How to feed quail on a home farm
How to feed quails so that they grow well, give a lot of eggs and be healthy? Farmers use ready-made feeds or prepare their own mixtures. The main thing is that they contain all the nutrients, vitamins and microelements necessary for birds. The chicks are fed according to age, in three stages. If you adhere to all the rules that involve feeding quails at home, after 2-3 months you can feast on delicious eggs and meat.
How to feed quail at home
Basic Bird Feeding Products
The diet and feed for quails should be selected according to their needs. About 60% are cereals, the remaining 40% are herbs, vegetables and fruits, protein supplements, and minerals. Proteins in the quail menu should be 25-30%. Also, we must not forget about vitamins. They are found in vegetables and fruits. In winter and spring, the birds are given ready-made vitamin supplements so that they normally lay delicious eggs.
What can you feed quails at home? The menu should include the following products:
- Corn. Mainly composed of starch, is the main source of energy
- Oats. Contains carbohydrates, many vitamins (especially from group B), trace elements. Oats are sometimes replaced with millet, they have almost the same composition.
- Wheat. Contains a lot of vitamin E, which has a positive effect on the productivity of birds. It is also a valuable source of carbohydrates and plant proteins.
- Legumes (soybeans, peas, lentils, etc.) Valuable sources of vegetable proteins, amino acids.
- Meat and fish meal. This dry product contains many animal proteins that birds need.
- Milk. It is best to give the quails sour milk or curd; reverse or dry powder is also suitable. Dairy products contain a lot of easily digestible proteins.
- Vegetables (carrots, beets, turnips, cabbage leaves, squash, pumpkin, potatoes). Contains vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates.
- Mineral components (chalk, shells, gravel, salt). Necessary for normal metabolism, strengthening the skeleton, testicular shell.
All these components are part of the finished feed, only their quantity is different. Also, these ingredients must be included in the mixtures prepared with your own hands, so that the quails rush better and quickly gain weight for meat.
The feeding regime for domestic quails is also of great importance. The birds are given 3-4 times a day, preferably at the same time. The most high-calorie food (grain, meal) is fed for the evening. Vegetables, herbs and fruits should be given for lunch. Small chicks are fed more often, depending on their age.
Ready mixed feed
It is important to know that there is no special ready-made quail feed. For birds, feed is used for laying hens, broiler chickens or turkey poults. Here are the most suitable mixtures for quails and their composition:
- PC-5.This feed contains 60% of grain (corn and wheat), 35% of proteins (fish meal, soy or sunflower meal, the amino acid lysine is added separately), 5% of minerals (chalk, common salt and phosphates). For feeding quails, the feed rate is 30 grams per day.
- PC-1 and PC-2. The amount and ratio of the main components is approximately the same as in the previous compound feed. It includes corn and wheat crushed grains, small amounts of barley and bran. Proteins are provided by fish or meat and bone meal and soybean meal. There is also salt and chalk in the feed. Small pets need 27 grams per day, these are very cheap options.
- PC-4, PC-6 and PC-2.2. The composition contains 60% of cereals (corn, barley and wheat grits in equal proportions), 30% of proteins (fish meal, meal, brewer's yeast, the amino acid lysine). Minerals - 5% (chalk, phosphates and salt). Also, shells, bran, wheat flour are added to these grain mixtures. The daily rate for 1 bird is 28-30 grams.
You need to store feed in carefully closed containers, in a dry place. Cannot be used after the expiration date. The instructions also indicate how much feed for the quail is needed, how long it will stand open without spoiling. In the industrial cultivation of quails, feeding with compound feed is the only acceptable option. Even when breeding at home, it will not cost too much.
Self-preparation of feed
How to feed the quail if there are no ready-made feeds at hand or buying them seems too expensive? Mixes are easy to make yourself from regular grains. It is important to remember that the grains should be ground into cereals, because whole quails cannot be swallowed. There are several recipes for homemade feed, the preparation is not at all difficult.
Option number 1:
- Barley groats - 400 g.
- Corn grits - 100 g.
- Fish or meat and bone meal - 1 tsp.
- Unrefined vegetable or zootechnical oil - 1 tsp.
- Chalk, salt, shells, eggshell - 1 tsp each.
Option number 2:
- Corn groats - 28.5%.
- Wheat groats - 28.5%.
- Premix with a concentration of 10% for layers - 8%.
- Sunflower cake - 10%.
- Soybean meal - 10%.
- Meat and fish meal - 5%.
- Fodder yeast - 5%.
- Peas - 3%.
- Any vegetable oil - 1%.
- Chalk - 1%.
Self-prepared mixtures cannot be stored for more than a month, therefore you need to take the appropriate amount of ingredients. They must be mixed well so that all quails receive food of the same composition. How this is done is shown in the video. A special table helps to choose the right components.
What can you feed more quails at home? In summer, it is worth giving the birds chopped greens, vegetables, berries and fruits. Birds eat well clover leaves, alfalfa, yarrow, stinging nettles, dandelions, and freshly cut grass. From vegetables they are given beets, potatoes, carrots, Jerusalem artichoke, cabbage, zucchini, pumpkins, apples, watermelons, cucumbers. You can feed the birds with eggs, cottage cheese, sour milk. All products are well chopped, potatoes are given boiled. Such food is suitable for both laying hens and quails, which are intended for meat.
Feeding the young
How to feed quail chicks? The rearing of young stock consists of three stages:
- The first is 1-7 days after hatching.
- The second is 2-4 weeks.
- The third - after a month and before slaughter.
Below is a list of how to feed the chicks of domestic quails at each stage of their life.
Feeding chicks in the first week
What can you feed weekly quails? Babies who have just hatched from an egg and distributed into cages should be raised on protein foods. For a newborn, a boiled, well-chopped egg (it can be chicken or quail) is suitable. On the second day, cottage cheese rubbed through a sieve is introduced into the diet, 2 g per chick. From 3-4 days, herbs are added to the mixture, they continue to feed with eggs and cottage cheese.At the end of the week, chicks are fed with grated carrots, millet, wheat crumbs, boiled fish or minced meat. Chicks are given food 6-8 times a day.
Feeding chicks at 2-4 weeks
Two-week-old babies are fed with ready-made compound feed. They are transferred to them gradually, starting from 8 days. It is best to take mixtures for broiler chickens: they are well absorbed, the young quickly gain weight. It is permissible to feed quail babies with millet, boiled peas, corn and wheat groats for up to a month. Especially in cases where you are not going to buy ready-made feed for adult birds. At two weeks of age, mineral additives, gravel for grinding grain are introduced.
Stage Three
Already at 4 weeks, the pestle will eat adult feed. By that time, it is necessary to determine which chicks will go for meat, and from which they will form the parent flock. Laying hens are grown separately. Even from meat breeds, you can get about 200 eggs, therefore it is not rational to send adult females for slaughter in the first weeks. Better to keep them up to 8-11 months. Adult birds are fed both home-made and ready-made food.
Feeding hens
The feeding of the quail hens must be balanced so that they can fly normally. Only then can you get enough eggs. It is allowed to feed the hens with mixed feed or self-prepared grain mixture. It is very important to pay attention to the protein content when drawing up a diet. The norm for laying hens is 25% of the diet. If too much protein is given, the quails begin to lay eggs with two yolks. They are quite suitable for food, but it is impossible to derive chicks from such material.
When using feed, ready for laying quail, for example, PK-1, proteins are added to them additionally. Cottage cheese, minced fish, soybean meal, meat and bone meal, and legumes are also added. One head should have 2 g of additional protein. When self-preparing mixtures, they add 12 g of protein ingredients per head.
Layers should not be overfed with grain. Fatty birds lose their egg production. One quail should eat 25-30 g of food per day. Annual consumption is about 9 kg of compound feed or 10-11 kg of grain mixtures. Feeding quail hens in the country at home must include vitamins and minerals. Vitamin E is especially important for them, which affects fertility. Calcium and vitamin D are also needed to strengthen the eggshell.
Feeding the parent flock
We have figured out how to feed ordinary quail laying hens. Now let's say a few words about the nutrition of the parent flock. Selected for breeding birds at the age of 7 weeks. They must be of the same size, weight, and free from defects. There are 3-4 females for 1 male. Breeding quails are fed with both ready-made feed and grain mixtures.
The food norm for one layer when feeding with compound feed is 30 g per day, for a male - 18 g per day. In addition to grain mixtures, greens, fresh and boiled vegetables, mineral supplements, vitamins are introduced into the diet. Additionally, they give protein, for example, cottage cheese, minced fish, feed quails with eggs. The better the nutrition of the parents, the higher the hatchability and survival rate of the chicks, therefore, it is not worth saving on feed in this case.
Fattening quail for slaughter
Quails are selected for fattening at the age of one month. Suitable for this purpose:
- All males, except for breeding males.
- Females with defects.
- Layers after 11 months, the further maintenance of which no longer makes sense.
- Males and females of meat breeds.
Males and females intended for meat are separated. They are kept in only in cages, closed on all sides, except for the front wall. It is advisable to put the cells in the shade, and turn on only weak lighting in the evening. In such a situation, the consumption of feed by quails increases, and the males do not fight. For 1 sq. m of area accommodate 30-40 birds. The temperature regime in the room is 20-24 ° С.
How and what to feed meat quails? It is best to use standard broiler feed. To speed up growth and satisfy the need for proteins, boiled peas are added to it. For 8 parts of compound feed, there are 2 parts of peas, you can give it along with bread and boiled eggs. Also, minced fish, vegetable or zootechnical fat are mixed into food in order to increase the calorie content. Be sure to give the quails vitamins and mineral supplements.
The daily food allowance for one bird is 30 g of the mixture. Transfer to feed gradually over 4-5 days. With intensive fattening, adult birds can be sent for slaughter in 2-3 weeks, at 50-60 days from birth. The weight of meat breeds will be 250 g, egg breeds - 140-180 g, if care and nutrition were correct. At the same time, the amount of feed spent on weight gain is quite satisfactory.
We hope you understand for yourself how to feed quails at home, how much food they need to give and do not forget that a drinking bowl should be present everywhere. Feeding costs are not too high given the rapid growth of birds and high egg production. It is best to use ready-made compound feed. Grain mixtures should be made on their own only if there is access to cheap forage, because cereals have to be crushed for quails, and this is an additional cost of time and effort. How to properly prepare food for quails, you can watch the video.