Starting out with quail — the checklist

This page is a list to tick off, not a textbook. It tells you what must be settled before the first egg, what equipment should be standing ready, how the first three weeks run and what you have to settle outside your own shed. Almost everything that costs beginners birds is in the first two sections — it is just that they are usually only read once the chicks are already there.

1. Before you get birds

• Space for the adult birds. In practice one reckons with about 150 to 250

cm² of floor area per bird, depending on the type of housing and local requirements. Fix the figure before you set eggs — it limits everything else.

• Space for rearing. Chicks need little area at first and a multiple of it

after two weeks. Plan the brooder not for hatch day but for the third week.

• Location. Dry, free of drafts, without direct afternoon sun, with fresh

air and a socket nearby. Check whether the temperature there is still manageable in summer and in winter.

• Noise and neighbors. Hens are quiet, males are not: their call is short,

piercing and repeated. Settle the matter with neighbors, the landlord or the owners' association before there are birds.

• Protection from predators. Rats, martens, cats, birds of prey. Use

close-meshed, spot-welded wire rather than wide mesh, secure the floor from below and every hatch with a bolt that a paw cannot open.

• Time budget. For a small stock, around 15 to 30 minutes a day: feed,

water, a visual check, eggs. On top of that a longer block once a week for mucking out, and individual days — hatching, moving birds on — when it becomes considerably more.

• Where the birds come from. Hatching eggs are the cheapest and slowest

route with the greatest share of learning, young birds the fastest with the greatest risk from buying in.

• The end of the chain. Settle beforehand where surplus males and spent

hens go, and who does the slaughtering.

2. Equipment

Every line says why it is on the list.

• Incubator, because without one you depend on a broody hen — and breeding

quail mostly do not hatch their eggs themselves.

• The right type of incubator: a setter keeps the eggs warm during the main

incubation period and turns them; a hatcher takes them over for the last few days, in which they lie still and the humidity is higher; a combined machine does both in one cabinet. Separate machines are cleaner and easier to plan with, the combined machine is cheaper and adequate to begin with.

• Brooder, because chicks need an enclosed, draft-free space in which

warmth can be held.

• Heat source with a control — a dark heater, a heat plate or a ceramic

heater with a thermostat — because the rearing temperature does not stay constant but falls over the weeks according to plan.

• Chick drinker, shallow and secured, because chicks drown in open water

and wet chicks chill.

• Drinker for the adult birds, because nipple or cup drinkers stay clean

considerably longer than open dishes.

• Feed trough with a narrow opening, because quail scratch feed out of open

dishes and you would otherwise be bedding with it instead of feeding it.

• Bedding, because it binds moisture and slows the formation of ammonia;

absorbent, low in dust and not smooth — on a smooth surface chicks splay their legs.

• Scales, because weight gives the first honest feedback on feed and

housing, long before anything can be seen on a bird.

• Thermometer and hygrometer, at least two sets, because the display in the

incubator is the most common silent source of error: a second, independent instrument at egg height reveals deviations that you would otherwise only notice when the hatch fails to come.

• Egg storage and transport containers, because hatching eggs want to stand

cool and point down before they are set.

3. The first three weeks

The day figures are ranges; how fast it goes depends on temperature management, egg quality and the age of the parent birds.

• Day 0 — setting. Let the machine run up to temperature for a few hours

beforehand, distribute the eggs over the trays, note the number.

• Day 1 to about 14 — incubating. Turn the eggs several times a day, three

to five times is usual, preferably an odd number so that the eggs do not lie in the same position every night. Check temperature and humidity daily on the second instrument, not only on the display.

• About day 14 to 15 — transfer. The eggs go into the hatcher or the

hatching tray, turning is stopped, the humidity rises. From here on the lid stays closed as far as possible.

• About day 16 to 18 — hatching. It usually draws out over one to two days.

Chicks stay in the hatcher until they are dry and steady on their legs — a few hours up to about half a day.

• First 24 to 48 hours in the brooder. The warmest stretch of the whole

rearing period, usually around 35 to 37 °C under the heat source. Show every chick water and feed by briefly dipping its beak.

• Week 1 — the critical one. Check for losses morning and evening, every

loss noted with date and time; later that is the only trail to the cause.

• Week 2 to 3 — hardening off. The temperature under the heat source falls

weekly by roughly 3 to 4 °C, until the birds tolerate room temperature. Behavior regulates better than the thermometer: a tight huddle under the lamp means too cold, a ring around the edges too warm.

• About the end of week 3 to week 4 — moving on. As soon as the birds are

feathered and manage without additional heat, they go into a cage or aviary. From here on the space, trough and drinker of the adult version apply.

4. What you settle outside

What applies here differs by country, federal state and district. This page therefore names only the questions and the responsible bodies — ask them there before the birds arrive.

• Veterinary office. Do I have to notify my stock, and from what number of

birds onwards? Which records are required? Do I need a registration number, do I have to register with the animal disease fund (Tierseuchenkasse), and what applies when birds must be kept indoors?

• Local regulatory office and building authority. Is keeping poultry

permitted at my address — residential area, allotment, tenancy agreement? Are there conditions on buildings, distances or noise?

• Chamber of agriculture. Where does my keeping fit in, and what changes if

I move from own use to regular supply?

• Food safety inspection. What applies to the sale of eggs and meat:

labeling, quantities supplied, direct marketing from the farm, slaughter?

• Tax adviser. From what point are sales relevant for tax, which type of

income applies, and what do I have to record?

• Vet. Who looks after poultry in my area? This question is best asked

before you urgently need the answer — where illness is suspected or losses are unusual, the vet is the address, not the forum.

Why keeping records pays off

Every point on this list produces numbers: eggs set, chicks hatched, losses per day, weights, capacities. Individually they are of no consequence; over time they are the only thing that tells you whether the last batch ran better than the one before and what it was down to. Note them from the start; paper is enough as long as you are running one batch. From the second or third concurrent batch onwards, the entries no longer belong together chronologically but by batch — and that is where QuailBreeder comes in. You enter your incubators, brooders and locations with their real capacities; the application reminds you of transfer day and hatch day by push message or calendar entry, warns of overcrowding in the brooder, records every loss with date, time and cage, and calculates the viability rate per batch from it. It does not set an incubator and measures nothing itself; it makes sure that the figures you are collecting anyway stay comparable.