After the first few times that raising quail didn’t ultimately pan out the way I thought it would—no one had warned me just how aggressive quail were and put me off of them for a bit—I looked back and was tempted to do so again. From a feed to production ratio to time to maturity, quail are a dream at efficiency and speed and as the question of food security has continued to pop up more frequently, I decided that I would try again. It was also motivated by the fact that my grandfather, who has dementia/Alzheimers, has trouble getting enough protein (doesn’t really like the texture of meat) is intrigued by the little eggs and will eat them one after the other.
This next time I had more experience, and that translated to realizing that if things go right, quail were one of the best pure food sources for the homestead.
If you’d like to learn more about them, check out this expandable menu for my articles on how I am raising them.