Backyard Poultry Forum

So I've finally jumped right in and bought some quails, 3 girls and 2 boys. I only really bought the boys because of some of the things I've read about keeping them in pairs and kind of got convinced to. Although after seeing how desperately one of the girls tries to escape mating, I'm not so convinced anymore. But anyway, I have the boys now and as I really want the quail eggs to sell for human consumption I really need to find out if fertile eggs are legal to sell for consumption. I just can't find any laws on it so if anyone could help, that would be great. I live in VIC, in case the regulations are different here to other states.

Also if anyone is a bit of a quail expert, I do have some concerns about the health of one of the girls I bought. She can stand tall and fly okay but seems to carry herself lower than the others overall. She also seems to have her wings down lower and they very, very regularly seem to vibrate. It doesn't look anything like what the do when they dust bathe. I've isolated her but I'm not sure if this is normal and I'm just being paranoid or if they actually is something wrong with her. I can try to get a video tomorrow. Help?

If you only wanted the quail (assumed Japanese) for eating eggs, & not for hatching/breeding, then you didn't really need the males. The males can be rough on the females & it is therefore a good idea to run a few females with the one male. I have found that more than one male penned together will fight. One will become the dominant bird & harass the other @ all opportunities.

I can't help with the legalities of selling fertile (or infertile) quail eggs? Perhaps someone else can?

The hen you have isolated does sound not quite right going by your description. You have picked up on her behaving differently to the other birds. She may be a little 'off colour' for some minor temporary ailment, or it could be something more serious. Isolating her from the other birds was probably a good move. I would probably ensure plenty of fresh clean water, good quality food, & try for comfortable environment free from stress in the short term & see how she goes. I guess you could try worming too.

I don't know about legal details in Victoria but I do know that quail eggs get sold there.

We saw them for sale in the Victoria Markets a couple of months ago.




We tried housing two males together with females and it didn't work. The dominant one was going to injure the other male so we had to reduce it to one. We now have six females to one male.

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Backyard Poultry Forum

Quail eggs "eat" the same whether fertile or otherwise. All lovely. No restrictions on the legality of selling fertile eggs: other than that egg-sellers should be registered through Streatrader/Health Dept/Council, with a PIC No from Primary Industries, all that as well covered in other threads on selling eggs.

For personal consumption, no difference. For running boys with the girls, yes they are tough on them and each other. The larger the pen and run the better, with some clumpy grass planted, or at least a few pots and rocks around, so there are shelter spots. Setting birds up in small bare cages is on a par with keeping battery chooks, good for commercial production, rock-bottom for cruelty.

Don't know about your question-mark hen Cupcake - the hens do run around 'lower' than the cocks with a straighter back, less upright. The wing vibration I don't know, sure she isn't dust-bathing or wishing she could? They adore a sand or dust or dry soil patch to dust-bath, it's another bit of enrichment that take their tiny minds off killing one another out of sheer boredom.

Good luck with your lot, they really are fun to keep.

For me I will have my first try this coming Saturday selling quail eggs at a market, so fingers crossed. Oh and my usual supplier of cute quail egg cartons has fallen through: anyone have any best experience suggestions of where to source them before I start googling? The shells are thinner than bantam eggs, so I'd rather transport (and sell) them in proper cartons rather than takeaway containers that they can rattle around in.

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PC

I think I'll probably end up getting more girls to spread between the two boys. The 3rd female that was looking too brilliant last night is looking much better today. Other than the odd wing vibration every so often (much less frequently today) she overall seems to be acting bright and normal, so I decided to put her back in with the others.

I've set up a temporary enclosure for them outside which they're now all in. They seem to all be getting along well and they seem fairly happy with the amount of space, although I'll still be making a larger enclosure for them. I think I'll need to play with what I'm feeding them as they're not that thrilled with a lot of the things I've offered them thus far, but I imagine it's just because it's not what they've been fed previously. Overall it seems to be going fairly well with them, and I've had a great time watching the dust bathe properly in dirt today.

...unlike the newspaper, towels, and carpet they were trying to dust bathe in last night

Balut eggs are very expensive and sort after by different nationalities

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Sebright Club of Australia
sebrights-au.webs.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food)


For an explanation of Balut.

eewwwe. i know what i have learnt today.

my take on fertile eggs for eating is; they were fertile before they went in the fridge.

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whomever lives longest wins

I've actually heard of Balut before but didn't know it was available in Australia. Maybe that was just wishful thinking! *gag*

But so far I haven't got any eggs from the quails yet anyway. Not sure if I'm not feeding them right, if their setup is wrong, etc. or if they're just not laying at the moment. They should be around 13 weeks old. If I'm being completely honest, I actually think I've been sold 3 males and only 2 girls... We'll be figuring out and trying to foam sex sometime soon and will be contacting the seller if that's the case :/
I figure with 2 boys we probably need a couple of extra girls anyway.

If anyone has a good quail setup I'd love to see photos of it. I know they need hidey holes and places to lay, but maybe my setup have the wrong things or not enough of them.

At 13 weeks, in Melbourne, I'd expect that your hens would be laying now.

If there are too many males to hens then the added stress to the hens can inhibit laying. You'd generally see a lot of missing / damaged feathers if they're being overworked by the cocks. Back of the neck & the saddle area would be affected.

Although hidey holes make their home more "natural" for them they're not entirely necessary for people who only have hens. If there are males about, especially if keeping more than one male in a group situation then places to hide are, I feel, essential.
Places to lay aren't required either as quail will lay where they like. Having said that, in my setup a couple of terracotta pots on their sides make excellent nesting / egg laying sites (the drainage hole becomes a spot for light to enter so that they feel safe enough to enter the pot without being totally trapped.

Personally I have both hiding spots & laying areas, as I prefer them to have an active & enjoyable life more than I want their eggs. A dustbathing area is always appreciated, as you've found out with some of the materials you've put in for them.

Not sure what you're feeding them, but a complete feed for laying chooks at even an "average" protein level would normally be enough to have them laying. They're tiny birds, and it doesn't take much to tip the balance of their diet, so if you want them laying eggs forget treats & new foods until they're laying for you. If you want to give them a bit of extra protein that may help kick them into laying phase... if they're not trying new foods then that may not work for you though. What were they being fed by the person you got them from?

I haven't yet seen any successful mating attempts, and there doesn't seem to be any real signs of the feather loss from being overworked. I did come home to find they've attacked one of the girls reasonably badly during the day while I was at the hospital with my OH. I felt terrible about not being there to check on them through the day after finding this has happened, but there really wasn't a way around that. So now that's inside to be nursed and I think tomorrow I'll be going out and buying what I need to separate them all permanently from each other.

I'll try upping the protein in their diets some more and see if that makes a difference with the laying. I'm not sure what they were fed previously and I'm not surprised we didn't find out as the seller really wasn't brilliant (kept us waiting for a couple of hours because he decided to go out with mates, didn't let us pick our own quails but instead made us wait outside the house in the rain, seemingly has given us more males than females). My start in quail keeping hasn't gone too smoothly so far...

Yes to all Winglet said. My lot took a long break over winter and have just in the past week all started laying. They do well on good high protein feed like Lauckes Gamebird series. Because we don't kill/eat our quail I sometimes wonder if this constant advice of high protein diet isn't overdone for quail: I mean it might not be as critical if like mine they are kept for eggs but not meat. But once they start laying it is full-on, never miss a day for many months, so need a good feed basis to support that.

What I forgot to mention was water: it is always amazing how much quail need and consume daily. They love to paddle, and if a happy gang is the aim, always have a big tray of water around half an inch to 2cm deep for them to run around in. Not buckets ever: when they fly up and land accidentally in a bucket - that's a bad day.

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PC

No animal I ever own would turn into meat for myself or anyone else. I'd certainly like the eggs a whole lot though. I haven't yet been able to track down anywhere that sells gamebird feed, which is what I want to feed my quails but I suppose they'll just have to wait until I can find some! The water dish is also deep enough to fit a reasonable enough amount of water for each day in it but I've seen them get in it and they're certainly taller than what the water is. I'll have to try getting them a tray though.

I'm not terribly happy with how the injured one is looking but I imagine she'll be fine. Probably just me being stressed out and over-worrying about it. It seems to have also had it's beak cracked and chipped. I feel terrible for the poor little thing.

Okay... the damaged beak, I'm not sure if that will repair itself... if you're desperate to know someone in Good Samaritan area will know (or someone else who knows could tell you in here). As long as the bird can still eat & drink it will manage just fine (presuming it can walk as well... different matter).

Some good news for you is that even HORRENDOUS wounds to quail can heal quite quickly & once healed you won't even know which one was hurt. I've had a male have his eye appear missing & have so much damage to his head I was considering putting him out of his misery.... figure he could still eat & drink so I'd just watch him daily & be ready to step in if needed... wound wasn't dirty so didn't even apply antiseptic.. just kept a close eye on him. I cannot tell which one he is now !

It is very peculiar for a hen to be beaten up, and I would guess that the one beaten up is actually a male... could be wrong !

Which side of Melbourne are you on? Location of someone who sells something suitable can then be given to you.

I've also PM'd you (as I'm in Melbourne, too).

I'm in Werribee. The injured quail certainly still tries to forage, I just can't see if stuff is going in. I think it's safe to assume it's taking stuff in as last night it's droppings were just urates, but they're back to looking pretty normal now. I haven't ever heard this one crow which I've paid attention as it's my favourite one. But I guess if it's male I may be doing even worse in my collection of females!