This is a You Tube video that someone else has made but I thought it was a good idea if you only had a few birds to do. He mentions the water temperature as being 160 but I have found most literature to recommend about 145-150. You may want to do a little research on your own before you get started.
He says he is doing about 40 birds this way but if you listen there are three people involved. Two are plucking and on is doing the evisceration. So if you are by yourself, 40 birds would take a good long while. Also, notice that they are inside a kitchen area of some sort. An excellent idea if you can have one!
Here's another video from You Tube showing basically the same method except he cuts his quail down the middle from the front instead of down the back. I personally cut up the backbone so I can leave the breast looking good.
He's also processing Bobwhite instead of Jumbo Brown Coturnix. He takes the process all the way through to cooking the bird. Worth watching!
I was hoping to actually do some quail plucking today as I really need to get rid of the males that just sit around eating. But it is really cold to be dipping my hands in the water for a few hours so I just went ahead and worked on the plucker. Here's the latest video. It's almost done. I'm about to run to Home Depot for some plumbing strap to hold it all down and then I'll show the final video. I hope to shoot the scene when I actually do the plucking.
I got all the fingers in the cap and I'm ready to attach the 3/8 threaded rod and make a test run with it. My intentions are to process about 25 quail on Saturday and get some footage showing this thing in action! Let me know what you think!
This will be a little series on how to build a drill-powered quail plucker. I hope to include the actual plucker in use as part of the series as I have about 20 or so quail to pluck. Hope you enjoy it!
This little video shows you what the quail plucking fingers look like. I was able to shoot another video tonight showing me starting to put it together. That's next!
Got a little hatch going on from my first week's eggs. Not a good percentage, but basically free birds! I've put another 149 eggs in that are from 2 weeks later so I'm hoping to have a much greater hatch. I'll list those for sale. These in the video are also for sale!
Without a doubt, this is the best thing I ever built. Of course, I didn't invent the self-feeder, but I did invent this particular one - and it works great. Feed waste is about 0. Loads from the top and has required no cleaning as the birds can't get on it or in it!!!!
Just want to post a new video on the breeder cages and give an update on how things are going. I've lost a couple of hens (not sure why) and I have two with bumble feet that are in the medic ward right now. I've got no major health issues. One hen died after a blowout and not sure what happened to the others. Just found them dead. No other health issues besides sore feet which I may fix by going with a solid bottom, deep litter cage method which I am learning about from another avid quail raiser, John Thompson.
There is a large movement out there supporting raw diets for dogs. Blue Ridge Quail Farm's quail are healthy and never feed antibiotics or other harmful chemicals as additives to their feed. They are raised on wire and always have feed and water in front of them. In the winter, the room has heat added to keep the birds comfortable and the eggs from freezing.
You can pick your birds up live at the farm or you can buy them whole with feathers and frozen. I'm just starting to sell frozen whole birds so use the contact form on the home page to get more information.
One of the things you will notice when starting a new flock of layers is that many of the eggs will be extra large and many of those will be double yolked and infertile. My hens have been laying a little over a week and you can see from these photos the difference in the size. The eggs on the right and left are actually normal-size. I'm putting them all in the incubator right now, testing for fertility. Ill keep this site updated as to the hatch rate I'm getting. This is not same with chickens typically. A chicken will start off laying small eggs and they eventually increase in size until they reach their normal size. Every now and again a chicken will lay an extremely large egg but it is not common. FOr some reason, it is much more common in the Coturnix Quail.
You can see how many extra large eggs are in this tray. Some may hatch but many won't. It is the same problem with the extra small eggs. The eggs I ship are as close to a standard size as possible.
I have 13 compartments filled - each with 3 hens and 1 cock. Each compartment is producing eggs and I have placed some in the incubator just to see what kind of a hatch rate I'm getting. I'll incubate another batch in about 2 weeks to check the progress.
I expect to have eggs for sale in about a month. I want to have a really good hatch before I start selling them. Stay in touch!
I was able to fill 13 compartments with a 3/1 ration and 1 compartment with a pair. I ran out of females but will start hatching again as soon as I get 50 eggs - over halfway there already.
I have about 25 males left-over which will be at $5 each if anyone is interested. Otherwise they will go in the freezer. I'm making a drill-powered plucker for the quail and I will do a video on that when it's complete!
It seems as though heat may have been the issue. Our temperatures have been extremely warm lately and I still had the heat lamps on above the growout pen. I turned them off 2 nights ago and yesterday they returned to what appears to be normal eating patterns. I appreciate those who wrote with suggestions!
