Rules for keeping quails in the country
Quail breeding is a profitable activity. Birds grow quickly and have a fairly high performance. Their meat and eggs are popular with dieters. Keeping quails in the country is an interesting idea for a mini-business.
Keeping quails in the country
A little about bird species
At the moment, eight types of quail are known, which, like any poultry, can belong to four categories:
- meat;
- egg;
- meat and egg;
- decorative.
Quail eggs are rich in protein and are hypoallergenic, the meat is highly valued among gourmets. Breeding quails in the country in the summer involves the acquisition of young individuals or eggs for growing in incubators, because mature individuals do not tolerate travel very well. Adult quails can stop laying eggs, and for a fairly long period.
Habitat arrangement
Keeping quails in the country primarily involves the arrangement of the territory and places for birds. For the most part, quails are kept in small cages equipped with drinkers and feeders. The quail cage can be purchased or made by hand. In order to save money, experienced poultry farmers prefer to carry out structures for keeping birds on their own. It is important to remember that a cage bought in a store or made on your own must comply with a number of rules:
- the material for the structure should be as strong as possible;
- the structure must be made so that it can be easily cleaned and disinfected;
- the cage mesh should be fine-meshed;
- under the container itself, you must install a pallet for collecting manure;
- an egg chute should be placed on the front wall of the cage;
- planting density - 150 sq. cm per head, and for meat breeds, at least 180 sq. see the bird.
The cages should have comfortable bedding of sawdust or straw. A prerequisite is the presence of a box with ash in the container so that the birds can clean the feathers. You can not keep it there all the time, but put it a couple of times a week.
Microclimate requirements
Keeping quails in the country involves maintaining a certain air temperature and humidity in the poultry house. The air temperature should not be lower than 18 ° С. If the breeding of quails in the country is planned only for the summer period, it is not worthwhile to additionally insulate the sparrowhawk, because the birds are very sensitive to an increase in temperature. The maximum temperature at which they can be kept is 25 ° C.
The best option is to build a house on the north side of the site, in the shade. The room should be well ventilated so that the birds do not have oxygen starvation, and drafts should not be allowed. Air humidity level - up to 75%.It is advisable to de-noise the house, because quails have a very negative attitude to harsh sounds. Do not keep birds with other inhabitants of the yard in the same room.
What and how to feed
When people raise quail in the country, they do not always have the opportunity to be there around the clock, so the feeders should be of the bunker type. For drinkers, it is best to select nipple systems. If you are going to leave the cottage for a rather long period, then only dry compound feed should be poured into the feeders.
Basically, quail feeding consists of grain crops. This product must make up at least 60% of the total amount of feed. It is necessary to add calcium to the compound feed in the form of crushed to a powdery state of river shells. Another important feed ingredient is greens: nettle, alfalfa. In the diet of quails, it is necessary to add meat and bone or fish dust.
A good diet should contain boiled potatoes and root vegetables. It is very important to monitor the cleanliness of the drinking bowls: birds consume a fairly large amount of liquid, they often rinse their beaks, which makes the containers quickly become dirty.
Caring for chicks
If you decide to have quails at the dacha, you can purchase hatching eggs and hatch the chicks yourself. Before the quails appear, it is necessary to prepare the place where they will be kept. During the first week after birth, the chicks must be provided with comfortable temperature conditions: 35 ° C. The temperature is gradually reduced, by about half a degree-degree per day.
For full development, assimilation of feed and prevention of stunting, illumination in the poultry house should be around the clock. After 21 days, the light mode must be changed and made intermittent. Successful rearing of quail laying hens is about hygienic procedures, ensuring optimal balanced nutrition and free access to water.
For very young chicks, it is recommended to put tray feeders, and then replace them with grooved ones. Feeders should be covered with nets to prevent babies from getting into them. After 21 days from the moment of birth, the quail are seated in separate containers.
At the age of 40 days, the quail is already a sexually mature individual. If you buy two-month-old chicks for breeding quails in the country, then it will be possible to immediately receive meat and egg products, which is much more profitable than buying incubation material. Thus, over the summer it is quite possible to increase the number of quails using the parental herd.
What are the chicks fed with?
During the first 3 days after birth, the quail are fed with a boiled egg, finely crumbled. From the 4th day, cottage cheese is introduced into the diet, it is possible to add compound feed for newborn chickens. They drink quail only with boiled water, for prevention, a chloramphenicol tablet is dissolved in it. From the eighth day, they begin to gradually transfer babies to mixed feed with microelements for chickens.
From the 20th day, they slowly transfer to compound feed for adult chickens, and from the 28th, they completely sit on it. When the chicks reach the age of one month, they are seated in different cages. Some individuals are fattened for meat, and some are left as layers. These groups should be kept in different rooms. The diet for both groups will be different.
Laying quail should receive a sufficient amount of calcium, so chalk and bone dust are added to its feed. The basis of nutrition is compound feed for laying hens, into which eggshells crushed to a powdery state are mixed. Of the fortified foods, quails prefer root vegetables and cabbage.
Extra males and discarded females are fattened for meat. Their diet can be saturated with vegetable fats. Feed is given about 4 times a day. Birds are slaughtered when they gain a body weight of 150 g.
How to strengthen the immunity of birds
Keeping quail hens in an apartment or in the country is a rather interesting activity that does not require special skills. However, in order for the health of pets to be strong, it is necessary to create comfortable living conditions for them. The first step is to take care of a balanced diet. There are several criteria by which you can determine that the birds are developing normally and there is enough in their diet:
- hard eggshell;
- a hard bloom is noted in the droppings.
If the quail has a problem, you should make rice water and water the birds with it. For the prevention of intestinal diseases, chicks are shown to be given only boiled water; for sexually mature individuals, settled water is used. Also, once a month, it is recommended to dilute a small amount of potassium permanganate in water and give this solution to birds. Quail birds are very resistant to various infectious diseases.
Cold season care
The optimal living conditions for quails in the country and in winter include maintaining a temperature regime of at least 18 ° C, as well as maintaining a fairly high humidity, excluding a wet floor. The poultry house must be insulated, protected from drafts and made a simple ventilation system. Birds need sunlight, so the shed where they are planned to be kept must have windows.
If you started breeding quail in the winter, then before the chicks appear, you need to construct a sturdy wooden box with a door. A warm bedding should be placed in it, the best option is wood sawdust. In cages, ceilings must be upholstered with foam to avoid injury to birds.
Hygiene procedures
When quails are bred in the country, one of the main tasks is to ensure normal hygiene and disinfection of the premises, cages and equipment. A disinfection barrier must be installed at the exit from the poultry house. To clean the cages, you need to get out all the birds, and then wash the containers with soapy water, and then dry the structures with a building hairdryer.
It is very important to completely dry the birdhouses to avoid fungal growth. Another important condition is the separate keeping of quails from other bird species. To keep your livestock as safe as possible, you need to install the simplest disinfection barriers. You can make them yourself. For manufacturing, you need a wooden box with low sides.
Sawdust is poured into the box and covered with a bag. All this is treated with any disinfectant. The box is installed at the threshold and, when entering from the street, they stand in it with their feet so as not to infect them from the yard.
Summarizing information
Many of the novice poultry farmers want to start quails at the dacha, because their maintenance is profitable and does not require special skills. It is important to take into account some simple rules, and then breeding of birds will become successful. It is extremely important to ensure:
- well ventilated area;
- temperature regime from 18 to 23 ° С;
- humidity 50-75%
It is not difficult to care for quails, they are not at all demanding on food, and also have excellent immunity. If you do not follow the elementary rules and do not provide optimal conditions for keeping, cannibalism and loss of feathers can begin among the birds. Such symptoms can cause insufficient lighting, colds, poor nutrition, a high density of birds in one cage.