Quails differ not only in fragrant and exquisite meat, but also in eggs that are quite rich in all kinds of nutrients. That is why this bird today is a rather interesting alternative to chickens, geese and ducks. But not everyone knows that such a business often brings losses to its owners and does not always make it possible to fully pay off at the start. The article reflects the main subtleties of growing quail at home, as well as presents a business plan with calculations of income and profitability.
Is it profitable to breed quails at home
Often lovers of an interesting and entertaining kind of activity rush headlong into breeding quails, but such a business has many pitfalls. Quailing for maintenance and effective productivity require special conditions from a person.
That is why such a business does not always bring the desired profit. That is why you should weigh the pros and cons of breeding such a livestock.
Business advantages
Any farmer expects the benefits of choosing a quail business.
- This benefit is as follows:
- requires small financial investments at the start;
- differs in high payback;
- brings the first profit after 2-3 months;
- does not require the rental of large areas;
- gives you the opportunity to get 3 different products (meat, eggs and live poultry);
- while maintaining a small herd does not need to increase staffing.
Important! A quail farm is beneficial only if favorable conditions for maintenance are created for the bird (including proper diet and hygiene).
Cons of business
- Despite the fact that the maintenance of a quail farm suits many farmers, such a business has its drawbacks:
- the farm will require a well-heated room and a special microclimate, especially during poultry molting;
- quails are not distinguished by good immunity, therefore, they are often infected with all kinds of bird infections;
- the quail farm is always noisy, as this bird is one of the most singing in the family;
- young females rush no more than 8-9 months, then their productivity decreases sharply;
- quail products are not very popular, so the search for markets may take a long time.
The Basics of Successful Quail Growing
Often, at the first stages of entrepreneurial activity, it is quite difficult for many farmers to keep quails. There are many reasons for this. That is why the quail becomes only a decorative bird.
To avoid this, you should:
- provide the bird with optimal light mode (at least 17 hours of light day will be required). The house must be highlighted;
- Do not save on feed (quails should be full enough, and only with quality food);
- provide good ventilation in the house;
- to increase the profitability of production by 2 square meters. m area should contain at least 400 individuals;
- strictly follow the vaccination schedule;
- let the poultry go to slaughter as early as 8–9 months, because at that time they stop rushing, and their meat begins to lose its taste.
How to draw up a business plan with calculations
A small quail house can fully provide even the largest family with quality meat and egg products. However, the question of whether it will be profitable to breed poultry for industrial purposes on small houses remains open today.
The situation is especially acute in regions with a low economic indicator, where it is not so easy to find consumers for quail products.
Making a business plan for a future poultry farm is easy. You need to find out what is required to start a business in the first place.To breed quail you will need:
- cells;
- heated and electrified premises;
- incubator;
- additional heating system (UV heaters);
- nursery brooder;
- young quail.
Next, you need to calculate the amount of feed that will be required to maintain one month of birds, as well as spending on utilities (electricity, heating). It is important to determine the premises for the bird. The ideal option is a separate specialized farm, remote from the residential area.
To save money at the first stages, the bird is bred right in the apartment, in a separate room (this helps to avoid unnecessary rental costs).
Important! When calculating, average figures should be displayed on the necessary materials, equipment based on their real market value. The volume of a small farm may not be enough to purchase them at competitive wholesale prices.
If you are not a specialist in the field of poultry, you will need a livestock specialist. It will help to competently establish farm productivity and provide the care necessary for quail, including the proper diet and hygiene in a room with a bird, which is especially important for more than 1000 heads of houses.
His tasks will also include increasing farm productivity. Such an employee will require, however, an appropriate payment.Next, you need to find out how much and in what volumes the house will give the first products. Quail chickens begin to make a profit no earlier than 3 months, so keep in mind that this period will be especially costly.
Find out the average volume of production and its price, on the basis of which it will be possible to determine the profitability of production as the difference between the total average monthly costs and profit.
Registration of a business is mandatory if, in addition to friends and acquaintances, you provide quail meat and eggs to other consumers. To do this, you should contact the appropriate authorities involved in the registration of business entities at all levels (this is the tax service).
Today, a poultry farm can be created both in the environment of individual entrepreneurial activity, and on the basis of a limited liability company.
In order to trade meat and egg products without problems, it is necessary to conduct its examination and obtain safety certificates from the sanitary-veterinary service. With this package of documents, you can legally sell your product not only to end consumers, but also to large wholesale suppliers.
Important! The final cost should be multiplied by 10-15%. This will help anticipate unforeseen costs.
To create your own technical conditions for products or bring production to existing standards is another condition.
Where to start breeding
After agreeing on all the nuances and identifying the feasibility of a future farm, you can start breeding quail. The procedure is carried out in two stages. At the first, the farmer acquires premises and everything necessary for him, and at the second, he directly populates the chickens in the prepared conditions.
Cells
A correctly selected cage for a bird solves a lot of problems that poultry breeders encounter when breeding quail, so you should carefully approach its choice.
It is most advisable to breed the bird in small cages from a fine-mesh plastic or metal mesh. The optimal dimensions of such a structure are 500 x 650 x 200 mm (W x H x D).
Separate blocks are collected in small tiers (batteries), including 5-6 cells. No more than 45 birds are kept in one cage (thus, up to 270 individuals can be accommodated in one battery).
Many farmers use factory models. They are quite convenient, but require significant costs (about $ 150 US per battery). In order to save money, blocks can be made with your own hands - from the remains of a metal mesh or old plastic containers for vegetables and fruits.
Did you know? During domestication, the quail completely lost the instinct of hatching eggs, so their cultural reproduction without an incubator is impossible.
Electrification of the room
Electrification of the premises is one of the main conditions for the vitality of the farm, since without electricity it is impossible to start the equipment providing livelihood of birds.The farm should have independent power supply with a separate substation (this is an ideal option), but often a separate branch for 3-10 kW becomes more than enough. In addition to the power outlet, current must be connected to the ceiling lamps.
Important! To ensure the safety of all equipment in the mains, a voltage stabilizer should be provided to prevent sudden changes in voltage in the network.
Brooder
A brooder is vital for young animals. This apparatus helps to heat mature chickens in the first few weeks after hatching from an egg. We can say that the device performs the role of a laying mother, who takes care of the offspring. Due to this, not only the immunity of the bird is increased, but its survival is significantly increased (up to 90-95%).
The device is a small box with a built-in infrared lamp. This design works smoothly until the chickens get stronger. Today's market is full of all kinds of brooders, but to save money you can make it yourself from any box or box into which an infrared lamp is mounted.
Heating
The optimum temperature for poultry is considered to be + 19-22 ° C, so the quail house with quails should be heated to this temperature in the winter. The most profitable option is individual heating systems of a water type, which make it possible to ensure a temperature optimum without any sudden fluctuations.
If your room is connected to central heating, then quail can not do without electric heaters to prevent freezing of quails.
Incubator
The incubator is needed in order to provide the fertilized quail eggs with not only the maximum birth rate of the chicks, but also their further successful development. The device allows you to create the most optimal conditions for the development of the embryo inside the egg in automatic mode.
Select incubators based on their own preferences, as well as the number of livestock that he will serve.
The following types of incubators are available on the market today:
- household - hold up to 1 thousand eggs;
- farmer - suggest the placement of up to 3 thousand eggs;
- industrial - can provide the development of up to 50 thousand eggs.
In such cases, they must meet the following requirements:
- must be clean, without traces of feces and other dirt;
- availability of documentation confirming the quality of products;
- material not older than 7 days is suitable for laying in the incubator;
- for the cultivation of meat breeds, eggs with a weight of 12-16 g are selected, eggs - about 9-11 g.
Bird procurement
If there is no free time for growing poultry from an egg, young quail can be purchased on their own. It is best to purchase poultry from large producers or directly on breeding farms.
Then the probability of acquiring unproductive or sick individuals is almost completely avoided.
Important! In young birds, the plumage is always smooth and soft, it evenly covers the entire body. Any other characteristics of the feather cover indicate a sick or old bird.
The main characteristics of a healthy and productive young quail:
- the bird should be about 50 days old;
- only those individuals that have laid at least 1 egg are suitable;
- quail legs should shine and not have growths or corns;
- in a healthy female, the oviduct must necessarily fall out;
- Only active and cheerful individuals are suitable for selection.
Feeding
Quail breeding provides for the division of the entire livestock into the so-called meat and egg groups. Despite the fact that each of them gives the same product, this separation helps to increase the quality and volume of the product in each individual case. This is achieved thanks to a comprehensive and specialized diet.
For the sale of eggs
Egg laying hens are often fed with all sorts of cereal-based mixers. The increased content of crude proteins in feed is the main requirement, since without it their egg production sharply decreases.
Layers should include chopped eggshells, crushed chalk or sea shells (up to 10% of the total amount of feed, and not more than 2 times a week). Avoid overeating poultry (the amount of feed per day for egg quail should not exceed 20-30 g / individual).
Fattening for meat
Males or unproductive females are subject to fattening for meat. Such individuals are transferred to high-calorie nutrition gradually, over several weeks. The diet of meat quail is often based on grain, wet mixes with boiled peas, as well as specialized compound feeds with the addition of 5% feed fat.
The inclusion of boiled egg and fresh cottage cheese quail in the diet has proven itself well. Such food is given to the bird in plenty, but not less than 40 g / individual per day.
The main indicator of high-quality feeding of poultry is a small fat layer on the chest, which is clearly palpated during palpation. To gain weight, you should create the optimal light regime in the house.Most actively, this indicator in birds is observed in soft scattered light. Daylight hours in meat quails also require changes up to 8-10 hours a day.
Did you know? In ancient Egypt, the image of quail was used in writing to denote the sounds “u” and “v”.
Sales and distribution channels
Quailing is still considered an exotic bird, so its products are not very popular. That is why, even at the stage of raising the first chickens, care should be taken about the distribution channels of quail meat and eggs.
Most often, such products are sold:
- in natural markets, in the meat department or in a specially designated place;
- in small local stores, including through grocery chains;
- through restaurants and cafes specializing in poultry dishes;
- with the help of ads in the media and the Internet;
- on your own website (will require additional investment);
- according to the word of mouth method among friends and acquaintances.
Additional attention should be paid to down and feather quail. More recently, this by-product of poultry farming has been discarded or disposed of by many farmers. Today it is successfully sold in light industry and as a raw material for all kinds of decorative products.Do not forget that in hunting circles stuffed quail stuffed animals are especially appreciated as an ideal addition to the interior of a hunting lodge and trophy. So an unprocessed quail carcass can bring much more profit than the products of several individuals at once.
Calculation of income and profitability
The amount of investment required for a quail farm depends on the starting stock. Most often, professional farmers are advised to start from 400-500 birds, which in just a year can increase to a herd of 5 thousand heads.
To make the farm profitable as quickly as possible, you should start with at least 1000 chickens.
For the acquisition of young animals will require about $ 1000 US. To maintain such offspring, 12 special cell batteries will be needed, which will occupy about 15 square meters. m square. This expense item will require a poultry farmer of about $ 2,200. The next group of expenses is specialized equipment.
For a small farm of 1000 birds, you need to get infrared lamps and an incubator in which offspring will develop. Often this will require the farmer to invest $ 230-250 in US dollars.You can save on a brooder (see the "Brooder" section).
Did you know? Periodic use of quail eggs helps to remove radioactive particles from the body, and also reduces the symptoms of radiation. That is why this product was massively introduced into the menu of many educational institutions in Japan after a nuclear explosion in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
For effective feeding of birds, about 20-40 g of feed per head per day will be required. To do this, you need to get special age-specific feed. This item will cost about $ 200 per month.It is also necessary to take into account the costs of lighting and heating, which will be about 90-100 US dollars per month and veterinary services (it will take about 50 US dollars per month).
To calculate the possible profit, you need to calculate the amount of products that the farm can bring. The average weight of one carcass, which is able to produce about 200-300 eggs per day for the entire production period, is about 250 g
The price of such products is closely dependent on the region, so about 35-50% should be taken away to determine the average figures from the market price per unit. This amount is taken by the wholesale buyer for the further resale of meat and eggs.
Under optimal conditions, the income from the sale of meat and egg products is $ 1,100 per month, net profit is $ 850 per month (withdrawing fees for heating, feed, for example). Thus, a productive farm fully pays for itself after 5-6 months.
However, these calculations do not include livestock pay. On average, the salary of such a specialist ranges from $ 300 US per month. With a sharp increase in the number of livestock, you may need the help of a handyman in feeding and harvesting birds.
And this will additionally pull at least $ 100-150 US per month of additional costs, which will increase the return on the enterprise to 9 months, and in some cases more.
Useful Tips for Beginners
To simplify the work of novice farmers, when breeding quail should:
- protect the bird from stress and noise, as they dramatically reduce their productivity;
- Avoid newspapers as a filler for cells. They cause gliding paws and further trauma to birds;
- pre-distribute the herd on meat and egg individuals, this will increase the productivity of the entire production;
- strictly follow a diet (depending on the productive direction);
- to plant excessively aggressive and noisy individuals in a separate place;
- slaughter hens no later than 12 months after birth, since their further maintenance becomes inappropriate;
- observe the hygiene of poultry;
- avoid drafts in the house, which is fraught with a long cold;
- cells should be arranged in vertical cascades, 6 pieces each (this helps to more rationally use the area of the house);
- no later than 2-3 weeks before slaughter, stop feeding quail with any medicinal products, since their remains will not have time to get out of the meat.
The quail farm is today considered one of the most profitable agricultural enterprises. In just 6 months, such a business can not only pay for itself, but also give the first noticeable profit.
For this, it is necessary not only to establish the functioning of production, but also to take care of the distribution channels of quail products, otherwise breeding quails will lead to losses.