Small Little Bird, Powerful Little Egg

Dry, itchy, scratchy skin.  Watery eyes. A runny nose. Some of these reactions to allergies can be healed, in natural ways with no side effects.  One year the bumps, and dry skin appeared on my young son’s elbows. The doctor’s diagnosis was allergies. Instead of attempting to determine the source of the allergy, we went home with a prescription for a skin cream.  I took that prescription home, but what I really came home with was a mission to find a natural cure. The prescription went in the trash, and I went to work. What my research led me to was quail.

Coturnix quail are small birds that have been bred, and used in ancient Asian medicine for centuries.  It seemed as though eating the quail eggs over time helps to rid the consumer of allergies. I already had chickens, so I figure that this was worth a try.  Our family had an old rabbit hutch that we were gifted years ago, so we moved that into the chicken pen, acquired some coturnix quail, and off we went. What I learned is that raising quail for eggs is both an easy, and difficult endeavor.  

What is easy?

Quail are small birds, and do not need a lot of space.  When we began we used a small rabbit hutch. I had to put smaller wire on the bottom, but it worked for five quail.  Quail also eat less because they are smaller. Again, since they are smaller there is less feces to clean up, but it is still good to use as fertilizer.  Quail don’t go broody, but they also don’t fight for a pecking order. As long as the ratio of males to females are kept correctly, there is little to no fighting.  For this reason we also only kept females until now. The last aspect of raising quail that makes them an easy animal to raise is that they begin laying eggs so much earlier than most birds.  Quail reach maturity at only 6-8 weeks of age.

What is difficult?

Finding coturnix quail may be sort of difficult.  We found ours at a barter faire. Others could look at their local CraigsList, or order online from a hatchery.  Quail can be rather fragile. Transportation can stress them an awful lot. When we bought our new cage this winter, the owner stated that he would deliver.  He also stated that the cage would come with sixteen quail. All but six of them died on the way over! Another part of raising quail that I find frustrating is that they are messy.  They poop, in their food and water, and they also can make a big mess with their food. For this reason, I had the quail cage in the chicken pen. Any extra feed that got spilled out was cleaned up by the bigger birds.  Now I have a cage in my garden “fertilizing” the soil, and feeding the wild birds.

How to care for Coturnix Quail:

Feed high protein crumble.  I use an all purpose crumble so that I can also feed it to my ducks.

Provide grit, and dust bath.  This can be a fine sand. It aids in digestion, and cleanliness.

Provide clean water daily.  They seem to poop right in the water dish.

Besides making sure that the quail, their cage, and their food and water dishes to not get too dirty, that is about all there is to it.  The end result is a highly nutritious (if small) egg. For the result, it is worth it. Instead of putting my son through elimination diets, or allergy testing to see what his body is allergic to, we are battling it with nature, and so far nature is winning!