Raising Coturnix quail can be a lot of fun and be very effective for egg and meat production but it also comes with a few downsides that you should be aware of. Though, I think you’ll find that the pros outweigh the cons.

Of all the animals I raise, Coturnix quail have got to be the friendliest creatures on the farm.

Every morning at feeding time, they all jump for joy. Their little mousy chatter of excitement over breakfast is pretty darn cute.

And they have no fear. The quail I’ve raised on the ground would crawl all over my shoes and the caged quail hop all over my hands.

Aside from their happy-go-lucky nature, there are many other reasons why I like raising Coturnix quail and I’ll share them below along with must-know tips for raising healthy quail.

First, let me tell you why I like raising Coturnix quail so much.

Why I Like Raising Coturnix Quail

Coturnix quail are small.

You can raise Coturnix quail just about anywhere. Whether you live on a large farm, a homestead or you live in the city in an apartment building, you can raise Coturnix quail. Coturnix quail don’t need very much space to live happily. If you want to raise just a few quail indoors in your apartment, convenient housing like a fish tank or wire cage will be sufficient.

On the other hand, if you would like to raise Coturnix quail by the hundreds or the thousands you don’t need a space any bigger than a 1-2 car garage. As long as quail have enough room to flap their wings, and run around for exercise and fulfillment, they’re perfectly happy.

If you want to make your quail really happy then give them a dust box. Dust bathing keeps quail busy and is very edifying for them. Every time I clean my quails’ dust box and give them new dusting materials I see an increase in egg production. That goes to show just how much they love dust bathing.

In addition to their size making them easy to care for, Coturnix quail are also very easy to handle, dispatch and process. If you’re looking to raise birds for eggs and/or meat, Coturnix quail are a great place to start.

Coturnix quail are quiet.

I can’t stress enough how important this is to me. I’ve raised ducks (key word is “raised”) and I’ve learned the hard way that I don’t tolerate loud animals very well. Female quail are as quiet as church mice and males only crow every once in a while. In fact, I can’t tell you the last time I heard my males crowing.

Because of how quiet they are, if you live close to neighbors or you live in an area where raising livestock is prohibited then raising Coturnix quail can be an easy workaround to raising your own eggs and meat at home. A lot of areas also consider quail pets as well as livestock which is another workaround to raising Coturnix quail in an urban setting.

You also don’t need to keep very many roosters which helps reduce noise even further. To revisit what I said above about quail being small and requiring rather small spaces to live, if you’re raising Coturnix quail outside and one or two roosters is too loud for your neighbors you can always bring the rooster inside and raise them indoors, separate from the females until breeding time.

Coturnix quail lay lots of beautiful eggs.

Coturnix quail are very prolific egg layers. About 3 to 4 Coturnix quail eggs equals a chicken egg and to raise enough quail who will lay enough eggs to produce the equivalent of one dozen chicken eggs per week, you need far less space than chickens would require.

I personally also love the patterns of Coturnix quail eggs. They make collecting quail eggs a treat. It’s always a lot of fun to have a variety of different eggs for cooking. If you have children, they will also more than likely enjoy the beauty of Coturnix quail eggs and love helping collect them and eat them.

Coturnix quail mature quickly.

Whether you’re just starting out raising livestock and you would like to have meat and eggs very quickly or you’re like me and have had some major losses with your chickens and need to replace egg production quickly, Coturnix quail are the perfect bird to raise for a quick turnaround of eggs and meat.

Coturnix quail can start laying eggs at 8 to 10 weeks of age. This is far quicker than the average egg-laying chicken who starts laying between 6 to 8 months. And if you’re raising a heritage breed chicken like I do then you know that egg-laying starts at closer to a year old.

It has been helpful for me to raise Coturnix quail as a backup for egg and meat production because of predator attacks that have killed a large majority of my chickens (over and over again) over the past couple of years. If you, like me, want or need a fast supply of eggs and meat and I highly recommend Coturnix quail.

Coturnix quail are great meat birds.

Well bread Coturnix quail produce an astonishing amount of meat. These tiny little birds are considerably meatier for their size in comparison to dual-purpose chickens.

Of course, if you’re comparing Coturnix quail to meat chickens, meat chickens do produce more meat for their size than quail. However, up to this point, I have shied away from raising meat chickens so when raising Coturnix quail I am comparing their meat production to that of my dual-purpose Australoprs and Black Orpingtons.

If you’ve ever tasted quail meet before you also know that it is a very flavorful meat. In a lot of areas of the world quail meat is considered a delicacy. I personally love the taste of quail meat, especially over the taste of meat from meat chickens. Meat from dual-purpose chickens raised on pasture is also very flavorful but is generally tougher than quail meat.

When it comes to raising meat animals it really does come down to your preference of taste and for me there are few things better than quail meat.

Coturnix quail are healthy and hearty.

I’ve raised Coturnix quail both on the ground and in cages, up off the ground. When raising animals on the ground they are much more susceptible to illness and disease, but I have always found the quail to be extremely hearty and healthy.

Unlike my experience with raising chickens (first generations purchased from other breeders), I have never lost significant numbers of quail due to illness or disease. Of the many quail that I’ve raised over the past few years, I’ve maybe only lost a dozen to illness or disease. The percentage of overall loss that I’ve had is so very small and I’ve never had an illness or disease spread throughout a flock of quail.

I should also point out that I have purchased quail from a few different breeders and each line of quail that I have purchased and raised has been very healthy. As I’m sure you know, a lot of the time the health of an animal depends greatly on the quality of the breeding lines they come from but I find Coturnix quail to be consistently healthy and hearty across the board.

Once you start breeding quail (and chickens for that matter) and are able to improve on their health generation after generation like I have, then your losses will decrease over time.

Coturnix quail can handle the heat.

As someone who lives in a very hot and humid climate, I need to be able to raise animals that can handle the heat without it causing them a lot of stress.

Coturnix quail tolerate heat very well. In fact, they lay most of their eggs in the hot summer months, even while the chickens need to take a break due to the heat.

Quail being very small birds also helps them stay cool in the summer months as opposed to larger birds that have a harder time staying cool. I’ve also yet to see a decrease in meat production due to heat.

So long as your quail have plenty of water and a generous space to get out of the sun and cool off, they can do very well in hot climates.

Now let’s talk about what you should know before raising Coturnix quail.

1. Coturnix quail are not as feed efficient as chickens.

If up to this point you’ve only raised the chickens for meat and eggs it may be a bit jarring to discover just how much quail need to eat to be productive.

For their size, Coturnix quail can go through food pretty quickly, especially if you’re raising your quail off the ground where they’re unable to forage. If you do raise your quail on the ground and are able to rotate them to fresh ground daily then you will see a decrease in food costs. However, it will more than likely not be as significant as the decrease in food costs when free-ranging chickens.

In addition to being more feed efficient, chickens are also more efficient at finding food through free-ranging. They are especially skilled at this because of their ability to scratch. While quail will scratch up the ground a little bit here and there, they are far more limited compared to chickens.

2. Coturnix quail need a high protein diet.

In addition to needing more feed than chickens, quail also need a higher protein diet. This means that the cost of their food is going to be greater than the cost of chicken feed. The higher the protein content the more expensive feed will be.

If you find yourself in a position where chicken feed is all you can afford you can certainly feed your quail chicken feed but their health and production will be compromised. Specifically, they will grow much slower than if they had the proper amount of protein and their egg production will dwindle. Additionally, your next generation of quail (from malnourished breeding stock) may be smaller and less productive.

3. Coturnix quail are smelly. Really smelly.

One of the main problems I’ve had with raising Coturnix quail is how smelly they are. I have perfected a deep bedding system for my chickens, ducks and geese that has made their smell undetectable but quail have an especially strong and unique smell.

In dry seasons the smell isn’t as strong but in wet rainy seasons it’s a much bigger problem.

As much as I’d love to be able to still raise my quail on the ground one reason that I have opted out of doing so going forward is because of the smell. When I raise my quail in cages above ground and the droppings are either flushed through a system or land in a very dry deep bedding system, I’m able to successfully raise quail with little to no smell.

Quail are so smelly that I’ve actually given up on raising them once before in the past. When I first purchased quail, I raised them in a movable coop that I moved on a daily basis to fresh green grass and even then the smell was unbearable. My second attempt at raising quail on the ground was also a complete disaster. The second time around I opted for a deep bedding system which had worked really well with my chickens, ducks and geese but I had little to no success it when it came to quail. 50 quail in a large 10×24 foot enclosure created enough of a stench that you could smell them over 150 feet away.

4. Coturnix quail are very susceptible to predation.

Quail are very flighty ground-dwelling birds. Not only are they bite-size meals for most predators, quail also stir up a lot of commotion when they’re startled. Drawing this much attention to themselves does not help in keeping them safe from predators.

While I’ve personally never lost quail to predators a lot of people have. Even your cats and dogs are more likely to kill quail because of their flighty and energetic reactions. The more they act like prey the more your domesticated carnivores will see them as prey. Also, unlike larger birds like chickens, quail are susceptible to being eaten by most snakes.

To revisit what I said above about how smelly quail are, I have found that the strong smell of quail also draws the attention of more predators.

If any of your quail escape the likelihood of them surviving predation is very low.

5. Coturnix quail lay very seasonally.

Coturnix quail are very prolific layers in the summer months like I’ve mentioned above but lay far more seasonally than chickens.

Even in warmer and colder climates chickens tend to lay your round. It’s rare that a chicken’s production will stop completely (unless of course they’re molting). If you have a significant size flock of chickens, during the winter months you’ll still get a few eggs on a daily basis.

Quail raised outside in a natural environment are very seasonal layers. Only in the late spring and summer months will they lay prolifically. That has been my experience in my climate and of course, everyone’s experience with quail is going to be a little bit different.

The bottom line is that you can’t depend on quail for year-round egg production if you’re raising them in a natural outdoor environment and this can certainly put a strain on your breeding program.

6. Coturnix quail need lighting and warmth for good egg production.

To increase egg production and to ensure that your Coturnix quail lay year-round you can raise them indoors in a controlled environment. Like I mentioned above you don’t need a lot of space to raise quail indoors and depending on how many quail you want to raise on a yearly basis even a large quail operation can fit in a 1 to 2 car garage.

The control factors you’ll want to focus on for year-round production in your quail are lighting and warmth. Lighting can be used to trick a quail’s brain into thinking that days are longer like in the summer months. To do this you’ll want to mimic the daylight of the longest summer days of the year. This is a very effective way to increase egg production.

To help increase egg production during the winter and early spring months you want to be sure that your quail are nice and warm. Their environment does not need to be hot in order to mimic summer heat, it simply needs to be comfortably warm for quail.

Implement these two methods in an indoor and enclosed environment and you will see a significant year-round increase in egg production.

7. Coturnix quail are difficult to brood.

Raising Coturnix quail is very easy as I’ve mentioned above but it does come with its difficulties.

Brooding Coturnix quail can be difficult especially when compared to brooding chickens.

Coturnix quail checks are very fragile and easily susceptible to the cold. A brooder that is not warm enough or that fluctuates in temperature can quickly cause death in Coturnix quail chicks under two weeks old.

In my experience Coturnix quail also tend to trample each other very easily. If the temperature unexpectedly drops in the brooder and they all huddled together for warmth they can easily trample and kill half their numbers and this can happen very quickly.

Coturnix quail chicks also drowned very easily in the smallest amount of water. You’ll want to take extra precautions with waterers to make sure that they are unable to drown. If you’ve never raised quail before you will likely be pretty shocked as to how quickly and easily they can drown themselves in the shallowest of water.

8. Coturnix quail breeding stock needs to be replaced rather frequently.

Coturnix quail reach maturity at as early as 8 to 10 weeks of age. While quick maturity is a pro to raising Coturnix quail, the downfall is that quail are only at their sexual peak for 6 to 10 months. This means that you’ll need to replace your breeding stock far more frequently than you have to with chickens.

It’s best to replace your breeding stock 2 to 3 times per year. If you enjoy brooding chicks then you may not see this as a negative. I for one do not enjoy brooding chicks.

As I mentioned above raising quail outdoors in a natural environment means that they will lay eggs very seasonally and because of this it can be more difficult to replace your breeding stock as frequently as you should.

All of that said, some people are successfully able to replace their breeding stock once a year. If you have a large quail operation or a line of quail that you have been working on for some time then you certainly don’t want to take the risk of putting off replacing your breeding stock for an entire year. The risk is that your quail will be infertile by the time you try to replace them.

9. Coturnix quail are escape artists.

Because of their small size Coturnix quail our master escape artists. If you’re raising quail on the ground it’s far more difficult to keep them contained and safe. If you’re raising quail in cages up off the ground the likelihood of your quail escaping is very low.

While I am very cautious not to let my quail escape they are very good at sneaking their way out of cages and I have lost a hand full of quail who were master escape artists.

Keep in mind that while quail are domesticated enough to trust you and to be very friendly, they are not domesticated to the point that they will stick around if they are able to escape.

If you raise chickens then you know that even if you leave the front gate open they are unlikely to want to escape and if they do leave your yard and they will come back for dinner time. Quail, on the other hand, will take full advantage of their newfound freedom and will take off to explore the world.

And as I mentioned above when quail do escape they are highly susceptible to predation.

10. Coturnix quail range in size depending on breeding lines.

Coturnix quail are not all created equal. If you’re looking for large meaty quail then you’ll need to purchase quail from proven lines.

The average Coturnix quail grows to be about ½ pound or less while a good line of meat quail can reach 1 pound at maturity. While I’m not always a big fan of drastically bigger and meatier livestock animals (for the sake of the animal’s health and wellbeing), I’ve yet to see any physical ramifications to larger quail that grow quicker. From what I’ve seen, these lines of meat quail are just as agile and active as Coturnix quail from liens that produce smaller birds.

So far, I’ve been very happy with the quail that I raise that came from proven lines of meat quail.

11. Coturnix quail are healthiest when caged off the ground.

I’ve touched on this topic above but I just wanted to revisit it for those of you who are contemplating raising quail on the ground.

As much as I wish that my quail were able to be raised on the ground in a more natural environment that is more edifying for them, I’ve had such little success with the raising Coturnix quail on the ground in the past that I’ve had to completely give up on it.

I’m able to keep my Coturnix quail healthiest and injury-free when they’re housed in cages. It’s definitely disappointing to me that I haven’t had more success with quail being raised on the ground but I have to look at the bigger picture. What’s most important to me is raising clean meat for myself, my family and my dogs, that came from animals that were treated kindly, with care and respect.

Conclusion to Raising Coturnix Quail

In conclusion, though there are some downsides to consider when raising Coturnix quail, I highly recommend that you give raising Coturnix quail a try. Not only are they enjoyable, they’re also convenient and very productive little animals.