little quail chicks

[akane]

Hatch is nearly done and I moved the cam to the brooder so you can see the mass of cute little chicks
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/button-quail

Here's some from last night:

[Keith13]

Wow looks like you have a mess of them there. What do you do with them?

Keith

[poka-bee]

Ohh, they are soooo cuuuttteeee!  I love em when still damp, makes me feel all protective & maternal!  Are there different types or variations within one?  Yes, what do you do with them?  J

[Cindi]

Oh Akane, oh, oh, oh, I can't stand it!!!  They are just so wonderfully sweet, those newly hatched chicks (I don't care what kind of bird) are just the sweetest things on earth, and I LOVE all the different colours, why so many different looking quail babies?  Tell us more.....we need to know, smiling.  Have that wonderful and most beautiful day, health, love our life.  Cindi

[JP]

Hey I was wondering why the different colors also? They sure look cute and crunchy.


...JP

[Scadsobees]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what do you do with them all?

I'm not allowed chickens in the suburbs...maybe quail?

[akane]

Well I ordered 2 colors.  Tuxedo and speckled but when counting yesterday I divided them into 3 groups.  There's the light ones with stripes which are almost white with chocolate to black stripes.  Some the stripes are so light they stop in places.  Then there's the dark striped ones which are a rich brown with solid dark chocolate stripes.  A bunch I just labelled dark which were chocolate to black, some with a little striping and white fronts.  I'm guessing those are tuxedos.  Then there are 5 plain yellow ones with no stripes and a different color from the light stripe ones.  Dunno what will happen when they feather.  I got a count of 98 but there are 3 in a seperate box that have various leg issues and may or may not recover to join the others.

Quail are more efficient meat and eggs than chickens.  On average it takes 3 pounds of food to make a pound of chicken eggs and 2 pounds of food to make a pound of quail eggs.  Quail are cheaper to raise, quieter, and take less space.  Usually they are kept in pens of around 1-2sq ft per bird with 2-3 to a pen.  They also are butchering size by 8weeks and laying around 10weeks where chickens can take 6months + to lay and unless you buy broilers (which have their own problems) they won't be ready to butcher for many months.

[JP]

Chicken eggs are a lot bigger though. How many quail eggs does it take to make an omelet? What, about 4 quail eggs = a chicken egg right? So 8 quail eggs would give you an omelet. Is that about right?

Never had scrambled quail eggs, are they good compared to chicken eggs?


...JP

[Shawn]

Jp, probably this many:



 

[akane]

That's why it's expressed in pounds.  What weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?     a pound of quail eggs is a pound of chicken eggs.  You just have to crack a few more eggs.  So you get the same amount of food out of the quail for less feed.  a friend of mine made stuffed button quail egg omelets.  Now that had to take skill cause a button quail is a tiny little 4" bird and it takes about 10 button eggs to equal a chicken egg.  Here are 25 next to a standard chicken egg. 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/quail/incubator/SANY0919.jpg


Coturnix eggs are much bigger.

button and coturnix egg

They are nearly the size of a small bantam egg and it takes 2 of those to equal a standard egg so maybe 3 coturnix eggs per large store bought egg.  I should have weighed one. 

Quail eggs are a little different in taste than free range chicken eggs.  Not greatly though.  My friend described them as being lighter but I'm not sure exactly what that means.  Now compared to a store bought egg the taste is really strong but compare my free range chicken eggs to a store bought egg and the taste is strong.  I'm never eating another bland tasteless store bought egg again.