Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Coturnix or Japanese quail statistics and numbers

I've become interested in coturnix quail.  I've been doing a lot of research to find statistics and measurements for them.  I thought I'd put it all in one place.

Coturnix quail

Height: 8"
Can they be sexed by color: yes for certain colors like the wild type brown and Itallian (pictures of different varieties)
movie of chicks and adults: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UL18IIUTCHg

Eggs
Laying: once a day, April- September
How many quail eggs per chicken egg? About 6
Average size egg: .3 oz, size of chicken egg: 2.4 oz
How much light do they need to lay? 14 hrs
age they begin laying? 8 weeks
What is the variety called that lays blue eggs? Celadon

Meat
Best age for harvesting: 8 weeks - 8 months (younger is better)

Housing
How much room do quail  need? 1 sq ft of space per bird
Cage height: 12" or over 4 feet.  (So they don't hit their heads hard when startled.)
What do they eat? Insects, seeds, plants
What should I feed them? Turkey or Game bird starter.  25% protein
Nesting box size: 8"x8"
Dust bath size: shoe box or large dog bowl or cake pan size

Waters
Age for open bowl: any
Age for vertical nipples: 3 days
Age for horizontal nipples: 4 weeks

Hatching
Age of eggs to set: less than 7 days
Age of hen the egg came from: 10 weeks - 8 months
Age of cock: less than a year
Time to hatch: 17-18 days
Temperature in incubator: 99.5 degrees

a good guide to hatching:

Brooding
1 day - 2 weeks: in the house
2 weeks - in shed
3 weeks outside, still in brooder
4 weeks in adult cage

Heat: heat plate (watch this closely because they grow really fast and their height changes quickly.  If they are huddled in the middle the plate is too high or too cool (if using a rheostat)


Friday, February 17, 2017

Chicken care coloring book

When I went to Idaho Chickenstock last year, I had a great time.  I also noticed how many children were there, both buying chicks with their families and just looking.  I thought it would be fun to have a coloring page or book that children that explained how to take care of chicks.  My daughter was nice enough to illustrate it for me.



This page released under the Creative Commons License with Attribution.  It is also available as a pdf.

If you need help folding it, these directions explain how better.