Quail farming

Quail farming

Priyanka Kumari, Pranit Mankhair

M.V.Sc. Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna, India

 Introduction

Quail farming means rearing of different breeds of quails under controlled and hygienic environment in order to get their eggs, meat and also litters for commercial purposes. Quails were small game birds that are now used for commercial production of eggs and meat (Onyewuchi et al., 2013), and they attain rapid sexual maturity have shorter incubation period and can produce up to four generations per annum, therefore making them the most suitable and effective poultry (Saidu et al.,2014). Quail eggs are very nutritious than poultry eggs. Japan quails are very famous in the world and first commercial farming of quails is started in Japan and now it spread across the world. Japanese quails belong to Phasianidae family and are migratory birds which migrate between Asia and Europe (Saidu et al.,2014). Japanese quails are the smallest member of poultry with immense potentiality (Minivielle et al.,2004), and therefore, used in commercial production for meat and egg (Ojedapo et al.,2014). Egg production is important in Far East and Asian countries, whereas meat production is important in Europe (Karapetyan2003).

The Japanese quails are blessed with many desirable characteristics like, faster growth, early sexual maturity, high rate of egg production (300 egg/annum), short generation interval (3-4 generations a year), small floor space (200-250 and 150-200 cm², respectively in litter and cage system), less feed requirements (20-25 g/adult bird/day), short incubation period of hatching eggs, less feed cost, and less susceptibility to common chicken diseases (Jatoi et al., 2013). Because of these encouraging economic traits, quail farming needs much lower capital investment as compared to chicken and duck with almost the same profit margin. Japanese quail eggs have a high potential to be developed as a cheaper source of protein, especially in developing countries. In addition to being cheaper and delicious, quail eggs are rich in protein and good sources of folate, vitamin B₁₂, pantothenic acid, iron, phosphorus, riboflavin and selenium (Kalsum et al., 2012). Quail meat is tender, tasty, nutritious, and gaining popularity as a table delicacy among the consumers (Tunsaingkarn et al., 2013). In regard to meat quality (pH, colour, and texture), the quail meat is similar to broiler meat (Narinc et al.,2013). The nutritional value of quail eggs is 3-4 times greater than chicken eggs since it contains more moisture, minerals than broiler meat and has less fat and fewer calories, forming an ideal food for health-conscious consumers (Wahab 2002). Dressed quail meat weighs 70-73% weight of live quail. Due to its small size and short generation interval, the Japanese quail is also popular as laboratory animal (Ophir et al.,2005). In India, due to the high population, meat requirement is growing day by day and that’s why quail farming will be popular like poultry farming in near future.

 Advantage of Quail Farming: –

 Following are the main advantages and benefits of quail farming.

• Quail birds requires less floor space when compared to other birds
• Quail farming requires low investment to set up and labour cost is very low
• Quail will become ready for marketing in 5 weeks’ time
• Quail starts laying eggs in about 6 to 7 weeks of age
• Quail lay about 300 eggs/year which is considered as a very high rate of egg laying
• Commercial farming of quails is very successful in India
• Quail eggs contain less cholesterol and its meat is tastier than chicken
• Quail eggs and meat promotes body and brain functions in children
• Quail eggs meat are a nutritious diet for pregnant and nursing mothers
• Quail meat is low in fat, so quail meat is good for blood pressure patients.
• Commercial quail farming can be a good and profitable business idea for unemployed youths.

Quail Bird Characteristics: –

Following are the quail’s characteristics.

• Quail birds are small in size and an adult quail weigh about 200 grams
• Quail eggs weighs about 10 to 15 grams
• Quail start laying eggs within 7 weeks and they lay one egg daily
• Quails lay about 300 eggs in the first year. Thereafter, their egg laying capacity will be going down every year
• Quail eggs looks beautiful due to multi colour
• For hatching quail eggs, incubator or broo der chickens should be used as they do not incubate on their own. The Incubation time for quail egg is about 15 to 18.

Housing management of quails

1. Deep litter system

• 6 quails can be reared in a sq. Ft. of floor space.
• After 2 weeks, Quails can be reared in cages. This will help to gain good body weight, as unnecessary wandering of animals is avoided.

2. Cage System

• Each unit is about 6 feet in length and 1 foot in width, and subdivided into 6 subunits.
• To save space, the cages can be arranged up to 6 tiers high. There can be 4 to 5 cages in a row.
• The bottom of the cage is fixed with removable wooden plates to clean the bird droppings.
• Long narrow feed troughs are placed in front of the cages. Water troughs are placed at the back of the cages.
• Commercial egg layers are usually housed in colonies of 10-12 birds per cage. For breeding purposes, male quails are introduced in the cages in the ratio of 1 to 3 females.

Feeding management

Feed material should be made of small particle.

• A 5 weeks old quail consumes about 500 gms of feed
• Quails of 6-month-old, consumes about 30-35 gms of feed per day.
• Quails require about 400 gms feed for the production of 12 eggs.
• Broiler starter mash can be used by adding 5 kg of oil cakes to 75 feeds. The particle size is reduced by grinding the more time.

Quail Diet

For good quality of Quail, feed is also to be given in good quantity. Two to two and a half kg of diet should be there for one kg of Quail production, so that good production can be taken from their body development and health. More profit can be earned by giving the best-balanced diet. An adult Quail should be given about 20-35 GM diet in a day. About 27% protein is necessary for a new born baby and 22 – 24% protein for an adult.

General management of quails

• At the age of six weeks, female quails usually weigh 175-200 g and the males weigh about 125-150 g
• Female quails start laying eggs at 7 weeks of age and continue up to 22 weeks of age
• Usually, egg laying happens during the evening time of the day
• The quail egg usually weighs about 9-10 g
• The breast of the male quail is usually narrow and covered with equally distributed brown and white feathers. But the female quail has a broad breast covered with brown feathers with black dots.
• The female and male quails should be separated at the age of four weeks
• Sixteen hours of light per day should be available to the egg laying quail

Breeding in Quail birds

Breeding method in Quail is easy and simple. Normally Quails become mature for breeding at the age of 5 to 7 weeks. The female Quail (layer) starts laying eggs only at the age of 6-7 weeks. At the age of 8 weeks, these birds attain about 50 percent egg production capacity. For commercial Quail farming, the ratio of male and female Quail should be kept 1:5, that is, one male is kept in five females. It takes about 17 days for the chicks to hatch from the eggs, and the weight of one day’s chicks is about 8-10 grams.

Health management

Japanese quails are hardier. They seldom have any disease problems. Therefore, there is no need for routine immunization programme as with other poultry species. One major disease that affects Japanese quail is quail enteritis. This disease can be treated using appropriate antibiotics under veterinarian’s advice.

 Limitations of quail farming

• Higher lighting requirement than chicken
• Very sensitive to different protein level than other poultry species
• Quail chicks are very sensitive to temperature than chicken
• Higher cannibalism rate than other poultry species
• When rearing the male and female quails together, the male quails peck the other quails and make them blind.
• Protein requirement is high and have no specialised feed
• Higher chick mortality
• They are very noisy
• Low body and egg weight
• Low market range

Conclusions

Quail farming means rearing of different breeds of quails under controlled and hygienic environment in order to get their eggs, meat and also litters for commercial purposes. It is a very profitable venture. Japanese quails are comparatively more delicate than chickens. It is hardy in nature, easy to handle and adoptable to varied environment. It requires less floor space and feed. Quail meat is tastier than chicken and has less fat content. Recognizing the enormous potentiality of quail farming as an alternative to chicken in providing gainful employment, supplementary income and as a valuable source of meat and egg. In India, due to the high population, meat requirement is growing day by day and that’s why quail farming will be popular like poultry farming in near future.

 References

Onyewuchi, U. U., Offor, I. R., & Okoli, C. F. (2013). Profitability of quail bird and egg production in IMO state. Nigerian Journal of Agriculture, Food and Environment, 9(1), 40-44.

Saidu, S., Afanasyev, G., Popova, L., Komarchev, A., & Ibrahim, U. (2014, December). Dynamic of reproductive qualities of Japanese quails. In International conference on earth, environment and life sciences,(eels-2014) December (pp. 23-24).

Minvielle, F. (2004). The future of Japanese quail for research and production. World’s Poultry Science Journal, 60(4), 500-507.

Ojedapo, L. O., & Amao, S. R. (2014). Sexual dimorphism on carcass characteristics of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) reared in derived Savanna zone of Nigeria. International Journal of Science, Environment and Technology, 3(1), 250-257.

Karapetyan, R. (2003). Biological and efficiency quality of quails. B. Bird, 8, 29-30.

Jatoi, A. S., Sahota, A. W., Akram, M., Javed, K., Hussain, J., Mehmood, S., & Jaspal, M. H. (2013). Response of different body weights on blood serum chemistry values in four close-bred flocks of adult Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Kalsum, U., Soetanto, H., Achmanu, A., & Sjofjan, O. (2012). Influence of a probiotic containing Lactobacillus fermentum on the laying performance and egg quality of Japanese quails.

Tunsaringkarn, T., Tungjaroenchai, W., & Siriwong, W. (2013). Nutrient benefits of quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) eggs. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(5), 1-8.

Narinc, D., Aksoy, T., Karaman, E., Aygun, A., Firat, M. Z., & Uslu, M. K. (2013). Japanese quail meat quality: Characteristics, heritabilities, and genetic correlations with some slaughter traits. Poultry Science, 92(7), 1735-1744.

Wahab, M. A. (2002). Quails could reduce protein deficiency in poor countries. World Poultry, 18(6), 39.

Ophir, A. G., Persaud, K. N., & Galef Jr, B. G. (2005). Avoidance of relatively aggressive male Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica) by sexually experienced conspecific females. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 119(1), 3.

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