QUAIL FARMING-SCOPE & MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA
by-DR RAJESH KUMAR SINGH, JAMSHEDPUR, JHARKHAND, INDIA, 9431309542, rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com
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.
Advantages of quail farming
• 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
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
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.
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
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
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.
