Japanese Quail Rearing – A Profitable Venture

Japanese Quail Rearing – A Profitable Venture

Praveen, PhD Scholar

Department of Livestock Production Management

ICAR, National Dairy Research Institute- Bengaluru

 

Abstract

Nowadays J. quail rearing has become an emerging venture in the field of poultry industry because of disease resistant, early age at maturity with the egg laying happens in 30-42 days of hatching of chicks. Quail is zoologically called as Coturnix coturnix japonica with chromosome number 78. They will sexually mature at the age of 6-7 weeks. Different strains has been developed in CARI institute for egg, meat and dual purpose. The housing, feeding, breeding and brooding management of J. quail is detailed here.

Key words: egg, fast growth, pebbles, quail, sexing

Advantages of rearing quail

• Minimum space for rearing
• Small capital investment and cheap to rear
• Early sexual maturity
• Quail meat is tasty than chicken and low fat content
• Promote body and brain development in young ones
• Quail egg (3-4 times) far better than chicken egg with low cholesterol
• Quail droppings has high fertilizer value which will increase the crop yield
• As they are naturally disease resistant, they no need of requirement of vaccination and much medication.

Quail breeds developed

• CARI uttam – Broiler quail (220g)
• CARI pearl – Layer quail (290 eggs)
• CARI Brown
• CARI Ujjawal – white breasted
• CARI Sweta – White feathered
• CARI Sunheri – brown feather with white breast

Housing of quail

Mainly two types of quail housing

• Deep litter
• Battery system

Deep litter

In this type of housing 6 quails can be reared in 1 Square feet and after 2 weeks of age of quail , cage rearing is best in order to get increased body weight gain. Litter material is used as bedding for quail in deep litter system

Requirement	1-3 week	Adult
Feeder/bird	2 cm	2.5-3.0 cm
Waterer	1 cm	1.5-2.0 cm
Light	24 hrs	12 hrs
Laying nest	–	5-6 / bird
Floor space (cm2)	150	200-250

 

Deep litter system is advantageous for layers where increase in percentage of laying, egg number, egg weight, yolk index, albumen index and shell thickness is noticed.

Battery cage

Each battery unit is 6 feet in length, 1 foot in width and has 6 subunits. It can be with 6 tiers height with 4-5 cages in a row. Bottom of the cage with removable wooden plates in order to remove droppings periodically to prevent disease spread. Feed trough should be long and narrow and to be kept in front of cage and water trough to be at the back of the cage. Commercial layer can accommodate 10-12 birds per cage and breeder can accommodate 1:3 ratio of male and female per cage.

Age	Space	No. of Bird
1-2 wk	3 X 2.5 X 1.5 feet	100
3-6 wk	4 X 2.5 X 1.5 feet	50

 

Cage system is advantageous for broilers in which increase in bodyweight, increase in FCR and increase in dressing percentage is evident.

Sexing of quail

Sexing is difficult at day old

	Male	Female
Plumage colour @ 3 week	Rusty brown breast feather (only few speckles)	Tan (grey) and speckled breast feathers
Cloacal gland (after sexual maturity)	Present (secretes a foamy material)	Absent
Vent sexing (4-5 weeks of age)	Squeezing the vent, milk colour semen will discharge from phallus	Nil
Body size	Lighter than female	Heavy
Sound	Loud call/ crow at maturity	Quiet nature

Foamy material helps to protect the sperm once they have transferred into the hen.

Care of breeding quail         

Quails breed in all the season. Sex ratio is maintained at 1:2 for good fertility. After the introduction of the male to female flock, fertile eggs can be collected form fourth day onwards. Optimum fertility is upto 8 m of age or less. Hatchability of fertile eggs rapidly declines when eggs are collected from older females. However, this effect is not observed in males. Egg laying usually takes place in evening hours at nearly 6.30 to 7.30 pm and the colour of egg be seen as mottled with black, brown or blue.

Care of hatching eggs

Quail eggs are thin and so to be handled carefully. Eggs to be kept in atmosphere free of dust. Eggs can be stored to a maximum of 7 days at the temperature of 14-16⁰C with relative humidity @ 70 to 80%

Natural incubation

It can be done by broody hen since quail is not a natural hatcher. Hatchability percentage with broody hen will be 50-90% and better hatchability can be obtained with 20-25 eggs per incubation. The survival rate of chicks born by broody hen incubation is about 65-95 %

Advantage

• Reduce drudgery
• Reduce extra stress
• Minimise transport and breeding cost of the eggs
• Time saving

Death of the chicks born of broody hen may be due to stamping by hen, so chicks to be removed quickly after hatching, low temperature and parasitic infestation

Artificial hatching

Hatching takes place in 17-18 days in which 6-7 g chicks comes from 10g egg. Eggs to be turned at 4-6 times per day upto 14 days of hatchery

	Temp	RH
Setter	37.2˚ C	60%
Hatcher	36.9˚ C	70%

 

Brooding management of quail

Quail chicks to be brooded upto 4 week of age either in deep litter or battery cage (reduction in mortality). Floor space for brooding to be hover space @ 75 cm²/Chick and run space @ 75 cm²/Chick. Marble or pebbles to be placed in the waterer in order to prevent drenching of the quail chick and the pebbles can be removed after 2 weeks of brooding. Temperatue of the brooder house at 1^st week maintained at 37⁰C and reduce 2.7⁰C per week upto 28.9⁰C (4^th week).

Feeding management

Nutrients	Starter (0-3 weeks)	Grower (4-6 week)	Layer (>7 week)
ME (Kcal/kg)	2750	2750	2650
Protein (%)	27	24	22
Ca (%)	1	0.8	3.0
P (%)	0.45	0.45	0.45

 

Quail egg and meat nutrient

Nutrient	Egg (%)	Meat (%)
Water	74	73.93
Protein	13	20
Lipid	11	3.85
CHO	1	0.56
Mineral	1	1.12
Calorie	649 calorie

 

Quail egg has 4 times more iron and phosphorus than chicken egg and the yolk albumen ratio is 39:6. Dressing percentage of meat is about 70-73%

Major diseases of J. quail

• Ulcerative enteritis: caused by Clostridium pericardium, perfringens. Mortality is about 100 % with the symptom of watery droppings. Post-mortem lesions were ulcer in intestine and cloaca
• Bronchitis : It has 80% mortality with symptom of tracheal rales, sneeze without nasal discharge
• Coccidiosis
• Aspergillosis
• Ranikhet disease

Hurdle in quail rearing

• Make more sound and disturb human
• If male and female together it will peck each other and egg production will decrease.

References

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3. Lata, kanak and Srivastava, R C “Feasibility of natural brooding of quail eggs by broody hen”, 2013:21-22,39.
4. Kayastha et.al., “ Performance of japanese quail on different management system”. Indian J. Anim. Prod. Mgmt. 28.3(2013):218-222.
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