It is my 4th year of owning and taking care of quail.
I enjoy it as a hobby and it also helps me to get away from industrially produced foods.
That being said, if at all possible, I would recommend chicken over quail.
| QUAIL | CHICKEN |
|---|---|
| can NOT get salmonella ✔️ | can get salmonella ❌ |
| need only one vaccination ✔️ | might need some more vax ❌ |
| are small ✔️ | ...not so small ❌ |
| first eggs after 10 weeks ✔️ | first eggs after 6 months ❌ |
| rooster crows ✔️ | rooster will wake whole neighbourhood ❌ |
| will run away any chance they get ❌ | will roost at home ✔️ |
| are super scared ❌ | are easily scared ✔️ |
| do not forage well ❌ | can forage / free range ✔️ |
| can not eat kitchen scraps ❌ | loves kitchen scraps ✔️ |
| need very high protein feed (soy) ❌ | wide range of possible feeds ✔️ |
| will get attacked by everything ❌ | will eat a mouse ✔️ |
| extremely stupid ❌ | plain stupid ✔️ |
| can not really be pet ❌ | might tolerate human contact ✔️ |
| will lay eggs anywhere ❌ | usually use the nesting box ✔️ |
Of course, it all depends on your context, your situation.
If you want to get away from large scale farming, quail are a start, but not ideal at all.
They need a high protein diet. In nature, they would eat a lot of insects.
If you buy the feed, you pretty much have to rely on soy for protein, which kind of defeats the whole idea of going into the direction of self sufficiency.
Free ranging them is impossible. They will just run away.
For example: Geese can actually graze. They can and will also defend themselves well.
However, geese can get terribly loud. And like with all water fowl, I do not like their smell.
Chicken will mess up your garden, but at least they will get back into the pen in the evening.
Chicken are so much better than all other birds 😍
1 regular chicken egg is as big as 8 regular quail eggs.
They eat leftover pasta and all sorts of things.
Meanwhile, I saw a quail almost choke to death on a spinach leaf.
Quail are very scared of everything, and even though I raised some of mine literally by hand, after a week of only short daily contact they became extremely scared of me.
If I offer them insects from my hand however, they will forget all fear and peck at my hand.
To me, it's frustrating.
Chickens are stupid, but nowhere near as stupid as quail are; Their instincts take over so quickly and they will forget everything when their hunting senses kick in or when they get scared.
This should be enough reason:
There are only very few situations where quail make sense, if you want them for food:
...can't think of any other advantages...
... it is also impossible to take a good picture, as they are constantly on the move:
As a final thought, if you plan on selling some eggs, they might fill a niche and some people might pay a good price for them, while the market for chicken eggs might be oversaturated.
To me, their eggs taste just like chicken's eggs and cracking 10 of them is quite a hassle for a few calories.
I will always recommend you try to produce your own food.
It will make you appreciate life more and appreciate the people who do this for a living more - even the industrial, big scale commercial farmers; Without them, we could not feed humanity.
...but go for chicken, if you can. Silkies are the best 😉
