Quail farming: How to start a Japanese quail farm?

Quail (coturnix coturnix), commonly known as “bater” in Hindi, is a good source of meat & eggs with high biological value. Commercial quail farming is quite popular in France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, UK etc. Large processing plants have been set up in France, Singapore, Italy & Spain.

Quail is a fast growing bird with short generation interval. A broiler quail can be sold at 5 weeks as against 8 weeks in broiler chicken. Quails start producing eggs at about 6 weeks of age & continue to give high egg production up to 24 weeks of age. The meat is considered as delicacy & can be used as ready to cook meat , pickled meat & tandoori quail. The egg size is about 10 g, and it can be used as boiled eggs or egg pickle. The housing requirement is small. About 10 quails can be reared on floor in the same space as is required for one chicken. Mostly, commercial chicks are kept in multitier cages, thereby increasing labor efficiency & better utilization of land-space.


Japanese quail (coturnix japonica) have created a big impact in recent years and many quails farms have been established through out the length of this country both for egg and meat production. It is due to fact that increasing consumer awareness for quality meat, it demanded the production of better quality broiler quail meat. It is of great importance to select the stocks, which have the inherent capacity to yield better quality meat and egg.

Advantages

• Quails have early maturity period (about 5 weeks for selling).
  
• Quails are easy to handle.
  
• Quails require considerably less space (about 10 birds per square feet).
  
• Quails consume less feed.
  
• Quails have very short generation interval (about 3 to 4 generations per year).
  
• Quails have very high laying intensity – a female starts laying at an age of 42 days and reaches peak production by 10-12 weeks of age.
  
• Quails are resistant to most of the diseases; hence, no vaccination is required.

Practical utility

• Quail farming is an inexpensive alternative to chicken farming.
  
• It is useful as table delicacy.
  
• Quail is the pilot bird for research and education.
  
• This species can be reared at interior places as it does not require vaccination and relatively low medication required.
  
• Quail manure has high fertilizer value and can be used for increasing yield of crops.

Scope

• There is high demand for quail meat.
  
• There is great market potential in hotels, restaurants, dhabas, industrial canteens, flight kitchens, supermarkets etc.
  
• Government of India is encouraging entrepreneurs to start Japanese quail farm and is trying to create infrastructural facilities to assist the entrepreneurs. However, a government license is required to sell Japanese quail.
  
• The Ministry of Environment & Forests delegated the power to grant license to the Dept. of Animal Husbandry. So far, more than 500 licenses for quail farming, trading, catering & hatching have been issued in the Maharashtra state alone.
  
• Central Avian Research Institute (CARI) at Izatnagar, UP INDIA is keen to propagate quails for commercial use & have shown willingness to supply hatching eggs to aspiring entrepreneurs.