Hello and welcome to the B and B Quail Farm blog! In this blog, I will be documenting my journey into the quail farming business. I've been wanting to farm for some time now, and while I have a small flock of 5 chickens, chicken farming in and of itself didn't seem like a viable way to become a self-sufficient farmer with an income to support myself and my endeavors. Then I discovered quail, and learned a great deal about them, and realized I could easily build up a farm with quail that would allow my dreams to come true. Quail are ready for breeding, processing, and egg-laying in such a short time compared to chickens, and they're so small that my current plot of land, which is about 2/3 of an acre, is plenty to get started.

I was in the process of trying to figure out how to get started with the quail, and last weekend (July 24/25) there was an Exotic Animal Expo down in Mobile, Alabama (about an hour and 40 minutes away), and I planned to attend to figure out how to get started in this endeavor. I went with the other "B" in "B and B", and we saw some button quail at the expo, but button quail are too small for my purposes. And those were really the only quail there. Now, they had rabbits, and I do plan to get into the rabbitry business as well at some point, but I do not want to start the entire farm with rabbits at first. Just like I plan to add to my chickens, but didn't want to start the farm with chickens. Quail are perfect because of their size, housing needs, and their swift development. Being disappointed at the expo, we then went to the Mobile Flea Market on Schillinger. They had regular coturnix (aka pharaoh, aka Japanese) quail at one booth there, and I looked them over, debated for a while, then decided, why not? And I purchased a trio, 2 females and a male. The male is light-colored, I have yet to figure out his variety. His name is Ricky. One of the females is white with a couple splashes of brown, her variety seems to be one called Splash. Her name is Lucy. And then there's Ethel, who looks like a typical, regular female coturnix.

So once I had them, I put them in a regular bird cage until I was able to build their pen/hutch. I started constrution on it Sunday evening, worked on it Monday until I ran out of some materials, then finished the construction Tuesday. Wednesday I started painting it, but didn't finish.

The "Farm Fresh" sign I found at the local Tractor Supply on clearance and thought it would look awesome on the hutch. I still have to finish painting it, but the important parts are painted to protect from the weather (the legs are treated, so they're fine, and so far it's stormed since I stopped painting, and the roof protected the actual living area from getting wet). This is where I stand for the moment.

The people I bought the quail from had no idea the age of the quail (even though they claimed to be the breeders, I mean, how can you not have an idea of how old an animal you raised is?), but I'm guessing around 5-6 weeks. I also need to go back to the flea market tomorrow or Saturday and get a few more females, as Lucy and Ethel are being driven crazy by the sex-hungry Ricky. A few more females will take the heat off them quite so much and put everyone at ease. I will post more tomorrow! Thank you for joining the blog!