Quail

BatonRouge Bill

There has been a lot of talk about them so I started their own thread.
Well the 120 cortunix quail eggs started hatching out today. About 2 dozen so far. Need to move the older quail out into the layer cages, just need to hook up the little water cups to the low pressure system. If I get 50-60% hatch that will give me a nice batch of quail. I ordered on ebay another 100 eggs today. The listing was for 50 brown jumbos and 50 Texas A&M white jumbos. These are still cortunix quail but grow to about a pound. Not as big as the jumbo bob whites that grow 24-32 oz but take 5-1/2 months to grow out. 7-8 weeks sound so much better!

KudaPucat

That's a heap of quail!
Tell me, at 1lb ea, they're small, but we knew that - they are after all quail.
But is this weight whole or gutted?
How many quail does it take to feed a man?
How much of an effort are the bones truly?
Is there some way to prepare it such that the bones are inconsequential?

FYI: I have seen quail before, but never eaten, touched, shot or thought about preparing, so you cannot offend me by talking to me like I'm simple ;-)

BatonRouge Bill

The 1 lb is whole. Eating quail is like eating squirrel its a little work but if you consider that the breast is 2/3 of the meat on the bird many people get a little wasteful and just go for the good stuff. Instead of plucking just pull the skin off the breast and rip the breast off the carcus and discard the rest. Great on a pit, seasoned and wrapped in bacon on a skewer with onion and bell pepper chunks.

BatonRouge Bill

As far as how many a man can eat.. I don't know I guess if you wanted to pig out quite a few! but I haven't seen these 1 pounders as of yet, but thats how big these hybrids are supposed to get. My small birds I really don't picture myself picking around the little bones but my larger ones may be worth it. For now I will probably just rip the breasts out and I figure with the regular cortunix quail I would eat 6 or 8.

Chappo

We eat quail about once a month ,, shop purchased ( still haven't got off my butt to make cage).
Marinate in sweet-chillie sauce , soysauce ,lemon pepper . Stuff with bread/rice onion ,egg,lemon pepper mixture.
Bake at about 200C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

OR , skip the stuffing , marinate , cut in half and BBQ.

I find 3 birds enough for me ,, wife and mother-in-law happy with 2.
They are not all that fiddly to eat and are far nicer than chicken .

Pick-up a 6 pack from your local shops and give them a try, I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

BatonRouge Bill

On incubation I found that my first hatching had mixed sized eggs large and small. The smaller eggs had smaller, weaker chicks, while the larger eggs had larger healthier chicks. The larger chicks would walk on the smaller chicks and pile over the smaller chicks and sleep on them. I lost quite a few the first week so I requested all large eggs from the seller this time and while I had more broken eggs during shipping my chicks are all large and healthy with only one exception so far. Over 3 dozen and growing!

KudaPucat

Excellent... I still have to buy some bucks for my two does (bunnies of course, not deer) then when I get them going I may purchase some quail, they sound good.

I heard once about pulverising a quail carcass with a tenderising hammer, and then cooking like a pattie, bones and all. This is because the bones are broken into little bits then cooks to soft, and quite edible.

Has anybody else heard of this technique?
I'm all about efficiency when butchering, but I guess I could give the waste to the dog.

BatonRouge Bill

I wouldn't give any bird bone to a dog. They are hollow for light weight for flight but splinter and stab the intestines.

Chappo

Give to the BSFL and then BSFL to da FISH

KudaPucat

Well that's an option... uncooked birds never hurt wild dogs, dingos or foxes, and I give chicken to my dog on a daily basis.
Cooked however is a completely different story, as it's tendency to splinter is so much higher than raw bones. My dog is never fed cooked chicken with bones
But that's a personal choice what risks you take.

chillidude

May depend on the type of dog too - not really sure.

We're on our third generation of kelpy x (i.e. they're around 75% kelpy) and we regularly feed them raw and cooked bones from chickens and turkeys (and everything else we eat). The only exception is fish.

Only time we ever had a problem was once with a cooked lamb chop bone. It didn't splinter, she just got the whole thing stuck at the top of her throat, which was easily pulled out. Over 20 years, that's a pretty low risk compared to snakes, roads and rat baits.

KudaPucat

Anyhow, I believe I took us a bit off topic here ;-)

BRB
When you say 'Rip the breasts out' what exactly do you mean.
do you gut first then break the sternum?
You mentioned not plucking so you therefore just hack em off like a hunter would roos legs? leaving guts and waste meat on the carcass?
Wouldn't quail skin (peeled off in preference to plucking) be tasty like chicken skin? or is it not worth the effort?

BatonRouge Bill

KudaPucat wrote:

Anyhow, I believe I took us a bit off topic here ;-)

BRB
When you say 'Rip the breasts out' what exactly do you mean.
do you gut first then break the sternum?
You mentioned not plucking so you therefore just hack em off like a hunter would roos legs? leaving guts and waste meat on the carcass?
Wouldn't quail skin (peeled off in preference to plucking) be tasty like chicken skin? or is it not worth the effort?

The quail skin is good and tasty if you plan on cleaning a few and have time. I plan on getting one of those rubber pluckers to run on an old elect. motor. But it is easy just to pinch the skin and pull it off feathers and all like taking a tee shirt off. And if you rip the breast off it is easier if you cut the rib/collar bones first but you don't have to. You can just jab your thumb under the sternum and pull the breast off the carcus. I would only do this on the smaller almost dove size quail. Not much meat wasted there and if frozen in water doesn't freezer burn. Makes a nice quick and easy meal at the hunting camp.

BatonRouge Bill

Well cleaned out/disinfected the incubator and reloaded with 110 quail eggs. These are the big ones. The final hatch count from the 2nd batch was only 4 out of 10 dozen. Busting the old eggs it appears most of the unhatched eggs were old or infertile. About a dozen just died before hatching. Also these were larger eggs and the eggs were 1/2 empty??? Not sure if the birds were being fed enough to lay proper eggs??? The birds that hatched with the exception of 5 birds were very healthy. 3 died and have 2 more weak ones. These were all late hatchers. My first hatchlings should start laying soon so this should be the last ebay eggs I buy until spring. I will probably convert incubator from a still air to fan.

spiritrancho

I am growing out six bantum chickens that I incubated in May. They are almost ready to harvest, but I am still finishing off the 26 pound turkey. Bantums are easy to keep, they are not noisy, do not eat a lot nor do they fly well. They lay lots of fertile eggs but because it is so dry here I need incubate with humidity control to reliabley sustain a flock. They are like eating squab, baked whole one is enough of a meal for most folks.
Turkeys are more fun to raise. They sing , puff up and strut around; the hens squat at your feet which means they want to mate. The eggs are big and tasty. They are most tender in four months as soon as full sized. 26 pounds is lots of meat.

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Quail

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Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

Quail

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Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics