You don’t really raise button quail to eat,” Jacob said. The button quail ( Coturnix chinensis), which comes in a number of different colors like silver, white and even blue-faced, is another such novelty quail that owners often keep in apiaries. “The eggs are much more expensive and the birds are more expensive.” “I’m sure that you can eat them because you can eat all quail, but they’re more of a pretty type of bird,” Segrist added. Usually people that keep valley quail are keeping them as pets.” “I have not heard of them being raised for meat and eggs. “I think it’s more of a novelty,” Greene said. The gray and speckled birds are more expensive than standard bobwhite or coturnix quail and are thus mostly kept as pets. The California valley quail ( Callipepla californica) are best distinguished by the curled plume sprouting from their heads. These quail are prized for their unique looks and are often kept in aviaries, as pets or for show, such as the elegant quail ( Callipepla douglasii) with its rusty headdress, the slightly-periwinkle mountain quail ( Oreortyx pictus) and the distinctly spotted Montezuma quail ( Cyrtonyx montezumae). There are a few other more expensive and exotic quail species that homesteaders may raise for purposes other than meat, eggs or hunting. Other species of quail Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels The Tennessee Red bobwhite, for example, is extremely aggressive and cannot be kept with other birds. “There are strains of bobwhite quail raised specifically for release in hunting preserves that have been selected to remain wild,” Jacob explained. You can make an incubator, but you have to have electric, which takes more money, and you have to have to know-how to incubate, whereas you can put a little nesting box in with bobwhite and they will nest and raise babies there.”īobwhite quail can be divided into about 22 varieties that mostly vary by color, but some of them have been selectively bred to be more aggressive than others for hunting purposes. “A lot of homesteaders are trying to live off-grid as possible. Bobwhite will tend to nest,” Segrist said. Bobwhite quail will incubate their own eggs which could be preferable for homesteaders looking to expand their quail population without going through the cost and trouble of learning the skills to properly incubate eggs. Still, there are some advantages to raising bobwhites instead of coturnix for meat and eggs. “That’s a whole two and a half extra months, and it doesn’t start laying eggs for another month after that.” “The bobwhite takes 16 weeks before it’s mature,” Segrist said. “Coturnix can stay in a cage.”īobwhite quail can also be used for meat and eggs, but they take longer to mature than the coturnix. “You need netting and a place to fly around for the bobwhite,” Segrist added. “A lot of people will train their dogs with a bobwhite quail.”īecause of this, the space that you have available for your quail might be a consideration when choosing the type you want for your homestead. “Bobwhite can fly like a regular bird can,” Segrist said. They also have a distinctive call that sweeps upwards in pitch and almost sounds like the bird is saying “bob-white.” Bobwhite quail are generally preferred for sport, like training dogs to hunt. | Photo courtesy of Stephanie Shaferīobwhite quail are about the same size as coturnix quail, though they tend to have markings on their faces that look like eyeliner. Segrist said the Texas A&M, which was created by the university of the same name, were bred to be bigger to provide more, lighter meat that is easier to dress.Īdult bobwhite quail. The Pharaoh, for example, is an exceptional layer, producing about 300 eggs a year. The varieties are generally distinguished by feather color, though some of them do have slight physiological differences. Varieties of coturnix quail include British Range, Tuxedo, English White, Manchurian Golden, Texas A&M and Pharaoh. “Coturnix can’t live in the wild,” Segrist laughed. Because they do not fly, coturnix generally are not used to train hunting dogs, though they can be used to help puppies practice. The quail cannot fly more than a few inches off the ground and cannot be released into the wild, as they are not native to the United States. “In two and a half months, you can have a whole new generation. From the time they hatch, it takes six to eight weeks for them to be completely mature, which is the quickest turn around of any bird,” Segrist explained.
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