Lesson-1

Quail Farming

Poultry is a very lucrative business. One bird and two ways of earning. One from the Eggs and second by the meat of the bird. The meat and eggs of quail are very tasty and nutritious. The Quail eggs are very nutritious than other poultry eggs. To meet the demand for Food and Nutrition, Quail farming is playing a vital role. You don’t require much capital investment for this.

Time required to get the returns

Quail generally survive for 3 to 4 years. An adult quail weights between 150 to 200 grams. Female quails start laying eggs from their 6 to 7 weeks of age. Each egg weights between 7 to 15 grams. Each quail lays more than 300 eggs per year. Presence of light increases the egg productive efficiency of quails. They usually lay eggs at afternoon. It takes about 17 days to hatch their eggs.

Breeding and chick production

For successful breeding, one male quail is kept with every five female quails. Quail never incubate their eggs. Adequate light is required for desired egg production. In absence of sun shine, artificial light and heat can be provided by using electric bulb or heater. 40 to 100 watt bulb for this purpose will suffice. A newly born quail chick weights around 6 to 7 grams. Quail chicks become very sensitive and take about two weeks to be strong enough. Eggs of 9 to 11 grams weight with smooth and hard eggshell are perfect for hatching and producing chicks.

Raising Quail Chicks

Since quails don’t incubate their eggs, chicks are produced by hatching their eggs through chickens or artificially through using incubators. The incubation period for quail egg is about 16 to 18 days. For maximum egg production, 16 hours of lighting is required daily inside the quail house. Following parameters are essential while raising quail chicks.

1. Adequate temperature

1. Sufficient light

1. Proper air movement

1. Density of quail chicks

1. Supply of food and water

1. Hygienic rearing rules

Following guidelines may be followed while raising the chicks:

Baby Age Temperature (o Celsius) Light (Hour)

1 Week 38 24

2 Week 35 24

3 Week 32 12

Note: These temperatures are available in most of India, Asia and Africa

Feeding

An adult quail consumes about 20 to 25 grams of food daily. Chick feed should contain 27 percent  and adult feed 22-24 percent of protein. It can be received from Broken Wheat, Rice Bran, Salt, Sesame Cake, Mineral Mix etc.

Housing

Quail can be raised in both litter and cage systems. Quail farming in cage system is more suitable than raising them in deep litter system. In a cage system, management is very easy and diseases or other problems are less.Proper ventilation, flow of air and light inside their house is required. 50 quails can be raised in a cage measuring 120 cm length, 60 cm wide and 25 cm in height. Plastic or wire net cages may be used.

Diseases in Quails

Diseases are less in quails, compared to other poultry birds. they are not provided with any disease preventive vaccines. However, they may get following illness in absence of proper cleanliness and care.
Coccidiosis:  If the quails get affected by coccidiosis disease, serve them coaxial 20 by mixing with water (two grams per litter) for three days. Otherwise, feed this according to the advice of a veterinarian.
Ulcerative Enteritis: Mix one gram streptomycin with one liter water and serve it to the quails for three days. This will stop ulcerative enteritis disease.

Earning from Quail farming

Quail meat and eggs are very tasty and highly enriched with nutrients. In most of the countries, there is already an established market for quail products. You can easily sell the eggs and meat in your local market. Commercial quail farming can be a great source of employment, and earning some extra income along with your current job or profession

Advantages of Quail Farming

Quails are smaller in size, so they can be raised within small places. 6 to 7 quails can be raised in the same place that is required for one chicken.
Feeding cost of quails is comparatively lower than chickens or other poultry birds.
Quails are very strong bird and diseases or other health problems are less. So risks are less in this business.
Quails grow very fast and gain maturity faster than any other poultry birds.
They start laying eggs within 6 to 7 weeks of age.
It takes only about 16 to 18 days to hatch their eggs.
Meat and eggs of quail are very tasty, delicious and nutritious.
Quail farming needs small investment, and requires lesser labor in farming.
Quails can be raised successfully in commercial method.

Lesson-2

Quail raising for quick profit ! تربية السمان من أجل الربح السريع ! त्वरित लाभ के लिए बटेर पालन élevage de cailles pour un profit rapide

Voice over in English

I am Aprajita Srivastava from WDF University. Today I am going to speak on “Raising quail for profit: How to start your own quail farm from the comfort of your garden”.

I know you’re looking for affordable ways to generate extra income.
Today, I want to introduce you to a low cost, high profit business that involves raising quail in your back garden. Not only is this a great second income opportunity, this business idea has the potential to become your lucrative main source of income. Quails are very suitable for commercial production of both meat and eggs. And commercial quail farming business is more profitable than any other poultry business.

There are four reasons why this is a great opportunity…

• It’s very easy to start and maintain a quail farm in your backyard
• Quail eggs and meat are in high demand
• There are very few quail farmers in India and Africa
• Quail farming is highly profitable

First, you need to…

Understand your profitable quail farming opportunity

Quail is a bird about the size of a plump pigeon. It’s a brown feathered bird with short tails. It’s mainly found in Europe, Asia and Africa but its popularity is gaining global momentum.

Six compelling reasons this odd-looking bird is such a lucrative
small business investment

1. Quails are very easy to raise and the business is self-sustaining
The most attractive part of raising quail is that it’s a self-sustainable business opportunity. Quails reach adulthood in six weeks and start laying eggs almost immediately after this. The average egg from mature female weighs about 10 gram, about 8 percent of the body weight of quail hen as compared to 3 percent for chicken eggs. That means you can start selling a portion of the eggs and get a quick return on your initial investment.

You should consider keeping some of the eggs for hatching. If you raise the quail in the right environment, you can soon start doubling or tripling your production figures. Quails lay around 350 eggs a year. Females don’t need males to lay eggs so if you get 24 females, you’ll soon be in good profit territory. A broiler quail can be sold at 5 weeks as against 8 weeks in broiler chicken. Quail start producing eggs at about 6 weeks of age and continue to give high egg production upto 24 weeks of age.

2. Quail products are delicious and healthy
Once you’ve started selling eggs, you can also look at selling quail meat. The meat is delicious and healthy. Quail meat and eggs are quickly gaining popularity because the products provide important minerals and vitamins. This plays into your favour because you can sell the meat and the eggs at a premium.

3. Low maintenance means lower operating costs
Raising quail from your home doesn’t require high maintenance. The birds don’t need much space to move around in and your home farm can start making profits quickly. Your main concern would be to keep the little birds well fed and watered. The hardest part of raising quail would be the days when you collect the eggs and clean the cages, even this requires very little effort. However, you need to do this regularly to ensure high production numbers.

4. Quails don’t eat much
Feeding the birds won’t add massive costs to your business planning. These birds will thrive on a special mixture of corn, wheat calcium carbonate and sunflower seeds. They even eat chicken feed, other grains, leaves and insects. Some quail farmers feed the quail weeds from their garden.

5. A disease resistant bird
Unlike other farm animals, quail don’t get sick easily and hardly require special care. But since you’re dealing with animals, make sure that you have a reliable veterinary specialist in your contact list. You might never have to call on these services though.

6. Demand for quail is growing fast because of its health benefits
I’ve briefly mentioned the healthy nature of quail meat and eggs. The fact that the meat and eggs are low in fat and high in protein makes is very popular. It can help with the treatment of diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis, liver disease, hypertension and a host of other ailments means that many consumers are looking to buy this healthy alternative.

7. The profit potential is substantial

In fact, raising dozen of quails in your backyard could be a good way to supplement your income, The basic business for creating cash with quails involves you purchasing baby quails from a hatchery and raising them till they are either laying eggs or mature for meat production.