QUAIL (बटेर) FARMING-SCOPE & MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA
The continued rise in human population in the developing countries necessitates the need to establish additional sources of animal protein. In this situation, the demand for poultry products has been increasing. To meet up the growing demand for poultry products without importing them, the development of poultry industry is very important. Quail does not only supply animal protein in the form of meat and eggs, but also provides a source of income. The quail farming as a supplement to chicken and duck farming has the unique advantage of tapping the growing market demand for poultry products The time has now come for creating alternative employment opportunities for the educated people. The self-employment scheme is one probable answer and quail farming seems to be a promising enterprise in this direction. The quail farming witnessed rapid expansion in urban areas. These farms are producing meat, eggs and quail-chicks/pullets. However, quail farming has not yet been popularized in rural areas. It is very important to know the potential of and constraints to commercial quail farming in the socio-economic environment of India. Quail was introduced in India during the year 1974 from California. There are two species of quail in India; the black-breasted quail found in jungle (Coturnix coromandelica) and the brown-coloured Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) which is bred for meat or the one used for commercial quail production. The Japanese quail is the largest species, it is much smaller than pigeon. While Indian quail weighs upto 100 g and lays 100 eggs a year, the Japanese quail weighs upto 250 g and lays 250 eggs a year. Quail egg is roughly one-fifth the size of a chicken’s egg and weighs around 10g. The eggshells are spotted, with colours ranging from white to brown. Nutritionally, the quality of these eggs is at par with that of chicken eggs; rather they contain less cholesterol. The proportion of yolk (the yellow inside part) to albumen (the white part), is at 39:61which is higher compared to chicken eggs. The quail has the advantage of small size, short life cycle, rapid growth rate, good reproductive potential and shorter hatching periods when compared with the different species of poultry. The quail meat is popular for its high protein, essential fatty acids and minerals such as sodium, potassium and iron.
• Requires minimum floor space
• Needs low investment
• Quails are comparatively sturdy birds
• Can be marketed at an early age ie. five weeks
• Early sexual maturity – starts laying eggs in about six to seven weeks of age
• High rate of egg laying -280 eggs per year
• Quail meat is tastier than chicken and has less fat content. It promotes body and brain development in children.
• Nutritionally, the quail eggs are on par with that of chicken eggs. Moreover, they contain less cholesterol.
• Quail meat and eggs are a nutritious diet for pregnant and nursing mothers.
Housing management of quails
- 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. - Cage System
Age Cage Size No.of birds
First 2 weeks 3 x 2.5 x 1.5 ft. 100
3- 6 weeks 4 x 2 .5 x 1.5 ft. 50
Quails in cage system of rearing
• 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 upto 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.
How to Create Habitat [Quails Cage]:
Low-Cost Quail Growing Cage
The size of cages is somewhat different for different from each other. Learn how to build the best habitat for your birds.
Here we will describe the starter cage size and measurement. There are another two types of cages used in commercial quail housekeeping. In order to build a house, the following points should be kept in mind.
- Ensure a comfortable environment for birds.
- Ensure natural light-air and keep it under control as needed.
- Ability to protect the birds from excessive winter, hot or rain and damp conditions.
- Construction of houses in a specific distance and required size.
- Construct different rooms for different ages of quails.
- In order to avoid any bad smell due to the bird’s stomach and urine, it is necessary to take proper action beforehand.
The exclusive Laying nest and Brooder cage are very important for layer & breeder quail raising.
Appropriate Cages for Layer Quail raising:
• Each cage is about 6 ft. long and 1 ft. wide and divided into 6 parts.
• For utilizing the space, you can build up to 6-story cages. Also, keep at least 8- 10 cm distance between two stories.
• And use moveable wooden parts at the lower part to separate them, so that the birds can be cleaned.
• Place a long narrow water pot is in front of the cage.
• Typically, 10-12 birds are fed in each cage in a cage by commercially producing eggs.
• For the breeding, 1 male and 3 female quails are kept in this cage.
Appropriate Cages for Broiler Quail Raising:
About 6 birds can be raised in every square foot.
For broiler quails farming method your goal of rearing birds is to sell them as the poultry meat. That is why to gain weight the bird needs to be kept in a smaller space.
• After 2 weeks, Quails can be kept in the cage for rearing.
• It helps to increase physical weight, because of this it is possible to avoid unnecessary roaming of birds.
Age Cage Size Number of Birds
2 Weeks 3 x 2.5 x 1.5 ft. 100
3-6 weeks 4 x 2.5 x 1.5 ft. 50
How To Build A Laying Nest:
The primary function of a laying nest is providing isolutation for egg laying quails.
Egg Laying house (egg-laying shade) built separately for each or shared for multiple birds.
Note: Each bird will need approximate 15 cm personal space in an egg-laying nest.
• Now, to build a private laying nest, and you can use a 15cm Wide, 20cm deep boxes.
• And in case of the shared nest for 25-30 birds, use 1m wide, 20cm deep boxes.
This is important,
Separate egg laying nest is important in a commercial poultry farming setup. It will prevent them to destroy eggs. Also, egg-laying birds require extra care.
Guideline for Collecting Quails:
The ultimate checklist before and after for buying quality quails.
• Clean the shade, properly. Check every component especially the electronics parts.
• And, buy the best quality quails, from an established farmer.
• If you collect 2/3 days babies, You need to store them in the brooder for one or two additional days.
• After that, Place them into rearing shade.
• Now, keep an eye on weak chicks. If it is needed, place them again into the brooder.
Essential Equipment and Materials for The farm:
There are a number of tools and materials required to handle this organic farms, as follows:
- Brooder Hover,
- Heater / Stove,
- Plastic Tick Feed Tray,
- Food pots,
- Water pots,
- Egg laying boxes,
- Electric bulbs,
- Defaults or balances for taking weight measurements,
- Buckets, a shovel, spade, bowls, a knife, baskets, peal, tulle etc.
- Egg laying house. Here, this is the boxes for constructing egg laying cage.
- Bamboo, wood, corrugated, polythene or triple.
- Thermometer, hypermeter and,
- Battery or Brooder.
The following are some of the important tools and materials described below
Feeder:
There will be a high-quality food serving dish;
(A) It can easily be filled with foods.
(B) And, easily cleanable.
Water or drunker:
Whether the cage or liters are performed in the same manner, the characteristics of a potter’s water pot are as follows:
(A) Birds will get clean water supply from it.
(B) It will be easy for drinking water.
(C) Cleaning will be easy.
(D) Durable and cheaper in price.
Feeding management of quails
Feed can be formulated as follows.
Feed Ingredients Chick mash Grower mash
0-3 weeks 4-6 weeks
Maize 27 31
Sorghum 15 14
Deoiled RiceBran 8 8
Groundnut Cake 17 17
Sunflower Cake 12.5 12.5
Soya meal 8 –
Fishmeal 10 10
Mineral Mixture 2.5 2.5
Shell grit – 5
• Feed material should be made of small particles
• 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 feed. The particle size is reduced by grinding the feed for one more time.
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 utpo 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 quails
Farm management: General Caring methods of Qualis
To get adequate production from the quail farming, each farmer must study the details of farm management.
Even a minor negligence or defects is enough for the failure of farms. So, farmers please become extra careful when the following points.
Pain or Stress Removal: Remember this as a result of stress, the production decreases severely and sometimes it can result in even death.
To get a good production from your farm, ensure the certainly comfortable environment that they will cherish
Food and water management: The food and water management need be correct. If they have adequate food and water for each bird, they will relish the food and water.
Egg collection: Collect eggs at least two times a day. In the typical evening at 6: 00-6: 30 and the second night at 9.00 – 9.30.
Egg Storing: It must be stored immediately after the collection of eggs. Reserve temperature and relative humidity are 12.8 ° -15.5 ° C, respectively. (55.0 ° – 59.9 ° F) and 75-80%.
Sexing: After the deletion of a hatchery from the eggs produced by a family or commercially managed farm, it is necessary to have sex or sexual intercourse as soon as possible.
Lip cutting or debeaking: Debeaking is an important factor in quail farm management. Debugging is to remove a certain part of the lip and nails.
Management of quail chicks——-
The day old quail chicks usually weigh 8-10 g. Hence, the quail chicks need more temperature. Absence of adequate temperature and exposure to high speed cool wind leads to clustering of young ones, which results in high mortality.
Breeding management of quails
Quail eggs
• Quails start laying their eggs at the age of 7th week. They attain 50% egg production at 8th week of age
• In order to produce fertile eggs, the male quails should be reared along with the females at 8-10 weeks of age
• The male, female ratio is 1:5
• Incubation period in quails is 18 days
• With 500 female quails we can produce 1500 quail chicks per week
Quail Meat
Diseases of quails—–
• When there is deficiency of vitamins and minerals in the female quail breeders, the chicks obtained from their fertile eggs are usually lean with weak legs. To prevent this the breeder females should be provided with optimum minerals and vitamins in their feed
• Generally quails are resistant to infectious diseases than chicken. So there is no vaccination required for quails
• Proper management of quail chicks, disinfecting farm premises, providing clean drinking water to quails and feeding of quality concentrate feed will prevent disease outbreaks in quail farms
Bedding Materials: Litter and It’s Management Procedure
In one word, the bed that is used in the quail bards room to make the accommodation comfortable is called litter.
Though, building a comfortable bedding is not costly. However, it is very sensitive, which normally affect the production directly.
First, I will provide a guideline to make a bed then it’s proper management process.
How to Create Litter for Quails:
• In the beginning, spread 5 cm thick litter material on a clean floor.
• Then gradually add more litter material, and increase the thickness to 10 cm in 4-5 weeks.
• In the case of brooder foster child, before placing quails put 10 cm thick litter.
Materials for Creating Litter Bed:
Generally, as a litter Rice husk, Wood powder, Paddy or wheat dry, Straw, Wood Stove, Nuts powder Etc. are used.
Bactericide and its use:
The role of disinfectant is very important in protecting the health of the harmful and sterile environment in the growth of the quail residence.
Various experiments have shown that no bactericide is functioning alone. So, anyone who uses antibiotics such as heat (sunlight), coal-tas-derivatives, chlorine, formaldehyde, copper sulfate etc. should be used.
Raising Quail Chicks:
Quails never incubate their eggs. So, you can produce chicks by hatching their eggs through chickens or artificially through using incubators. Incubation period for quail egg is about 16 to 18 days. For maximum egg production, 16 hours of lighting period is required daily inside the quail house. Keep newly born quail chicks in a brooder house. Chicks need artificial heat and temperature management system for 14 to 21 days from their birth. Quail chick become very sensitive. They can be raised in both litter and battery system. Keep in mind the following factors while raising quail chicks. Provide the layer quail chick heat and light according to their age. Follow the chart shown below. Adequate temperature Sufficient light Proper air movement Density of quail chicks Supply of food and water Hygienic rearing rules
Diseases ————-
Diseases are less in quails, compared to other poultry birds. But you have to take good care and manage them properly, to keep them free from all types of diseases or illness. Good care and management is a must for profitable quail farming business. Generally they are not provided any disease preventive vaccines. Quail chicks can’t tolerate weather change, and sudden temperature change. So they get affected by disease, if they experience sudden temperature or weather changes. Be very careful during this period. Following diseases are very harmful for the quails.
Coccidiosis:
If the quails get affected by coccidiosis disease, serve them anti coccidial 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 Ulcerative Enteritis: streptomycin with one litter water and serve it to the quails for three days. This will stop ulcerative enteritis disease.
Hygienic Tips Quail Farming Tips –————
To keep your quails healthy and productive, follow the hygienic quail farming method which are mentioned below.
Always try to keep their house dry and clean. Ensure proper movement of light and air inside their house. Keep different aged quails separated from each other. Separate the disease affected quails from the healthy one. Burn the dead bird or put under soil. Don’t allow other birds, animals or unknown persons enter inside your farm quail house. Ensure hygienic and balanced feed supply. Provide adequate fresh and clean water according to their demand.
MARKETING OF YOUR QUAIL FARMING BUSINESS
Marketing Quail meat and eggs are very tasty and highly enriched with nutrient elements. So there is already an established market for quail products. As quail birds and their eggs are small in size, so it is cheap in price and all types of people can purchase. So you don’t have to worry much about marketing your products. You can easily sell the eggs and meat in your local market. But it will be better if you determine your marketing strategies before starting this business. Because all places around the world have not the same marketing facilities. In a word, quail farming is playing an important role for fulfilling the daily family nutrition demands and earning livings. And commercial quail farming can be a great source of employment, and earning some extra income along with your current job or profession. Quail farming is also very entertaining and it is very easy to raise some quails. If you intend to join this business venture, then try to visit some farms in your area. And finally do it. The final step is to market and promote your quail farming business. This is an important step and will help you gain your first few clients. You will be able to promote both eggs and meat to customers, but can also choose to target just one of these. The breed of quail you are specializing in will also affect whether you specialize in eggs or meat.
Promoting your business can be done in several ways. You can start a website for your business, but should only consider this when your business is starting to grow. During the first few months, you should focus on promoting in your local area. This will provide you with more funds that can be used to expand your business. Start by printing out business cards and keeping them with you at all times. This is very convenient when you find someone who is interested in your business. You can also publish an advertisement in your local newspaper. Posters and flyers can also provide an effective method of marketing your business.
Challenges in quail rearing——-
• Male quails usually make a different sound which is usually disturbing to the human
• When rearing the male and female quails together, the male quails peck the other quails and make them blind. At times, death of the quails are also noticed.
QUAIL FARMING- MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA
QUAIL (बटेर) FARMING-SCOPE & MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA
Compiled & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)
Image-Courtesy-Google
Reference-On Request.
