The 2011 Egg hustle.....

Yep, it's that time of the year again, when I start freaking out about hatching eggs and breeding birds. I've had the turkeys cooped up for a few weeks now (to keep them out of the trees and get them laying a bit earlier in the season) and have been giving them some home milled high protein/high calcium feed to get the fertility rate up as well as leaving a light on them 24/7.

The finally started rewarding me today with a scant few eggs, but the coop will have to be checked numerous times a day as the toms often destroy the nests in a desperate effort to maintain their dominance over the hens.

The guineas won't start laying until late April or Early May....thank god. That gives me a good jump on all the other birds/hatching that needs to be done.

Not the least of my concerns this season is working with my Coturnix and amplifying stock with exemplary traits (Jumbo x Texas A&M) for meat and egg production.

I'm always way short on incubator space, because no matter how well I manage my money I never can find the extra cash to buy a proper sportsman or two, perhaps I do have the money, but the price tag often scares me away. Maybe this spring....tax returns are coming!

Luckily our awesome friend Blanch Perkins had a hovabator genesis she no longer needed and passed it along our way! Hovabators are absolutely fantastic little incubators for hatching quail and chickens and guineas though I have never had much luck with turkeys in them.

I dug out an old storage shelf and stuck it in the back of the hallway for a makeshift incubation center for this spring, compete with a date/note book to keep track of all the hatch dates, humidity ranges and temperatures.

I'll also keep track of the rabbits in this little book.

Blanche also had a nice flock of guineas which her dogs were using for quick snacks that she passed our way, giving us access to a whole new range of genetics we didn't have before including buff and chocolate as well as what appears to be bronze :)

For those living locally and interested in poults, keets, chicks, and coturnix this spring, shoot us an e-mail or give us a call to put in your request.

Coturnix Quail as a highly sustainable survival/homestead animal.

A little while back our good friend Blanche was kind enough to gift us some wonderful Texas A&M and Jumbo brown coturnix quail.

I admit, at first I was hesitant to add such a small bird to our already growing animal repitoire for fear of how they would handle the cold, I also didn't like the idea of leaving them cooped and having to provide 100% of their diet 100% of the time, nor was I particularly fond of the idea of having to maintain breeder cages of trios. I also wasn't particularly happy about the fact that according to many experts caged quail have lost all sense of brooding and hatching capacity. Fortunately I have found some alternative solutions.

My frist solution was to create a quail aviary, easy enough, I simply consolidated the turkey flock to the larger of the two turkey coops after culling what was sold for meat for the holiday season and created a new seperate pen in the Peasant barn to house the guinea flock. This freed up the smaller of the two turkey coops for conversion into a coturnix quail aviary. Roosts are not needed for coturnix, so I removed the roosts, put down a heavy bed of straw and added an old scraped together doghouse as a communal laying box, to this I also added a couple of florescent light fixtures. Two days after the move the male coturnix started to belt out their characteristic "crow" and the breeding commenced. Unfortunately male coturnix are increadibly territorial so fighting commenced.

This was less of an issue than I figured it would be, simply because of the fact that I had included in my move all the male texas A&M white quail. I'm not generally a fan of any type of white poultry, both because they are easy prey targets, but also because they are terrible pickers towards themselves mostly so I simply culled out all but the two very best white males from the flock, allowing the genetics of the jumbo browns to move forward (dominant over white genetics). Since then I've been getting eggs consistently and regularly. High quality, delicious quail eggs which I've been enjoying for breakfast on a near daily basis.

The first thing you will notice about coturnix as a breed other than their meat to bone ratio (which is fantastic 12-14 ounces each) and the fact that the turnaround is quick (16 days to hatch, 8 weeks to maturity) is just how proficient they are at laying eggs and just how large those eggs are compared to the size of the bird, one egg can account for 7% of a females body weight.

As always I have been experimenting with feed and feed ratios. The common information sources on the net all suggest high protein game bird feed, but as I am attempting to be as self sustainable as possible I decided that should circumstances ever get downright terrible in this country, that obviously would not be an option, so I switched over to something that I can fairly well replicate on my own, locally milled laying mash. 16% protein, egg production picked up dramatically over the gamebird feed and the birds not only maintained weight but added weight! So in the spirit of experimentation I then decided on a new "Homegrown" ration to experiment with. Ground eggshels from coturnix of course, dolomite lime (when shell was not available, this also makes a fantastic dust bath), finely ground Amanda Palmer corn, and an organic dogfood for protein (back to 27% protein plus the protein content of the corn, so roughly 35-40% protein). Laying went up even more, weight was maintained and birds were more energetic..........and they started brooding eggs!

And yes, before you say to yourself, well if things get bad or if your trying to be self sustainable why dog food? The answer is because it's cold outside and that's the quick answer, the alternative should things get really bad are twofold, refuse from butchering of farm animals (don't say it! Poultry are omnivores and scavengers!) or insect protein, likely dried or live weight worms from "The Wyrm", our vermiculture operation........of course we have not yet mentioned millet or other small grains nor have we mentioned the most important vector of all.....range feeding.

A few weeks back a friend of ours dropped of a 8 x 3 cage made from concrete wire, just big enough for quail to stick their head in and just small enough to keep them from escaping. I fixed the cage up and sturdied it with some heavy duty wite, to this I wired some old bread pallete casters to the bottom along with wiring in some carboard for the quail to stand on, one the tractor is pulled onto range it is then fliped over on it's back, placing the quail directly onto the ground where the quail can scratch for bugs and seeds and fertilize the ground, we will also make a small shed inside the tractor for the quail to seek refuge from hot or cold weather. Pictures coming soon.

To this I would add from my experiments that for the amount of food consumed the quail produce an inordanite amount of meat and eggs, much better conversion than any other poultry or rabbit that we have here on the farm. For nearly 60 quail at the moment we feed just roughly two lbs of feed a day, much easier to manage than turkeys or guineas in confinement, once on range come spring I imagine that the rate will drop substantially. Of course like chickens the egg laying nearly comes to a cease during the low light level months so in a sustainable situation it's unlikely that you will keep them laying eggs, however I have experimented with light requirements as well and the results are stunning. From my observations the only light needed is just enough for the quail to see their feed and water and breeding and laying will commence.

I am currently trying to amplify my flock as we speak with three days left on two incubators full of eggs of jumbo brown, XLD-1, Cinnamon, and Tuxedo varieties. In time I will breed out the white trait I dislike so much and I can afford to play around with some alternative rearing methods for no more than it takes to hatch and raise these little birds.

I am intensely interested in recall abilities. When I first got ahold of these quail I kept them in my rabbit meat hutch, one morning while feeding a Texas A&M took off into a local tree, I figured he was gone and was about to close the cage down when suddenly from nowhere he flew back, directly through the door of his cage, on the call of an anxious female......possibilities abound.

More Blogs Soon!!!!

-Peasant barn update

-Dofer Blacksmithing update

-Peasant Root Cellar update

-Poor mens water and fish gardens

-Terra Preta Pit

Expanding our animal husbandry skills: Coturnix Quail

We recently had the pleasure of making a new friend in the local area who runs an amazing farm rearing goats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, sheep, and guard dogs, by the name of Blanche Perkins. Blanche contacted us on Facebook and was kind enough to pass a flock of 20 Bourban Red turkeys our way a couple weeks ago (as they were making their way accross the poultry fencing and into the dog enclosures where they were easy targets and made for expensive dog food) in exchange for some Homegrown nursery stock next season.

Kim, myself, and Corie, made our way down the road to Blanches amazingly beautiful farm and had a great time chatting with Blanche and checking out the animals as well as catching turkeys and discussing the red legal tape that binds us in many ways from exploring our true potential as farmers. On the trip home Kim and I discussed our newfound friendship and we definitely agreed that Blanche was "our type" and what we hope to become a long time friendship was forged.

Last week Blanche sent me a message about some Coturnix quail she was anxious to get rid of, about fifty or so, and obligingly we took them in exchange for nursery stock again. I had been sort of half heartedly exploring the idea of raising a few quail both for meat as well as a sideline income for about a year or so but had yet made the commitment, sometimes that little push is all it takes, and I can't thank Blanche enough for the little birds which I have already gained immense enjoyment from. Their care is so incredibly easy that it adds little to the list of daily chores and the experience of keeping such calm little "game" birds adds a lot to the allure of life on this farm.

As though that weren't enough Blanche also passed onto us (again in trade for nursery stock) another 24 Coturnix quail as of last evening.

Once our "peasant barn" is sufficiently rebuildt the quail will be given plenty of space in the second floor portion of the barn including a flight training room, a meat hutch, and several breeding cages.

There are two types of Coturnix quail in the photos below. The browns are Pharoh (I think) and the whites are Texas A&M. Apparently the white birds are also white meat all the way through contrary to the other breeds of Coturnix being dark meat.

This previous summer we got calls left any right from folks wanting quail eggs, meat, and birds for dog training, so hopefully this can turn into a lucrative little piece of our overall business scheme. In time I'll probably breed out the majority of the whites as I prefer a darker feathered and a darker meated bird.

You can also check out a few pics of the turkeys roaming around today after the huge rainstorm that ripped through the area (finally, this is the driest I've ever seen Indiana with little to no foragable subsistance available to the turkeys through the late summer and early-mid fall burning a hole in our pocket via feed bills).

As we have emphasised many times here on the blog and elsewhere making local contacts and facilitating trades within the local community are time honored and reliable methods to grow friendships and the local economy all the while creating a stronger locally sustainable community and saving a few dollars in the long run.