, B2, A.

Thanks to the use of meat and eggs, cardiovascular diseases, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, a number of skin diseases are treated, and the effects of radiation exposure are removed from the body.

Quail breeding is possible in two ways:

1. 1. To meet their own needs for meat and eggs. In this case, it is enough to have 10-30 individuals. For so many quails, you can make a cage by placing it in any free place at home.
2. 2. Own business. The organization of a home business for beginners is recommended with the purchase of 500 birds. In case of a successful start, in a year it is possible to increase the number of livestock up to 5000. To organize a poultry farm, you need to allocate a separate room. A large number of it is convenient to keep birds in 10-12 cell batteries.

When the goals are determined, you can start equipping the premises, buying cages, choosing a quail breed.

Bird breeds - how to make an informed choice?

Quail is the smallest member of the chicken order. The weight of an adult bird is 80-150 g, height - 20 cm. The birds are of a motley color, males have a darker goiter, near the eyes dark spots absent in females. Females are larger than males, reaching a weight of 250 g.

Many breeds of these birds have been bred, each breed has its own characteristics. So that you can choose the right one for the implementation of your goals, we will describe their main characteristics.

Texas. The meat breed of the broiler type is ahead of others in terms of meat production. Snow-white color, there are birds with black patches. The physique is large with a wide, rounded chest. The average weight is 250 g. If you feed it correctly, fully, you can achieve a weight of 550 g. For fattening, you need to use special feed. It is necessary to monitor the weight, overfed quails lose their ability to rush. The males are left to feed. The eggs are large, weighing about 12 g, egg production - up to 280 eggs per year.

Manchurian. The most popular breed in the world. Birds have a beautiful plumage, consisting of feathers of yellow and Brown. The female can be distinguished by black markings on the chest, which are not present in the male. The breed belongs to the meat-egg type. During the year, the female can lay up to 180 eggs, they are large, the average weight is up to 18 g. The weight of adults is 150 g, with high-quality feeding, you can achieve a large weight - 300 g.

Pharaoh. Meat breed. Distinctive feature- a good meat carcass. Feathers are greyish-brown in color, outwardly similar to wild quails. Females differ from males in white and black stripes on the chest, large weight. The weight of the female is on average 300 g, the male weighs less. The breed is characterized by rapid maturation, they need a balanced feed. Two-month-old quails can be sent for slaughter. Egg-laying in females begins at 45 days. Eggs weigh up to 15 g. Egg production is 200 eggs per year.

Californian. Birds are kept more like decorative rock due to external beauty. Breeding them is unprofitable: low survival rate of chicks, low productivity. It is necessary to keep in conditions as close to natural as possible, otherwise the quail will lose its decorative effect.

Japanese. The breed was bred in three directions: meat, egg and mixed. The color of the feathers is rusty brown. Quails have a darker collar zone than females. The weight of an individual depends on the direction, on average it is 150 g. Egg production is high - more than 300 eggs per year.

Tuxedo. The breed is obtained by crossing English quails and birds with white and black feathers. These are beautiful large specimens. The color of the feathers resembles a tuxedo: the chest is light in color, the back is a darker color. The weight of the birds is small: males weigh 150 g, females - 180 g. Therefore, they are bred more for beauty. Egg production is high - 280 eggs per year.

Proper nutrition is the key to health and productivity

For feeding adult quails, drinkers and feeders are taken out of the cage. Gutter-type containers are fixed around the perimeter with outside cells. To quench thirst and hunger, quails have to stick their heads out, so it is easier to keep clean in the cages.

Feed is given at the rate of 30 g per individual two to three times a day. Females bred for eggs are best suited for a balanced laying hen diet. You can add waste from the garden, greens, grain, fruits to it. Feed should be given strictly according to the scheme, overeating leads to obesity and a decrease in egg production.

To provide for the quail balanced diet, in their menu include:

• compound feed for chickens;
• vegetables: cabbage, raw or boiled potatoes, carrots;
• oats, barley, millet, wheat;
• sunflower seeds;
• cottage cheese;
• crushed shells, eggshells, crushed chalk;
• greens: onions, clover, sprouted wheat, lettuce;
• fishmeal;
• fish fat;
• minced fish, boiled or raw.

It is impossible to feed quails with buckwheat, barley, parsley, celery, greens from tomatoes, potatoes, ranunculus and nightshade plants, such food causes them indigestion and poisoning.

Pour warm boiled water into the drinkers. Change it regularly to keep it fresh and clean. Use microcup, vacuum, flute and nipple drinkers. Wash containers daily.

Meat quails are seated according to gender and begin to be fattened for meat. In the room where they are kept, maintain a temperature of 22 degrees and low light. Feeding meat breeds has its own specifics. Food is given four times a day, in large portions. In the first half of the day they give green fodder, in the second - grain waste. Birds are ready for slaughter if they have reached the appropriate weight, usually the fattening period is 60 days. 6 hours before slaughter, they stop giving food to the birds, leaving only drinkers.

Maintenance and care - how much space and what kind of light do quails need?

AT wild nature quails are migratory birds, they are difficult to domesticate, so they are kept in cages. In order to grow healthy and strong birds with good egg production, it is necessary to create appropriate conditions with the obligatory observance of the temperature and light conditions, and provide high-quality protein feed.

Basic requirements for a comfortable stay at home:

1. 1. A room for growing quails can be allocated in a barn on a plot of land or a summer house, a loggia can be adapted in an apartment by insulating it for keeping in winter, and a garage is also suitable in urban conditions. It is important that the room is warm, dry and well ventilated. Windows may be absent, but for the sake of saving electricity, their presence is desirable.
2. 2. Good ventilation is required in the room. For every kilogram of quail weight, more than 5 sq. m / h of fresh air is needed in summer and 1.5 sq. m / h in winter. Therefore, when growing quails in an apartment, it is better to place the cages near a window or on an insulated loggia.
3. 3. Despite the need for fresh air, quails are susceptible to drafts. If there are drafts in the room, feathers fall out of the birds, egg production decreases. Therefore, for winter maintenance, the room must be well insulated.
4. 4. Quails need light, but not very bright. A fluorescent light bulb is not suitable for them, since it gives off a lot of light, the birds are excited, cannibalism is possible. A 40 W incandescent lamp or a fluorescent LDC-40 is suitable.
5. 5. It is important to keep the air humidity in the room at least 55%. If the humidity is insufficient, the quails drink a lot of water, the plumage becomes brittle, and egg production drops. High humidity exceeding 75% is also unacceptable. The optimal indicator is 60-70%.
6. 6. An important parameter is air temperature. Birds feel comfortable at room temperature of 20-22 degrees. The maximum lower temperature is 18 degrees, the upper - 25 degrees. If the temperature is below 18 degrees, the quails stop laying.

It is convenient to keep quails in a cage. They can be purchased ready-made or made from mesh and plywood. The sizes and shapes of cells can be arbitrary. For one adult quail, it is necessary to allocate an area of ​​​​100-120 square meters. cm. The height of the cells should not be made more than 25 cm, as frightened quails try to take off, they can fall and be injured. According to zootechnical standards on one square meter can accommodate from 80 to 100 individuals.

On the floor, it is desirable to lay a grid with a slope towards the feeders. Quails don't need perches, they lay their eggs on the floor. A slot is made in the front wall for rolling eggs into a special chute. Under the floor for collecting litter, a metal or plastic pallet is installed. Litter must be cleaned daily. If the bedding is made of straw, shavings, paper or hay, it also needs to be changed every day. Drinkers and feeders are attached to the front wall from the outside.

On poultry farms with more than 700 livestock, complexes are used, which are multi-tiered cell batteries, which can accommodate up to 250 individuals.

The complex includes several cages with feeders, drinkers and egg collectors. Such a complex can be built independently from metal sheets, mesh and plywood. In summer, cages can be taken out to fresh air.

Raising chicks - why do you need an incubator?

Quails can lay eggs without a quail, but if you are breeding, then the presence of a male is necessary. For breeding, buy young animals aged 1-1.5 months. Chicks are easier to tolerate a change of residence. When buying chicks, inspect each. In healthy individuals:

• dry beak, without defects;
• average weight, they do not look either emaciated or overfed;
• clean plumage around the cloaca;
• clear breathing, no wheezing;
• feathers are clean, without excrement and dirt.

For laying and further breeding, select quails aged 3 to 6 months, females - from 3 to 8 months. Close relationships should be avoided. To get eggs for the incubator, males and females are planted together in a ratio of 1:4 or 1:3. If the birds are kept separately by gender, then the quails are planted for 15 minutes. With this method, fertilization is 80%. To obtain high-quality offspring, the herd is updated after three months. As a result of selection, quails have lost their hen instinct, so incubators are needed to produce offspring.

You can buy an incubator from the factory or make it yourself by adapting a chicken incubator for this. A special mesh is purchased or trays are adapted for small eggs. A small incubator holds 400 eggs.

When making a home-made incubator, we perform the following steps:

• put a soft bedding in a cardboard box at the bottom;
• on top we fix a lamp of 40 W or with a red light;
• install a thermometer;
• by adjusting the height of the lamp, we achieve a temperature inside the box of 37-38.5 degrees;
• to maintain humidity, we place a container of water next to the box;
• We place no more than 20 eggs on the litter.

Chicks hatch on the 18th day, you need to carefully care for them from the first days. If you observe the required temperature regime - 38-38.9 degrees and maintain air humidity at least 50%, provide automatic or semi-automatic egg flipping, then the percentage of chicks that appear is very high. If there is no automatic turning, eggs should be turned 3-5 times a day. The brood appears within 6 hours.

Quail chicks have brown down with two light stripes on the back. They are very mobile. From the first days, it is better to keep them in a cardboard or plywood box - a brooder. Either a fine mesh with a pallet is placed at the bottom of the boxes, or paper is laid. It is important to maintain a certain temperature in the brooder. The first two weeks it should not be below 38 degrees. The temperature at which the chicks are comfortable can be determined by their behavior.

If they are cold, they gather in a pile. In addition, full daylight hours are maintained, this stimulates the chicks, they approach the feeders more often, grow faster. Starting from the 15th day, the temperature is lowered to 25 degrees. It is impossible to sharply reduce the temperature, jumps threaten the weakening and death of the chicks. Upon reaching 1 month, the young should be accustomed to room temperature - 20-22 degrees. It is transferred to a 12-hour light day. When quails at the age of 1.5 months begin to rush, the daylight hours are 17 hours.

To provide quail with minerals and vitamins from the first days, they are given high-quality compound feed for young animals, containing everything necessary substances. In their absence, you can give a chopped boiled egg. The first 7 days for one chick is 3-4 g of feed, by the month the norm is 15-16 g per day. If food remains, it must be removed, otherwise it will turn sour, the chicks will be poisoned.

On the fourth day, quails are fed with crushed corn groats, millet, finely ground wheat groats, compound feed for young animals, and cottage cheese. In the period from 8 to 20 days, the chicks are given only compound feed, you can chop and add meat waste, carrots, greens. Quail water is obtained from vacuum drinkers so that they do not drown. Water must be boiled.

After 20 days, the quails are transplanted into cages for keeping adults and transferred to the appropriate feed. At the same time, we sort them by gender and direction: meat, egg. Sex can be determined by color: in females, the neck and chest are light gray speckled, in males these places are red-brown with specks. After 45 days, most breeds start laying eggs.

What to do so that the birds do not get sick?

When raising quails, watch the behavior of the birds. If you notice that the individual behaves passively, moves little, put it away from other birds and consult a veterinarian. If physically injured due to lack of space or strong light, move the specimen to a separate cage until it recovers. The reason for the death of quails is often too intensive masonry. In this case, reduce daylight hours, reduce the protein content in the feed.

Pay attention to the consistency and color of the excrement. If the quail is healthy, the litter is dark in color with whitish stains. If it is liquid, dark green in color, this is a sign of illness. Yellow excrement indicates an excess of carbohydrates. If the whole herd is vilifying, replace the water with a tincture of rice or oats.

Herd diseases can occur for the following reasons:

• poor conditions of detention;
• change of feed;
• lack of nutrients, unbalanced diet;
• poor quality food.

With a lack of nutrients, a violation of the diet, the birds suffer from beriberi. Symptoms appear as:

• loss of appetite;
• ruffled feathers;
• lethargy;
• stretching the neck;
• tilting the head.

With such symptoms, quails change their diet, monitor compliance with the feeding regimen, and increase the nutrient content in the feed.

If the conditions of detention are not observed, the following diseases are possible:

• feather loss;
• cannibalism;
• prolapse of the oviduct.

Check if the conditions of keeping meet the standards, and adjust them if necessary: ​​reduce the number of animals in the cage, change the brightness of the lighting, add the missing minerals and vitamins to the diet. After these actions, the symptoms disappear, and the birds return to normal.

Quails differ from other poultry in their small body size and eggs. But fast incubation, maturation of individuals, high egg production and nutritional value compensate for the small size.

The benefits of quail breeding

The main advantages of keeping quails at home are the following:

1. Birds do not get sick with salmonellosis. Thanks to high temperature quail bodies, a quail egg can be safely consumed without heat treatment, getting the maximum of useful substances. Resistance to many diseases allows you to save on veterinary care.
2. Meat does not spoil when frozen. Long-term storage in the freezer of most poultry meat leads to a loss of nutritional value. A quail carcass (gutted, cleaned and packaged) can be stored in the refrigerator compartment for up to a year (-18-20 ⁰С).
3. Requires little storage space. Domestic quails do not require a paddock for walking. Birds are bred in the garden, in the house, in the country and in the apartment. The height of the cage should be in the range of 20 to 30 cm. The area is calculated as follows: 10 heads per 0.25 m. Up to 40 individuals can be kept per square meter of the cage. Tightness is very important to maintain the egg production of these birds. Large space will lead to reduced activity.
4. Fast turnover. The incubation of a quail egg takes 17-18 days. Sexual maturity of quails occurs at the age of 35-40 days.
5. egg production, depending on age, gradually increases from 10 eggs to 25-30 per month. This indicator remains until the age of 8 years of laying hens.

To whom to sell quails?

Quail meat and eggs contain more nutrients than chicken. These products are recommended for people with gastrointestinal problems, heart problems, those who want to lose weight, athletes, as well as children and adolescents.

Lean and nutritious meat is valued by people leading healthy lifestyle life. There is always a demand for carcasses and eggs.

Quail carcasses and eggs are bought in batches by restaurants, cafes, hotels, rest houses, boarding houses and health institutions, private kindergartens and camps.

Young domestic quails and eggs for incubation sell well at agricultural fairs and on the Internet. They are bought for breeding by beginners and experienced poultry farmers to introduce “fresh blood” into the livestock.

This is due to the fact that closely related ties impair egg production.

Business profitability: calculations

The Russian poultry market is not oversaturated with quail farm products. The cost of carcasses and eggs is twice (or even more) the price of chicken meat.

Important! With a high demand for domestically produced food, a quail farming business will be a profitable investment.

Before you start a business, you need to find out about future competitors, what price they work with and purchasing power in the region.

Poultry businessmen claim that five years ago quail breeding was a very profitable business. There were no problems with the sale of products, as there was no competition. Now the offer has increased and before starting a business, you need to conduct a detailed analysis and find out “whether the game is worth the candle”.

Need big money

• significant volumes of poultry,
• low cost of your egg,
• knowledge about the presence of competitors in your area,
• is there a demand for your products,
• how much do competitors sell
• How much can buyers pay for a product?

You can only breed quails if you like the bird itself. This little bird must be loved, admired, then you can start a business, then all the troubles and difficulties will not be a burden.

But if business is not your forte, then you can still try. Why? Because quail eggs are dietary products. They are simply necessary for children, pregnant women and men in certain age.

What are the benefits of quail eggs?

Unlike chicken eggs, quail eggs are not susceptible to salmonellosis and surpass them in variety and quantity of nutrients. They have

• amino acids,
• vitamins various groups,
• mineral compounds (calcium, phosphorus, copper).

But when dieting, you need to be careful. Quail eggs are very high in calories. In one piece 168 kcal. They say that they are good to eat if you suffer

• bronchial asthma,
• diabetes,
• atherosclerosis,
• obese.

What are the benefits of quail meat?

It surpasses chicken and rabbit in dietary, taste and nutritional qualities. Useful for pregnant women, debilitated children, the elderly. Can be applied in clinical nutrition patients with diseases

• hearts,
• kidney,
• joints,
• liver.

Quail breeds

Quail as well as chickens are divided into two areas:

• meat,
• egg.

Quail hatch very quickly. 17 days after laying, they are already beginning to hatch. After 40 days they are already rushing. Of all poultry, they are the most precocious.

The following breeds of quails are especially popular at home courtyards.

If you live in a village and decide to try to breed quails for yourself, then you first need to prepare their place of residence.

Cells

Quail is a game, it is difficult to domesticate it. Therefore, it is not suitable for pasture walking. She lives in cages.

Quail are very shy. They are annoyed by harsh sounds, bright lights, do not like to be disturbed. Also, no bird likes drafts. From all this, they can stop rushing or start pecking at each other. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the most closed cell.

You can buy a cage or make your own. The walls (except the front) in the cage must be made of fiberboard, plywood or plastic. But the bottom and front - mesh. Moreover, a coarse mesh is placed in front so that the quail can stick its head in, peck food and drink water.

A mesh with small cells is placed at the bottom, and a pallet is placed under the mesh. Through the cells, the litter will fall onto the pallet. What matters is what material it is made from. Stainless steel or galvanized iron is bad. They last a year and then you have to change. Since iron is corroded by droppings, it becomes inconvenient to remove impurities from it.

Some cover metal pallets with newspapers, but this does not save them from corrosion. The best way is polycarbonate. True, for a beginner poultry breeder, such material is too expensive. Many adapt old pieces of linoleum to collect litter. It turns out no worse than polycarbonate.

In addition, the bottom should be arranged in such a way that the eggs from it roll well into the egg collection tray. Then they will remain clean, and the bird will not have time to peck at them. But quails need such cells from the age of two months, that is, when they are already rushing. Small chicks are placed in a brooder.

As for feeders and drinkers, it is better to place them outside the cages. Then the cage will be clean and dry, and water will not get into the litter trays. For this reason, many refuse nipple drinkers in cages. With them it turns out that there seems to be no open water, but the bird drinks, shakes its head and splashes fly in all directions. As a result, water still gets into the pallets.

poultry house

The equipment of the barn where the quail will be placed depends on how many birds you want to keep on your farm. If you are counting on a small number of birds (up to 20), then special equipment is not required.

If there are several hundred birds, then they already need an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 30 m 2. In the poultry house there are cage batteries, a brooder, an incubator is installed separately, a place is allocated where food will be stored and prepared.

Ventilation

The poultry house, in which there will be cages with quails, must be equipped with supply and exhaust ventilation. Pay attention to where the clean air comes from and where the exhaust is discharged. Make sure that the expelled air is not sucked back.

It is better to familiarize yourself with the ventilation device in garages and do something similar at home. The question is important. Since the bird, although small, emits a lot of sewage. And, the released ammonia does nothing good for you or the quails. It seems that chickens have less secretions than these little birds.

Lighting and heating

All poultry equipment (incubator, brooder, cage) needs electricity to operate. In addition, the lighting should turn on and off at a certain time. If the bird does not have enough light, it will rush less. If too much, then the birds will become aggressive and cripple each other.

Preferred lighting option - lamps infrared radiation. They should burn dimly and for 15 hours. Their task is not only to illuminate the room, but also to maintain normal temperature in it (from +18 to +20 degrees). Lower or higher for a bird is undesirable.

For the normal well-being of birds and the preservation of their productivity in cold weather, it is necessary to alternate periods of lighting. Two hours is dark, three hours is light.

Quails have basically lost the instinct to incubate eggs. None of them are hens. Therefore, if you decide to start breeding quails, you will definitely need to buy an incubator. It is better to immediately buy a good one, and not spend money and nerves on a cheap one. The price for good ones starts at 10,000 rubles. Korean ones are popular, but they are more expensive. good and with reasonable price are considered Russian incubators Blitz base. They are designed for a different number of eggs.

How to propagate?

Naturally, individuals of both sexes are needed for reproduction. The quail family is one male and three or four females. So, if you want to get your fertilized eggs for breeding, then you need to purchase quail young.

Quails are bought at a month or two months of age. At this time, sexual characteristics are already visible and it is possible to distinguish a boy from a girl, but it is extremely difficult to do this without experience. Often unscrupulous sellers cheat. And if you consider that the male costs two times cheaper than the female, then you can get very “burned out”. It's better if you don't have any experience and don't try.

It is necessary that the seller himself sorted the chicks and gave money back guarantees in case of an incorrect choice.

Eggs for incubation must be:

• taken from a quail of two to ten months of age,
• necessarily fertilized,
• weighing from 9 to 11 grams,
• with a shelf life of no more than a week.

The incubation period for quail eggs is 17 days. The chicks hatch together. The entire procedure takes no more than six hours.

Young growth technology

After the chicks have dried, they are placed in a brooder, which is heated by an infrared lamp. The first week the temperature is maintained at +35 degrees. After two weeks, it is lowered to +30 degrees.

For the first half month of their life, the light in the brooder burns around the clock. Then up to 45 days it burns according to the scheme

From the age of two months, quails begin egg-laying and they are transferred to cages, where the light will burn for 17 hours. At the same time, males are also removed. In one cage, you can leave one male and four females.

Quail feeding

For quails, as for any bird, you need a balanced feed. Poultry farmers involved in quail breeding note that the DK-52P (Bogdanovich) compound feed meets these requirements. It contains 45% corn. As a protein, meat and bone meal and crushed seeds of oil plants (meals) are added there. It contains all the vitamins and minerals necessary for the bird.

Small chicks are fed with chopped boiled eggs, cottage cheese and starter feed for chickens.

Water the quail with warm boiled water. During the first three days, an antibiotic (usually chloramphenicol) can be added to the water.

At three weeks, they can already be fed compound feedintended for adult quails. If it is good, then the bird does not get sick and regularly lays eggs. Feed per bird requires about 30 grams. Based on this value, you can calculate the amount of feed that you need to feed the entire bird.

As you can see, the care and breeding of quails is not very different from the cultivation of any other bird. Therefore, if you live in a village, then it will not be difficult for you to try to breed this little bird as well. And there, who knows, it may turn out to be your life's work.

Quails are kept in the household for many reasons: high reproduction rate, cheap production, high profitability. Poultry farming is one of the most profitable industries Agriculture, allowing without much effort and expensive equipment to make a profit in a short time. Growing quails by beginner poultry farmers at home is carried out in cages in a private courtyard. Sometimes birds are bred in an apartment.

In modern breeding, many breeds of quail have been bred, some of them are especially popular when grown (on an industrial scale and for their own consumption):

1. Japanese. The most popular species, the weight of an individual is about 130 g. The bird lays eggs from the age of 60 days, produces up to 300 eggs per year. Individuals of this species are easy to care for, have a high resistance to disease. An ideal species for beginner poultry farmers.
2. Marble Japanese. The weight and performance of birds are similar to those of the representatives of the Japanese breed.
3. Pharaoh. The weight of an individual is about 270 g, the bird begins to lay eggs at the age of about 50 days, the productivity per year is up to 220 eggs.
4. British blacks. The weight of an individual is 7% more than the mass of the Japanese quail, but the productivity and growth rate are somewhat less.

Quail eggs are very nutritious and contain a lot of vitamins, their shell is only 7.2% of the mass of the whole egg, protein - 60.9%, and yolk - 31.9%. Modern nutritionists recommend them as food for a number of diseases, including allergies to chicken eggs. Quail meat is dietary, carbohydrate-free (125 kcal per 100 g of product), contains 21.2% protein, 72.7% water, 3.6% fat, 1.2% other inorganic components.

Features of growing quails

Growing quail at home has its own characteristics. First of all, it is organized in cells. When growing livestock, the bottom of the cage is covered with sand (or paper) and cleaned every day. As practice shows, one quail should account for 1.7 dm² of cage floor area. It is necessary to provide for the device of an egg collector, a drinking bowl and a feeder.

The room for installing the cages should be quiet, at room temperature, have a ventilation and heating system (if it is not possible to organize heating of the room, then birds do not lay eggs in winter), sources of strong noise should not be nearby. Relative humidity should be between 50 and 70%.

Lighting of the room is allowed natural, but it must be organized for 17-18 hours (from 6-00 to 23-00). If this is not possible with the help of windows, then the room is additionally equipped with lamps. If the birds do not receive sunlight, then they are illuminated from time to time ultraviolet lamps. The cells are arranged with an interval between rows of 70 cm.

Quail catering

When growing quails, it is very important to balance the diet so that the livestock grows well and egg production does not fall. Bird food should be finely ground or finely chopped.

Cereal crops (oats, vetch, wheat, barley) should form the basis of the quail diet. Feed is selected based on the age of the livestock. Of the legumes, the most useful are peas, beans, lentils, soybeans. Sometimes yeast is added to the mixture of grains.

When feeding with root crops, it is allowed to use boiled potatoes, carrots, beets and turnips. Greens should be given to birds daily in unlimited quantities. When growing quails, it is imperative to feed them with food rich in protein: fish dishes, meat, milk powder, cottage cheese, worms, blood, ants and various protein supplements. Most poultry farmers feed birds with special feed for quails (daily rate - up to 27 g per individual).

Replenishment of the bird's body with microelements is achieved by introducing ground shells into the menu. It is temporarily allowed to replace it with chalk or shells. Also, quails are given small gravel to stimulate the grinding of food in the stomach.

Birds should have round-the-clock access to clean water in drinking bowls, it must be replaced several times a day. To prevent the occurrence of diseases, it is necessary to throw a crystal of potassium permanganate into the water once a month. At the same time, birds note a change in the taste of water, which is why they are not very willing to drink it.

To avoid a pestilence of livestock, it is necessary to carefully monitor and prevent the ingress of salt (in large quantities) and cement into food.

Nutrition of adults should be organized in such a way that daily intake protein was 21-25%. Special feed contains up to 23% protein, so the daily portion should be supplemented with 2 g of crude protein: cottage cheese, fish, meat. Birds should not be overfed, the size of the evening portion is 40% of the daily allowance.

Quail breeding

Quail breeding technology also includes several points. In order to determine the sex of an individual, you need to look at the color of its plumage and the color of the skin of the cloaca: males are distinguished by a darker color of feathers, pink skin cloacae, females - light color pen, bluish cloaca. Also, females are about 15% heavier than males, while the latter have slightly increased carcass sizes. In the photo and video, these differences can be considered in more detail.

It is rarely necessary to specially pair quails. During the preparation of birds for crossing, the amount of proteins and vitamins in the birds' diet is increased. For breeding choose females aged 3-8 months, males - 3-6 months. The breeds of the crossed individuals must be the same, and the quails must not be closely related. In a crossed group, there are up to 4 females per male. Before selecting eggs for incubation, it is necessary to let the birds live together for a while. Throughout the entire breeding season, it is necessary to monitor the activity of birds and stop the aggressive behavior of quails.

Poultry farmers without experience are not recommended to immediately start growing livestock. It is better to start with the care of adult birds, gain experience. However, if there is a desire to breed quails on your own, then first of all you will need to purchase (or make) special equipment - an incubator, since birds do not hatch eggs at home. The basic principle of operation of the incubator - with the help of electricity is supported constant temperature, which is independent of diurnal changes. The walls of the incubator are made with an air gap. From below organize the possibility of access to fresh air. A glass is provided on top for inspection, manipulation of eggs and temperature control. Experts note the need for embryos in fresh air. The incubator must be cleaned throughout the entire period of operation.

In the incubator, quail eggs lie on their side or with the sharp end down. After laying the eggs, the air temperature is maintained at about 39ºС (the first two hours), then for 2 weeks - 38ºС, the rest of the time until the brood appears - 37ºС. For different types the duration of incubation differs by several days. The young will hatch in batches over 6 hours. Next, the chicks are placed in special cages, where they grow them.

Quail rearing

In order to successfully grow quails from young animals, several important requirements must be observed:

1. it is impossible to allow the air temperature value to go out of the optimal range;
2. it is required to ensure continuous access of quail to clean water and feed;
3. lighting must be observed.

From the first days, you can introduce compound feed for young animals. It is very important to keep the water clean and prevent impurities from entering the feed during the first two weeks of the chick's life. In order to properly grow healthy individuals, it is necessary to ensure the optimal lighting regime: experts recommend starting with round-the-clock lighting and gradually increasing the lighting time to 17 hours.

Quails are transplanted into cages for adults at the age of 1 month.

Features of growing birds for slaughter and for obtaining eggs

If the poultry farmer has decided to grow quails in his backyard in order to sell bird meat, then it is necessary to divide the herd by gender (keep females and males separately), ensure denser placement of birds in cages, dim lighting (additionally reduce the duration to 12 hours). The optimum value of the air temperature in the room should be in the range from 20 to 24ºС.

The breeder must provide the birds with round-the-clock uninterrupted access to food and drink. Before slaughter, it is recommended to fatten the birds, for which the food is smoothly transferred to the fattening mode from the standard one. Starting from the age of 45 days, birds are selected for slaughter, and when they reach the age of 60 days, the remaining livestock from the herd is also sent for meat.

If the poultry farmer has decided to grow quails in his backyard in order to obtain eggs, then laying hens (females of one and a half months of age) are selected first of all, males can not be put in a cage. One quail will lay about 300 eggs in a year. When the laying hen reaches the age of about a year, the number of eggs decreases. As soon as egg production falls below 50%, the birds are sent for slaughter.

Quail diseases

When raising birds at home, questions arise about diseases and their prevention.

Quails have a fairly high resistance to disease. Infection occurs due to pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Treatment is with medicines and antiseptics.

Most of the non-contagious diseases of quails occur due to violations of the diet, maintenance, due to injuries and injuries of various kinds.

If the regimen and diet are not followed, the following diseases may occur:

1. Thin and soft eggshell (or lack thereof). Associated with calcium deficiency minerals and vitamins. For treatment, it is necessary to improve the quality of bird nutrition, add sources of calcium and minerals to the feed.
2. Avitaminosis. Slow development and growth of birds, decrease in the number of eggs, deterioration of the shell quality. For treatment, it is necessary to introduce vitamins, yeast, herbs, fish, meat into the diet.
3. Prolapse of the oviduct. The main reason for the occurrence is the use of adult food to feed the young and continuous lighting of birds. In adult quails, the disease can develop in case of a lack of vitamins A and D2. Treatment of young livestock is not possible: the bird dies. To prevent the occurrence of this disease in the rest of the herd, when a single case is detected, the dose of vitamins is doubled in the diet of the livestock.
4. Pecking is cannibalism. It is observed if the birds are placed too closely, there is too bright lighting, sometimes when a new male is planted with the females. The solution to the problem lies in optimizing the lighting and seating of the birds, maintaining good nutrition.
5. Bald patches in birds - the appearance of patches of skin without feathers. Occur in the presence of drafts in the room, with air with low humidity. Treatment is achieved by eliminating the cause.

Summarizing

Poultry farmers separately note the simplicity of breeding young animals from scratch. Raising chicks from the first days does not require special conditions caring for them is almost no different from caring for adults. After watching the video, you can study the features of self-breeding quails, the manufacture of equipment for their maintenance and breeding.