😂
having chickens is one of my dreams. I remember spending school breaks at my grandparents and collecting eggs from their chickens. nothing tastier than a fresh, organic egg you collected 🧡
Discussion
Sounds dreamy! Haha. Chickens are definitely mega cool. Quail are pretty easy to manage in smaller situations too--a more accessible dream perhaps. It is is for us! A tasty fresh egg is indeed a delighfully tasty and nutritios treat. 🥰
I must've had quail eggs, at some point in my life, but I really can't remember. Maybe it was part of a fancy platter at an event or something 😄
Would you say quail are less destructive, compared to chickens or even ducks? I'd like a few ducks around, laying their massive eggs too.
They are certainly leveraged by trendy restaurants, but they are just totally lovely as a daily egg! Can use in place of chicken eggs in everything. Nothing odd or weird about the flavour. Just awesome.
Quail are much less destructive than chickens. And less messy and smelly than ducks (from my limited duck experience). They are however much less capable of defending themselves, and their food. Ours are always caged, unless I am holding them. Everything wants to eat them. And it is not obvious that I could get them back if they escaped. Haha. They are also not inclined to eat all the scraps that chickens do, so you need some kind of base feed. Our bevy gets fresh grass and clover every day as the substrate they can scratch and hunt through. I also bring them bugs and weeds I find when weeding. But yeah, letting them hunt around the farm by themselves isn't really an option on the survival front. Looooooool.
I would also love some ducks around. Perhaps even some ostriches. 🙃
Since they're not fans of scraps, have you considered having a compost where you throw food scraps and have black soldier fly larvae eat the scraps, then feed the larvae to the quail?
This is a hack I'm excited to use, when I'll have chickens.
Yes! Have considered those flies. Our composts have a lot of different bugs in them, none of which I have introduced. Certainly considering a bug farm. We have an abundance of baby snails and slaters here, which the covey smash. I also have a bug zapper which provides them with light to extend the winter hours so they lay, and also freshly fried snacks. Haha. I am basically always hunting bug for them. Would be cool to have larval abundance for sure! Might investigate a local supplier and see what the ecosystem integration situation is where I am. 😁
Freshly fried snacks 😂
I've seen compost setups where the larvae, when they reach a certain size, walk up a tube and then fall into a bucket from which the chickens can eat them. Very crafty, if you as me 😄
So cool! Reminds me of the "Smelly Box", which is a hanging bucket with holes in the sides that you throw dead things in (birds, cats, whoever). When the maggots run out of food, they crawl out, and fall to the the floor for the poultry to smash! Gosh humans are cool with their animal husbandry. 🥰
Sounds about right haha