I was keeping my hanging poultry feeder about 2 inches above the cage floor, was still getting a lot of waste...raised the feeder to 3 inches and now I get almost no waste at all. Regular 3 pound poultry feeder, make it so they can just reach their necks over the lip...
Nice price breakdown. Of course feed costs can be further reduced by selling eggs and meat. What number of birds in male/female gets you to the quickest breakeven price?
No, feed costs aren't reduced by selling eggs and meat. The costs remain the same. You might offset your feed costs by selling product. But it is important in business to recognize that reducing feed costs are not reduced by income. You CAN reduce your feed costs by controlling waste, decreasing the number of quail you have, etc. Selling eggs, meat, compost, and other byproducts of quail will increase you income though. Best of luck :)
I have 10 Quail for eggs. They go through a lot of food, mostly spillage. I changed the feeder so there is less spillage. In cups, how much should I be feeding my 10 quail daily?
Are you sure its .133 lbs per day? Other sources I have read say between .04-.06 lbs. My chickens (layers) eat .25 lbs per day... 2x the feed for 3-5x the eggs (equivalent), I will stick with chickens, thanks for letting me know, I was almost convinced I needed to raise quail before learning that. I thought it would be much less than that per day.
It depends a lot on what you use for a feeder. They're very wasteful birds. If you use the shoebox method, your waste drops to almost zero. Then, if you weigh how much food you fill the shoebox with and how fast it gets emptied and how many birds are eating it, you will get an accurate number on your cost of food per bird. Hope that makes sense. If you're letting them toss it all over the place, then your costs are high.
If he's being more specific than that, he's probably doing math for jumbo browns since that is their most popular type (and most popular in general - in the USA)
0.133 pounds = 2.128 ounces Do you have a break down of what it costs to get 1 quail up to 10 weeks/butcher weight? Obviously if we want meat we get jumbos.
I often speak of things being at their most efficient when they are placed in the correct application, the fact that quail no longer get broody would suggest that this is not the case at present, Your calculations are based on an unsustainable system there for once things are rectified if at all your calculations will be wrong..
Okay. One thing to consider. .044 a day x 365 days = $16.06. 300 eggs a year gives you 25 dozen eggs. It takes about 5 quail eggs to equal one chicken egg, but I'll be nice and say 3 quail to 1 chicken egg. So 25 dozen quail eggs / 3 (eggs to = 1 chicken egg) gives you 8.33 comparable size eggs a year per bird. $16.06/8.33 is $1.93 per dozen egg cost. Not including all the upkeep, if you raise inside you prob have lights on, water and other stuff to clean cages, poop, etc. That also doesn't include the cost to replace the bird. If you have a male you have to feed him an additional approx $3 per hen or .36 per equivalent chicken size eggs. Thus 1.93+.36 is $2.29 per dozen. I can buy chicken eggs for about $1.00 a dozen. Last month they were .58 a dozen at our local Aldi store. I don't recall ever paying more then maybe a $1.29 for a dozen of eggs. Quail eggs are richer. Don't get me wrong, I love having birds and I like the jumbo coturnix. They produce eggs faster then chickens, grow quicker (yet smaller), etc, but it seems like nothing is cheaper then buying it from the store. Economy of scales I guess at play. Commercial farmers buy feed in volume and thus lower cost I guess and that is why we can get chicken eggs so cheap at the store compared to the cost of raising them. I know I for one kept track of what my free ranging chickens were eating in feed and it was costing approx $2.50 a dozen in feed cost for me. I simply kept track of how many eggs I got for a new bag of feed and when it was finished I did the calculation. I did this for 3 months and averaged the 3. That doesn't even take into account buying the chicks and feeding them until they start laying eggs. I determined it wasn't really worth raising chickens if my goal was to save money. :( Of course now I'm looking at raising quail and rabbits, but not sure if there will be any benefit. Only thing is that if food gets scarce because of this covid19 crap has things shut down, at least I will have my own meat source. Although most of my red meat comes from deer road kill in the city I live in. I get free deer from them.
This was great, thanks, I have been researching "raising quail uk" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Eeyila Rudimentary Expediency - (search on google ) ? It is a great one of a kind product for discovering how to raise healthy and fertile quail minus the headache. Ive heard some incredible things about it and my friend got excellent success with it.
What's your average number for how much feed a quail eats to get to maturity (0 - 6 weeks)? The only source I could find said they eat at total of 6 pounds of food to get to maturity.
this source here shows hes a bit on the high side. here it says 1.75 lbs of feed to maturity www.admanimalnutrition.com/webcenter/content/conn/WCC1/uuid/dDocName%3awctrprd_002918
your number means a quail eats average 65grams per day and it is impossible. A day old chick can not finish 65 grams of feed per day. A Jumbo adult quail of 400 gram body weight may consume 65 grams per day which is 16% of its body mass. To me, a quail consumes 1.75 lbs of feed 0 - 6 weeks make a lot of sense.
Anyone know how much weight of actually meat you can get off of 1 processed bird? I'm thinking if its 13oz live and dresses out at 72% that 9.36oz of meat and bone? How much does the bone weigh? My feed cost around here is $17.60 after tax for 50 lbs. At 9.36oz of meat and bones, it cost me $4.31 in feed to raise a bird to 8 weeks old. I'd like to know how much actually meat I get vs meat and bone. I know there is a lot that goes into raising your own meat. No hormones antibiotics etc. Just need to figure out how to lower the cost. I currently buy fresh never frozen boneless skinless chicken breast from the local meat market for .99 to $1.29 a lb before covid19. Now its like $1.99 a lb I think. Great price and hard to beat before this covid crap hit. I really wanted to raise jumbo coturnix, but I think I am realizing that it might not be financially beneficial to do so if you live frugally. :( I plant herbs, comfrey, and sunflowers around my property to feed my animals to help reduce cost, but not sure I can get it low enough. Any suggestions, comments, etc. Am I missing something? I guess the answer is you have to sell enough eggs/ fertilized eggs/ and/or meat at a high enough price to offset the cost of feed and incubation to bring down the cost. ???
i know this is an old comment but i have a few record i kept from weight before and after culling some 9ish week old roos first # is live weight second # is after plucking and cleaning wings and skin on: 273g-178g, 245g-168g,255g-178g, 248g-177g,213g-131g,232g-151g, 253g-155g. im from Canada so the unit may need to be converted for you. these are not jumbos just regulars pharaoh roos hope this helps you or someone else who is curious
@@lindsaynorman9323 Thank you Lindsay. Looks like you yielded almost 59% of processed bird. Did you by chance keep track how much feed it cost to raise them birds to butcher weight and what the average cost of feed is?
So if you sell the eggs you are already .04 per egg in the red. Then minus the time/effort, water, times it don’t produce an egg, electric, gas to get to and from feed store, infrastructure to house the bird and all equipment……is it really profitable? You can buy 60 chicken at Walmart for $5, that equals 240-300 equal eggs in terms of 4/5 to 1 ratio and you are paying $2.50 per 50 eggs ish for quail(it’s actually more with everything else added in) meaning you are spending $12.50-$15 for the same amount of eggs when you can get that for $5? The math needs to include all costs associated not just feed costs.
Your math is a bit off. We need to divide $15 by 50 lbs to get the per pound cost; not divide 50lbs by $15. This shows daily feed costs is under $2 per day
this video is about how much it cost to feed quail, not raise quail, as the title implies. ask this dude how much bedding cost in wood chips he is buying, aka bedding. keep in mind you are advised to change their bedding every day, then we can bypass this illusion of how much it costs to raise quail or any "homestead gamebird". sure you can free range meat males, but this isn't a bedding free paradigm either and requires more land. videos like this are a disservice to the end goal of getting more ppl producing their own protein
Many thanks, I been tryin to find out about "raising quail backyard" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Eeyila Rudimentary Expediency - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is a smashing one off product for discovering how to raise healthy and fertile quail minus the normal expense. Ive heard some interesting things about it and my mate got great success with it.
