Not so long ago, only fancy restaurants and hunters ate quail. Today, an increasing number of people are raising quail for meat and eggs.
Quail farming is profitable. However, people also rise them for self satisfactory. In this article, I am going to discuss about what quail breed is best for what?
If you are considering growing quail on your own, there are a handful of high-quality quail breeders suitable for owners like you.
There are more than 130 different types of quail around the world. Each race can offer something unique and useful.
Here, in this article, we provide information on the 10 most profitable quail breeds for eggs and meat. To stay.
Best Quail Breeds Breeds
Eating quail eggs can provide your daily amount of protein, vitamin B2, riboflavin, and folate. At the same time, quail meat is an excellent source of nutrients such as protein, iron, and zinc.
Here is the list of 10 best quail for any purpose-
- Coturnix or Japanese quail
- Button, King, Chinese-Painted or Blue-breasted quail
- (Northern) Bobwhite quail
- Gambel’s quail
- Mearn’s quail
- Mountain quail
- Scaled quail
- California (Valley) quail
- Manipur Bush quail
- Jungle Bush quail
Now, take a quick look to the summery.
The best breeds of quail for beginners: Coturnix or Japanese quail is the winner in this specific area. It can produce more meat and eggs than any other breed of quail.
It matures earlier than other birds of this type. It begins to produce eggs at 6 weeks of age and can lay 200 eggs per year.
In general, it is the most popular and qualified breed to be bred commercially. If you are considering growing quail commercially, you can give this breed a try and get the results for yourself
Ideal for meats: Here too Coturnix wins. Weighs approx. 140-160 g at maturity. Another variety is Bobwhite. It is as profitable and agricultural as the Japanese quail. Both range between 100 and 150 g in weight at the age of full maturity.
Ideal for eggs: Both the Japanese quail and the Bobwhite quail lay 200 eggs a year. But the Japanese quail reaches maturity and begins to lay eggs for other breeds of quail.
Most common variety: Of the breeds listed above, the most common commercially bred breeds are Coturnix, King Quail, Bobwhite, and California Quail. The maintenance and creation techniques also coincide. With a little bit of separation, you can create all of these breeds at the same time.
All of these varieties have high growth and egg production. But there are certainly some differences. We are here to get you out of this mess. To know more keep reading.
1. Coturnix or Japanese Quail -Best Overall
Also known as Coturnix quail, Pharoah Quail, and Jumbo Coturnix Quail. A larger bird can be produced with a selective breeding program.
Some colors in Coturnix can be gender-specific, 3-4 weeks old, depending on weather patterns. Males have rusty orange chests and necks.
Females have whiter breasts with mottled breasts. They usually reach sexual maturity at the age of 7-9 weeks. The average life expectancy of these birds is 2 to 5 years, depending on their health and how they are maintained.
Adult Japanese quail are generally larger than males and weigh between 120 and 160 grams. (4.5 to 6 grams). Males are slightly smaller and weigh 100 to 140 grams (4-5 grams).
The Coturnix quail is the most popular breed of quail in the world due to the rapid aging process. Coturnix can begin laying eggs around six weeks of age and produces up to 200 eggs per year.
But if your goal is eggs, male-less chickens will actually produce better eggs.
There are 6 indigenous varieties of Coturnix and other cultivated varieties.
Popular Coturnix Quail Variants Are:
- Golden Coturnix: Available in standard and large sizes. It is also known as Manchu or Golden Speckled.
- Tibetan: Also known as the British Mountain Range. It is most commonly used when serving quail in restaurants.
- Rosetta: The result of a Tibetan and Tibetan crossing. This produces a blackbird.
- White English: some geniuses from Texas A&M, but not quite. It also has clear and pure meat.
- Jumbo Coturnix: up to 16 ounces and is often used for meat. It is a bird with dark meat.
- Tuxedo: cross between a Texas A&M and a Tibetan. Very colorful.
2. Button King, Chinese-Painted or Blue-breasted Quail
The king quail, also known as the blue-breasted quail, Asian blue quail, button quail, Chinese painted quail is a species of Old-World quail in the Phasianidae family.
This species is the smallest “true quail” and is quite common in cultures around the world. In the wild, they range from Southeast Asia to Oceania.
The male quail comes in various colors, including blue, brown, silver, reddish-brown, dark brown, and almost black. They have orange legs that are hardy and can support continuous life on Earth-like many other wild birds.
The female resembles the male but cannot appear in shades of blue. They can live in captivity for 13 years but on average only 3-6 years. In the wild, they can only live 1.5 years. Royal quail eggs are creamy light brown in color and have a light tip on top; approximately ovoid.
In each season it produces 5 to 13 eggs. Their eggs are clear, cream-colored, slightly pointed at the top, and almost ovoid.
3. Bobwhite Quail (Northern)
The northern quail is one of the best-known quail in eastern North America, despite its mysterious nature (as it is often the only quail in its range). These birds are found throughout the year in agricultural fields, pastures, roads, tree edges, and open forest areas.
They look like a small chicken. They walk upright with short legs and a protruding chest. Males and females can be distinguished by the color of the head feathers.
The rooster has a white patch under the neck and a white line runs through the eye. In the female, these feathers are light brown in color. The body feathers of both sexes are a beautiful but subtle combination of brown and black, yellow and white. Its color provides an effective camouflage.
The average litter size is 12 eggs with an incubation period of 23 days. Chickens are formal, which means that they leave the nest with the adult shortly after hatching. In early fall, white whales and young birds float in social groups called streams, with an average size of 12 birds’ convoy.
The regular diet includes small seeds, fruits, damaged leaves, and insects. Bobwhites do best in weedy fields and meadows, open and open woodlands near-native grasses. They hurt in cities, dense forests, and meadows cultivated in fescue, Bermuda, or Bahiagrass.
They do not migrate. Stay in small flocks called streams. The life cycle lasts a maximum of 5 years; 80% die before 12 months; most predator kills.
4. Gambel’s quail
The Gambel’s quail or desert quail is a small bird with a bluish-gray plumage with scaly feathers on the lower part of the body. The striking feature is the unique black knot on the top, shaped like a “comma” and extending forward from the beak.
Gambel quail are sexually dimorphic birds. Males are easily distinguished by their black faces and copper-colored feathers on the top of the head.
The black face is surrounded by a thin layer of white feathers. Women miss this amazing look; its body, face, and neck are gray in color and the top knot is slightly smaller than in males.
Although they can survive longer in captivity, the average Gambel Quail in the wild only lives for 1.5-2 years. An adult can weigh around 150-200 grams and be up to 11-12 inches long.
The Gambel Quail Guard is just a place on the ground, hidden by vegetation or rocks. The female is in charge of building the nest. This nest is up to 20 cm in diameter and the female covers it with sticks, leaves, and grass.
A female lays a maximum of 12 eggs. Compartment. The incubation period lasts between 20 and 24 days.
Gambel’s quail eat mostly plants. They eat seeds of herbs, shrubs, Forbes, trees, and cacti and collect mesquite seeds from livestock and garbage from coyotes.
They also eat leaves and blades of grass. From summer to fall, nopal berries and fruits, including cholla, saguaro, and prickly pear, become an important part of the diet.
Gambel’s quail also eat insects, especially in spring and above the nest. Chickens only eat animal matter for the first few days after hatching, including beetles, small worms, moth larvae, and grasshoppers.
5. Piss Quail – The Most Colorful Breed
Mearns quail are beautiful, with interesting colors and a shorter, fuller texture than most other species of quail. The Mearns quail are found in the deserts and mountains of northern Mexico, southern and central Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas.
Males are more colorful than females and have particularly interesting black and white facial markings, sometimes described as “harlequin” or “spinning.”
They have a weapon with a single cloud, large heads, and large eyes. Its sides are brown with light white markings and the back is brown with white arrows.
The case and back are a beautiful mahogany color. Females are light brown with dark brown, smooth, and black markings.
Females often scrape a nest on the ground, cover it with grass, and then weave a blade of grass to hide the nest from predators. They lay 10 to 12 eggs, which are produced by both sexes for about 25-26 days.
The oak and pine forests with grasses are the only areas where these quail are found in the wild. Slopes, gorges, and hills abound in the natural habitat of the Mearns quail. They prefer grassy areas that are at least a foot high. Partly due to cattle grazing, their natural and wild habitat is shrinking and fragmenting.
The wild population of Mearns quail varies greatly from year to year. The wild population is believed to be declining due to the disappearance of habitats, but there are no fixed numbers.
6. Mountain quail
The mountain quail, Oreortyx pictus, is a small land bird in the New World quail family. The mountain quail primarily moves on foot and can move surprisingly fast in brush and undergrowth.
Each flight is generally short and explosive, with many quick flaps followed by a slow glide towards the ground. The habits of the birds can be kept secret.
The average length of the bird is 26-28 cm, with a wingspan of 35-40 cm. They have short and round wings. Legs are featherless but long.
These birds are easily identified by their upper tubercles (which are shorter in the female), brown face, chest with gray breast, brown back and primary colors (longer wing feathers), and underside with strong white bars.
Like other quail, its nest is made up of low depressions covered with grass, needles, leaves, and feathers. Females lay 9 to 10 eggs, which are incubated by both parents. Immediately after hatching, the chicks leave the nest. Both parents actively care for and defend the young and lead them to the food sources where they feed.
Mountain Quail uses different feeding techniques. They pick up objects from the ground, scrape foliage, use their feet to dig bulbs, climb bushes and trees to collect fruit and leaves, and jump over low plants to reach fruit and seeds.
The diet varies according to the season, but it consists mainly of seeds, bulbs, leaves, fruits, and some insects. Insects and other animal matter are a minor food source and generally make up less than 5% of the diet.
7.Climbing quail
The scaly quail is a land bird in the desert grasslands of the southwestern United States. It is a member of the New World quail family and is also called the Blue or Cottontop quail. It is an early branch of the genus Callipepla, which is fragmented in the Pliocene.
The scaly quail gets its name because of the scaly appearance of the chest and back feathers. Along with the distinctive markings, the bird is easily identified by its white comb, which resembles a cotton tray.
Scaly quail are medium-sized birds. Its general color is light gray with a thick white crown. They have fine size patterns on the neck, chest, and abdomen. The average body length of adult birds is between 25 and 35 cm, and their average wingspan is around 38 cm.
They were usually around 12 years old, sometimes 5 to 16 years old or older. Dirty white, spotted with light brown. Incubation usually occurs in women, rarely in men, around 22-23 days.
Young leaves the nest immediately after hatching. Both parents are generally young, with males often guarding the highest perches, while females and juveniles forage on the ground. Young people eat. Young and unknown age development on the first flight. One young person a year, rarely two.
Their main diet includes seeds, insects (learn more: what quails eats?).
They eat seeds of many annual and perennial weeds, such as serpentine, Russian thistle, broom, seeds of woody plants (such as mesquite); seems to eat relatively few grass seeds, but perhaps more than a few quail.
It can also feeds on green leaves, wild fruits. It eats more insects than most quail, especially in spring and summer.
Like most galliform species, the scaly quail prefers to run rather than take off when disturbed or threatened. It often slides into the lid, but can sometimes be rinsed out if it gets caught or too far from the lid and then slides off again.
Outside of the breeding season, they are welcoming and may be present with other species of quail. They are very nervous birds and run fast.
8.California quail (valley)
The California quail, the California state bird, is a bird that resembles a 9-inch chicken with a distinct teardrop-shaped cardinal bird called a plume.
Their bulging bodies range from grayish to brown with scaly markings on the lower leg and abdomen. Males are particularly graceful, with black collars, brown markings on the belly, blue-gray chest, white markings on the hips, and a white band on the forehead and around the neckline.
California quail often find a spot under a bush or a heap of shrubbery or near a tree trunk or other cover, where they build a low depression lined with grass and leaves.
Sometimes they nest on the ground, on a broken branch, or in another bird’s old nest. Females lay and incubate a litter of 10-16 eggs.
Although the chicks can walk and feed almost immediately after hatching, the parents continue to care for them, the female suffocates them at night and in the cold, and the rooster acts as a sentinel and looks for danger.
They are predominantly terrestrial, although males spend a lot of time on the ground, in bushes, trees, and in man-made structures, especially when calling.
California quail live in groups called “streams” that move within a residential area during the non-breeding season. During the breeding season, the bays divide into breeding pairs that spread out along the chain of origin to make their nests.
Generally, you will see California quail walking, running, or scraping the ground and trash in search of seeds and other food. Occasionally they feed on trees.
California quail generally feed in open areas but stay close for cover. When running, they can move incredibly fast, despite their short legs. When pressed by a predator, they fly with fast-spinning fins.
California quail form flocks known as streams in fall and winter; These usually include family groups and can reach more than 75 people.
9. Manipur Bush Quail
Manipur shrubs belong to the Phasianid family. These quail are distributed in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya. This bird is well knownly divided into two subspecies.
These quail are small birds 20 cm long and 80 grams in weight. The normal size of the litter is less than 4 to 6 eggs. The slate-colored plumage is intertwined with black on the back.
It is a rich pale yellow on the underside. The face is red and the bill is dark brown. The legs are orange.
They feed on seeds and insects. They live in dense forests. They move on trains.
It is usually seen in six to eight birds. Very mysterious and remains covered. It hatches on burnt lawns with new shoots that sprout early in the morning and late in the afternoon.
During the day, the birds rest or rest together under a bush in the open air. When released, they explode in all directions with a high vortex; they quickly bond by calling each other. Easy to find thanks to its unique dial.
These species are more threatened than before. Growing them for economic purposes is risky, but ecologically very useful and necessary. It may not be as profitable as other varieties, but it is quite profitable when grown scientifically.
10. Jungle Quail
Jungle Bush Quail Perdicula Asiatica is endemic to South Asia. in particular, India and Sri Lanka. They were introduced to the island of Reunion. They are small birds the size of rain quail.
The rooster has a furry redhead with a light brown spot on the top and back with black, brown, and yellow spots. The chest is locked in black and white. The wings are shown only to give a sense of proportion. Males have a small but visible stimulus.
The normal size of the litter has an average of 5-7 eggs. Pure white eggs are laid on consecutive days. The incubation period is between 19 and 20 days. Couples are usually engaged. Chickens almost always hatch on their own, but the rooster helps raise chickens.
They are found in small bays and can be seen in flight during vegetation. They prefer dry grasses, but can also be found in wooded areas. Occurs in groups of up to 20 birds outside of the breeding season.
During the day, the flock of birds rests or rests together under a bush facing outward. When released, they explode in all directions with a high vortex; they quickly bond by calling each other.
Like the Manipur Bush quail, this variety is not highly rated for raising profitable quail. It has been days since they have become more delayed to see nature. Cultivation and the scientific conservation process can only prevent extinction.
