Quail eggs are very tasty and healthy, in addition, they are considered dietary. There is a big plus in the content of quails - they begin to rush at a very young age, so you can get eggs a little more than a month after the birth of the bird.
Beginning of egg quail
Quail begin to rush about 37-40 days of his life. Their weight at this time is approximately 100 grams. In the first month of egg laying, the female usually lays up to 8 eggs, and then you can get about 25 pieces per month from one bird.
Quail usually rush after 12 noon or late in the evening.
Females lay one egg every day for 5-6 days, then there is a break for a day or two and egg laying continues. Therefore, a break in demolition for a couple of days is normal.
Most birds lay eggs for about 3-6 months from the time of the first egg laying.
When the quail begins to hatch and how many eggs a year can be obtained, it also depends on the breed of the quail. Consider the most popular of them.
- Pharaoh Birds begin egg laying at about 43-50 days of life. During the year they lay 220 eggs, each of them weighs 13-15 grams.
- Japanese quail females lay the first eggs from one month to 40 days old. For a year they bring more eggs than Pharaoh - 300 pieces. Their weight is about 10 grams.
- Estonian quail brings about 250 eggs each weighing 12 g each year. This breed begins to rush early - on the 37th day from birth.
- Texas White Quail Females start egg laying at about 50 days. About 270-300 eggs weighing 12-17 grams are obtained per year.
- Manchurian quail blows up to 250 eggs per year, each weighing 16 grams. The female lays the first eggs on 40–45 days of life.
- Quail populations of NPO Complex begin egg laying at the age of one month (and a little more, up to 40 days). Each year they lay 260 eggs weighing 12 grams.
- English white quail begins to lay eggs at 41 days. The number of eggs per year is large: 280 pieces. The mass of one is 11 grams.
- Tuxedo breed brings as many eggs a year as the English whites and with the same mass. Birds begin to hike at 6-7 weeks.
- Marble Quail the annual rate is 300 eggs per 11 grams.
Description and features of eggs
The size and weight of the eggs depends on the breed and how many months the laying hen is. So, the first eggs weigh about 9 grams. And in 4 months there may be 12 grams, as for example, in Estonian quail. Large-sized eggs are laid until about the sixth month of their life.
The quail eggshell is very thin. This is the main difference between them and chicken. They are light interspersed with different dark colors.
Some people believe that there are no harmful bacteria in quail eggs, and they are safe to eat raw. The truth is that, unlike chicken, quail eggs cannot contain salmonella, however, the bacteria of pullorosis are common. Do not worry about the usefulness of boiled eggs: protein and vitamins are stored in them even after heat treatment.
Causes of decline in quail egg production
Quails should not have a long break in egg laying, despite the time of year. There can be many reasons for the decline in egg production, consider the most common of them:
- Failure to comply with the permissible number of birds per square meter. On such an area there should be 50-60. The population density of the cell depends on the breed.
- Check the food you feed the quail. Firstly, it is important to observe the shelf life, and secondly, it is necessary to correctly draw up the daily diet of birds. Also, when changing one feed to another, the quail may cease to be carried for a short period.
- Quail food should contain vitamins and protein. Do not overfeed birds: obesity quails adversely affect productivity.
- Lowering the air temperature reduces egg production. The temperature should be around +20 degrees for good bird productivity.
- It is better to keep quails on the farm than in the aviary. Since in the second case, a drop in egg production is observed. Young birds are put in a cage at the age of 3 weeks. Cages for songbirds will do. Their size should be 20 by 30 centimeters, where about 6 individuals are placed. You can put in the cage 1 male for 2-3 females. It is also convenient to use 3-story cages - 30 by 20 by 20 cm.
- Humidity in the room where the quail is located should be 75%.
- One of the reasons for poor egg production can be various diseases.
- Quail needs light around 17 hours a day. Incorrect lighting conditions can have a bad effect on egg laying. Productivity will be poor if the birds are turned on for 18 hours. In this case, they will not have time to rest and sleep.
- The room where the quail is kept should be clean, warm and drafts should not be allowed. But the birds need good ventilation.
- When replacing the male, the laying of eggs in the female may stop for 6-7 days.
- Shedding can also cause a drop in egg production. This period is shorter for quails than for hens. In order for the birds to regain their strength, they sometimes arrange molt in the winter. For this, the female is left with light for only 6-7 hours a day and fed with feeds with a low protein content. Because of this, the quail ceases to lay eggs and begins to molt. Under the old feathers new ones appear. The duration of the molt is a little less than a month. After that, the bird is returned to the normal diet and lighting. This procedure prolongs productivity by a couple of years.
- Female aging can occur between the ages of 10 and 30 months, which may be one of the reasons for stopping egg production. Usually completely healthy birds lay eggs for three summers (during winter holidays).
- Stress also affects the number of eggs. Birds can be nervous due to loud noises, as well as other large birds and animals.
- Transportation of birds can cause them stress and poorly affect the number of eggs. After such an event, females sometimes need up to 3-4 weeks to get used to a new place and begin to rush.
- Must be cleaned in bird cages. Litter must be removed every day, as pathogenic bacteria and microbes can be found in it.
How to improve egg production?
To restore stable egg laying, it is important to understand the cause of the drop in egg production. Then this problem can be fixed.
Quails need to be balanced and regular. An adult female should eat 30 g of food three times a day. You can not overfeed the bird, as overweight it will cease to lay eggs.
Keep track of the microclimate in the bird cage, observe the required temperature and proper lighting.
In addition, to increase egg production, you can use a special type of feeding quail, it is called "contrasting". With this type of feeding, food is given to birds 3-4 times a day at the same time. In between meals, there should be no feed at all in quail feeders.
If females carry small eggs, then the cause may be a lack of protein in their body. However, if this occurs in a young female at the very beginning of oviposition, then this is quite normal.
Continuous laying of eggs can last up to two years, but it is important to know that when quail is kept for more than a year, their immunity decreases, they often get sick, and meat becomes less quality and tasty.
We suggest you watch the video clip “How to increase the egg production of quail”, from which you can learn more about the causes of the decline in egg production and how many eggs each quail breed carries per year:
How to determine the gender of the bird?
If you decide to start raising quails, but will be doing it for the first time, you need to learn how to determine the gender of the bird for successful breeding.
To do this, look at the physique. Females are 15% larger due to the organs in which the eggs develop. They have a beak and feathers on their neck lighter than those of males, and on the breasts of laying hens are gray feathers with black spots. Such differences are already visible 3 weeks after the birth of the chick.
What are the benefits of quail breeding?
Keeping a quail is more profitable than chickens. From the moment of laying the eggs in the incubator to the laying of the first egg, quailing takes only about 55-65 days. Females start scampering for about 40 days. This is pretty early compared to chickens. For each kilogram of poultry meat, about 3.5 kg of feed is consumed. Quail are absolutely not demanding on living conditions.
The meat and eggs of these birds are considered dietary: they have few calories. The meat is tender and juicy, and eggs contain much more vitamins and nutrients than chicken. Each egg contains nutrients such as:
- iron;
- B vitamins;
- phosphorus;
- potassium.
If the quail egg production has decreased, it’s not a big deal. Having correctly identified the cause, you can solve this problem. There can be many reasons, but most importantly, this rarely happens due to poultry diseases, because quail has good immunity. Therefore, it is not difficult to increase egg production, and you can easily get up to 300 eggs per year from one laying hen.