According to the U.S Department of Agriculture, people raising poultry increased by 40%. Most homesteads raised chickens but later added quails to the flock. If you already have a community of chickens, are quails an excellent addition to your chickens?
This article will learn how to keep chicken and quail together.
While a few homesteads have been prosperous in raising quails with chickens, many things are still to consider. After all, quails are not exactly best friends with chickens.
Keeping quail with chickens is not impossible, but it’s not easy either. Each type of poultry has different requirements when it comes to raising them.
Are Quails a Good Addition To Your Chickens?
You probably have your flock of chickens. With many years of experience, it might be time to add a new bird and raise quail with chickens.
Still, the same question lingers: are quails an excellent addition to your chickens? Yes, you can start raising quails with chickens just as long as you keep them apart.
However, there is no guarantee that there won’t be an issue won’t. If you are planning on putting both chicken and quail together in the same cage, you might need to think twice.
Chickens need more space to roam around, while quails don’t require a lot of room. If you plan to put them in the same coop, make sure to put a divider with more space for the chickens.
Quails don’t mingle with chickens well and vice versa. Chickens are more aggressive to quails when caged together.
So, you might be asking again: can you keep quail with chickens? Yes, but make sure that they don’t live together.
Raising Quail with Chickens: Know the Difference
Both quails and chickens are popular and loveable birds in the poultry industry. However, when the context becomes quail vs. chicken, there is a big difference between the two.
Diet
So, can quail eat chicken feed? There are specific feeds suitable for quails, and it’s the same for chickens.
Each type of poultry has specific feeds and necessary nutrients though they may have a typical diet when foraging.
When you see them on free-range, both quail and chickens eat bugs, pellets, scraps, and small plants.
Egg Production
When you’re raising your chickens together, you are bound for more significant profits since you’ll have two for egg productivity. Quails are known to lay more eggs compared to chickens.
When you look at quail eggs vs. chicken eggs, it’s clear that their sizes differ. However, their nutritional value and taste remain the same.
Chickens usually lay five eggs per week or 200-250 eggs per year. As for quails, they lay seven eggs per week or around 300 eggs per year.
Meat Production
Aside from comparing quail eggs vs. chicken eggs, most owners look into their meat source.
Keeping quails with chickens means you have different meat to consume and sell.
However, some farmers prefer chickens since they have more meat than quails. As for others, they prefer to raise quails for their fast maturity rate.
Amount of Room Needed
Are quails an excellent addition to your chickens when you only have one large cage? Yes, but you may need to make a few modifications to your pen.
Each chicken would need 2 to 3 square feet and about 8 to 10 square feet for an outdoor range. On the other hand, you only need 1 square of food per quail and about 3 to 5 square feet for outdoor runs.
As much you want to keep your chicken and quail together, they don’t get along play a dominant role over quails, and these tiny birds often get beaten up.
If you have a large pen, it’s best to put dividers between quails and chickens. You may want to build higher fences for an open space since quails can fly higher than chickens.
Ability to Fly
As briefly discussed, quails tend to fly away. Some owners would put a kind of netting on top of coops or build a roof instead.
Chickens can also fly but not very high. They fly horizontally and go as high as 4 feet off the ground.
Personalities
When you keep quails with chickens, it elicits aggressive behavior among chickens. It will be an extreme quail vs. chicken scenario inside your coop.
Quails are docile and more submissive. The chickens would more likely bully them.
The chickens have already established pecking order, making them aggressive towards those at the bottom. In this case, these are the quails.
In intense situations, these chickens will injure the quails until they are dead. That’s why it’s best to separate them when raising quail with chickens.
Maturity Rate
When you start to compare quail with chickens in terms of maturity, the quails seem to have the upper hand. These tiny birds mature very fast.
Quails mature and produce eggs starting at 6 to 8 weeks old. Chickens begin to lay eggs when they’re six months old.
ALSO READ: How To Raise Chicken And Quail Together
Quail Vs. Chicken: Should You Choose Either or Both?
When you’re still deciding about keeping chicken and quail together, you probably asked yourself whether you should keep only one or risk having both.
Chickens are common to raise among farms, and they are excellent sources of meat and eggs. They need only minimal care and low-maintenance living conditions.
These poultry birds are also very profitable. On the other hand, quails can be equally beneficial.
These tiny birds require less space and are very easy to raise. They may have smaller eggs and lesser meat, but they mature faster.
You can have more advantages if you want to raise chicken and quail together. You will be getting more supplies of meat and eggs for profit and consumption.
Looking at quail eggs vs. chicken eggs, there are benefits to both sides. You can get bigger ones with chicken eggs, but you can have them fast yet smaller with quails.
It’s not impossible to raise quails with chickens, but you need to know how to handle them properly.
Still, you can always have the best of both chicken and quail management.
Why Keeping Quail with Chickens is NOT a Good Idea
As a poultry farmer, you should have good knowledge about the consequences of raising quail and chickens together.
If you are entirely new to this, then here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t be raising quail and chickens together.
Quails Are Prone to Disease
There are many types of diseases passed from one bird to another. Whether you’re raising quails or chickens, they are no exemptions.
The symptoms of certain illnesses don’t show right away. So, if you are starting to put chicken and quail together, you might be exposing the new birds to diseases.
In most cases, chickens are common carriers and pass diseases to your quails. Here are common illnesses that are easily spread in your poultry.
Salmonella
It’s a common infection that quickly spreads inside the flock. When chickens peck at infected food, ground, and bedding, the bacteria are taken in by chickens.
When not treated right away, salmonella is excreted in droppings which can later be picked up by other poultry in the coop.
This disease can quickly transfer throughout the flock, especially when the permanent bedding.
Coryza
This is an infectious disease that is commonly spread between chickens and quails. Coryza is more fatal since it targets the respiratory system.
Symptoms of coryza include sneezing, swollen eyes, sluggish behavior, loss of appetite, and inability to lay eggs.
While this disease is often spread through ingestion, chickens that are prone to too much stress are most likely to develop coryza as well.
Chickens are Aggressive to Quails
The temperament of chickens, regardless of the breed, is not docile when dealing with quails. Some owners even find these birds behave like bullies.
Chickens establish a pecking order among themselves. When quails get into the picture, they are automatically put at the bottom of that order.
When you’re keeping you’re with chickens, these tiny birds are prone to get beaten. Chickens will also peck at them until they are injured.
In worst cases, these chickens will eventually kill them. Keep in mind that chickens are also omnivores which means they can have quails on their menu.
Chicken Will Eat Quail Eggs (and Quails!)
There is a curious nature among chickens that makes them peck at new objects or, in this case, new birds in the coop.
If they don’t always understand what they’re pecking at, they find a way to taste and, possibly, eat it.
When you’re keeping your quails with chickens, there is a high chance that these chickens are going to discover the quail’s egg and eat them.
The wrong side is that when chickens learn a new habit of eating quail eggs, they will do the same thing to their eggs!
To avoid this from happening, it’s best to keep the quails’ eggs outside when raising quail and chickens together.
Eating the quails’ eggs isn’t the worst part. As chickens start to eat these tiny birds’ eggs, the chickens can also do the same to the quails!
Chickens can be very aggressive and even eat quail birds.
Quails Fly, Chickens Can’t
Most quails, if not all, can fly in heights way higher than a chicken could. This means they would need a different kind of coop.
When keeping quails with chickens, it’s best to have coops with enclosed roofs.
A chicken can only fly sideways in minimal range, but a quail can go straight up and perhaps beyond a high fence.
Different Feeds Between Quail and Chicken
At this point, you might be asking yourself, “can quail eat chicken feed?”
You will save a lot if you have the same feed for both chicken and quails. However, it’s not as easy as that.
Chicken feeds will not give enough protein to your quail. Some quail feeds have protein and other ingredients not suitable for chickens.
As mentioned, chickens are extra aggressive with quails, so these tiny birds may not be getting any food. Your quails will be malnourished and eventually starve to death.
Can Quail And Chickens Mate?
If you’re keeping quails with chicken, is it possible for them to mate?
It is unnatural for chickens and quails to mate. However, it can happen with artificial insemination.
When the eggs are fertilized, they produce chicks that won’t live and have several deformities and mutations found in chicks and unhatched eggs.
Breeders and scientists are still trying to breed quails with chickens. However, this is a highly complex situation, and you shouldn’t try it in the first place.
Keeping Quails with Chickens Final Thoughts
To sum up, a response to the question, “are quails a good addition to your chickens?” They are, but you need to make specific arrangements for your birds.
There are several things to consider when it comes to quail vs. chicken. Each type of poultry has its advantage and disadvantage.
Keeping quails with chickens can bring some disruption to your farm. Chickens are aggressive to quails, which can cause serious problems.
If you also plan on raising quail and chickens together, the spreading of diseases should be considered and managed. Chickens can pass on illnesses to quails, especially if they are just introduced to the flock.
It might be a joy for some farmers to have chicken and quail together. However, we suggest they be kept separately to avoid any trouble.
Raising quail with chickens can be quite a handful, but the benefits are worth it.
Choosing to have chicken and quail together, your work at the farm may never be the same again.
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