Short answer: The Japanese Coturnix is the quail most Ghanaian farmers should start with: it is small, it lays early and it tolerates the heat better than most birds its size. The first eggs usually arrive around six to seven weeks, and the flock lives or dies on a 20 to 24 percent protein ration, steady light and housing with no wire to injure a panicked bird. Quail chick prices are quoted on request, so ask us before you plan the budget.
Key takeaways
- Sex Coturnix from throat colour at about three to four weeks, and keep one male for every three or four hens.
- Expect first eggs at six to seven weeks, and expect the first ones to be small and irregular.
- Feed a layer ration of about 20 to 24 percent protein, and keep a calcium source available at all times.
- Change light hours slowly and keep the house dim at night, because sudden light changes stress a flock.
- Choose housing with no sharp wire and no open edges, since startled quail injure themselves quickly.
- Store hatching eggs for a week at most, and set them at about 37.5 °C for 17 to 18 days.
What the Coturnix is, and why it is not the wild quail
The first sign a quail flock is in trouble is not a dead bird. It is a nest box that stays clean, because the hens have stopped laying and nobody noticed for a week.
The Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica, is a domesticated bird bred from the wild Asian quail for egg production. It is small, usually weighing well under 200 grams as an adult, and it grows and lays much faster than most of the game birds people sometimes catch and keep. Hens lay most days once they start, and an egg is smaller than a chicken egg by a large margin. The eggs are speckled, and their small size means you sell them by the tray or by the count rather than by weight.
Coturnix suit a Ghanaian farm for three reasons. They need little floor space, they mature quickly, and they cope with heat better than many birds that are bigger and more tightly feathered. They are also nervous. A Coturnix that is frightened hits the wire, flutters into a corner or stops eating for a day. The housing and the handling are where a Coturnix flock is won or lost.
Halaal Farms supplies quail chicks, and our quail chicks page is the starting point for ordering. Prices for quail chicks are quoted on request, so please message us on +233 24 915 1503 before you plan the budget. The general quail farming guide covers the basics for every type of quail, and this article is about the Coturnix in particular.
Reading the throat: sexing Coturnix at three to four weeks
Sexing a Coturnix at hatch is not reliable, so most farmers wait until the birds are three or four weeks old and look at the throat. It takes a few minutes per bird, and once you can do it the flock is much easier to manage.
A male has a rusty or brown patch on the throat and the upper chest. It is a plain colour, often a clear rust, and it does not have the speckling of the hen. A female has a pale throat with dark speckles, and her chest is spotted rather than coloured. Males are a little smaller and quieter at first, and by about five weeks they start the crowing trill that gives the bird its voice in the pen.
- Pick up each bird gently, one at a time, with its back against your palm.
- Hold it under good daylight, not in a dim corner or under a yellow bulb, and look at the throat.
- Note rust, speckle or a mixture on a card by the bird's pen number.
- Return the bird to the pen quickly and quietly, and do not repeat the check on the same day.
Mixed throats are common in the first sexing. Some birds will look unclear until the colour comes through over the next week, so mark them as uncertain and check again. Do not sell a bird as female until you are sure, and do not keep an uncertain bird in a breeding pen. A cock in the wrong pen is the most common reason a flock produces fertile eggs without the hens laying the numbers you planned.
When the first eggs arrive, and why the early ones are small
Coturnix hens usually start laying at around six to seven weeks, although a few start a little later depending on feed, light and the season. The first eggs are small, often well under the weight of a mature egg, and some have thin or uneven shells. That is normal in the first weeks, and it improves as the hen settles into a routine.
Do not panic when the first week gives you eight eggs from a pen of ten hens and the second week gives you twenty. Lay rate builds. A flock that is stable, fed well and left in quiet light will reach its steady output over several weeks. A flock that is hit by stress, poor feed or a sudden change of light can lose its laying for days, and the number on your record sheet will show it straight away.
Write the date of the first egg in your record. It is the anchor for every later calculation, and it tells you whether a pen is ahead or behind when you compare it with the next batch.
One cock for three or four hens: the breeding ratio
For breeding, most Coturnix keepers use one male for every three or four females. A single male can cover more hens than that in theory, but in a small pen the cock often exhausts himself, bullies the hens or damages their backs, and the fertility drops.
Keep the sexes in the same pen only when you are breeding. For egg production alone, a pen of hens with no male is quieter and the eggs are simpler to collect, because you do not have to check for fertility or remove the odd egg that has begun to develop. Many farms keep a separate breeding pen for two or three pairs and a separate laying house for the hens that are only producing eggs for sale.
- A breeding pen with one male and three or four hens, checked for injuries each week.
- A laying pen with only hens, which is easier to manage and gives cleaner eggs.
- A record of which hens are paired, and when, so you can judge fertility honestly.
Watch the cock's feathers on the back of the hens. Bare patches and broken feathers mean a pen is too crowded for its males, and the answer is more space or fewer hens, not more cock.
Feeding a laying Coturnix: protein, calcium and the grit question
A laying Coturnix needs a ration with around 20 to 24 percent protein, which is higher than most chicken layers in the same bag, because the hen produces an egg a day from a small body. Feed a proper layer ration, and check the protein on the label before you buy. A general poultry mash can be too low in protein for a laying quail, and the eggs will show it.
Calcium matters because each egg needs a lot of it, and a hen with too little will lay thin shells or none at all. Keep a separate dish of crushed oyster shell or limestone available at all times, so each hen can take what she needs. Do not mix the shell into the mash and hope for the best, because the hens will take too much or too little depending on their appetite.
Grit is the question people ask most. Coturnix do not need grit in the same way a chicken on scratch does, but a hen on a fine crumbled ration can still benefit from a little grit to help her gizzard. Offer a small amount, not a heap, and watch whether the hens eat it. If they do not touch it, leave it out and move on.
Our guide to the basics of feed formulation, poultry feed formulation basics, explains why protein and energy need to balance, and it is worth reading before you buy a bag of quail feed from a stranger.
Light hours without shocking the flock
Light drives laying in a Coturnix as much as feed does. A hen on about 16 hours of light a day lays steadily. A hen on eight hours may stop laying altogether. The trouble is that changing the hours suddenly causes stress, and stressed hens stop laying for a while before they recover.
Bring the light up in steps of about half an hour a week when you start the lay programme, and keep the timer the same every day. Use a plain timer on the light, not a switch that someone remembers to flick. A dim light at night, such as a small bulb with a red or green shade, is less disturbing than a bright light, and it helps the birds settle.
Quail kept in a house with a large window or an open door in the afternoon can become agitated when the light is strong for too long. A timer and a shaded window do more for them than any feed additive. Our guide on lighting programmes for layers covers the general principles, and the same logic applies to quail with the hours adjusted.
Keep the light source out of reach of the birds, and check the wiring regularly. A loose connection in a quail house is a fire risk, and a fire spreads through dry straw faster than you can get to the birds.
Cage, floor pen or rack: choosing housing that does not injure birds
There are three common ways to house a Coturnix flock: cages, floor pens and stacked racks. Each has its place, and each can injure birds if it is built badly. The most common injury we hear about is a bird that hits the wire and breaks a wing, a toe or a neck, and that is almost always a housing problem, not a bird problem.
Choose wire with small mesh, so that a bird's head cannot push through and its foot cannot catch in a gap. Make sure there are no sharp edges, no rust that flakes into the feed and no loose staples that can cut a leg. A floor pen needs a solid base and dry litter, and a rack needs a tray that can be cleaned and that drains the droppings away from the hens.
A brood needs warmth in the first weeks, and the warmth must come from a source the birds can move away from. The picture below shows a brooder lamp in use. The same principle holds for quail, although the lamp is lower and the space is smaller.
- Cage: easy to clean and count, but the wire must be checked for sharp points every week.
- Floor pen: more natural movement, but damp litter causes disease and needs daily attention.
- Rack: space-efficient, but the tray must be cleaned on a fixed schedule, or the smell and flies build quickly.
Whatever you choose, keep the house quiet. A flock that is disturbed by noise, people walking past at random and dogs at the door will lay less and fight more.
Egg size, shell quality and the daily collection
A Coturnix egg is speckled and small, and it weighs a fraction of a chicken egg. The size is set by the bird, but the quality is set by you. Shell strength depends on calcium, on the light programme and on how often you collect. A cracked egg left in the pen is food for the rest of the flock, and some hens learn to peck eggs once they taste them.
Collect the eggs at least twice a day in hot weather, and more often when the flock is laying well. Use a clean tray or a box lined with a soft cloth, and store the eggs in a cool, shaded place. Do not wash them unless they are visibly dirty, because washing removes the protective coating on the shell and lets bacteria in.
Grade the eggs as you collect. Keep the cracked ones separate, and sell or use them first. A shell with a hairline crack cannot be sold as a fresh egg, and it can spoil the rest of the batch if it goes in with them.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
Hatching Coturnix eggs at home: seventeen to eighteen days
Some keepers prefer to hatch their own quail instead of buying chicks. It can work well, but it needs a clean incubator, a steady temperature and a set of records you actually keep. The incubation period is seventeen to eighteen days for Coturnix, which is shorter than most chicken eggs.
Store hatching eggs in a cool room, pointed end down, for a week at most. The longer they wait, the lower the hatch. Set the incubator at about 37.5 °C, and check the thermometer against a second one before you start, because a thermometer that reads two degrees high will cook the embryos without any sign. Turn the eggs several times a day, and keep the humidity steady through the set.
- Clean and warm the incubator the night before, and check it is holding its temperature.
- Set the eggs in the order you collected them, and mark the set date on the incubator.
- Turn the eggs at regular intervals until the last few days, then stop turning as the hatch approaches.
- Candle the eggs at about a week to remove any that have not developed.
- Move the hatching eggs to the hatcher tray when the pips appear, and keep the lid closed except for brief checks.
If you buy your chicks from a hatchery, the incubator is no longer your problem, and most of the labour moves to the brood. Whichever route you choose, a good brood is the one you can see clearly, with clean chicks, dry litter and steady warmth.
When a quail flock starts pecking itself
Pecking in a Coturnix flock usually starts with one bird that has a small wound, a feather pulled or a patch of bare skin. The others are drawn to the colour, and within a day the injured bird can be badly hurt. Quail are fast to escalate, which is why a single wound needs attention the same day.
Remove the injured bird to a separate pen until it heals. Look at the house light first. Bright light and open floors make quail more nervous and more likely to peck, so a dimmer house and a darker corner can reduce the trouble. Check the feed for shortage of protein or calcium, because hungry birds peck at each other as well as at the feed.
Do not try to fix the pecking by cutting beaks or by painting the birds. Those are poor answers that cause more stress. The fix is the house and the ration, and it usually works within a week when it is done properly.
A worked month for 60 laying hens
Assume a flock of 60 hens, each laying about 0.8 eggs a day on average. That is 48 eggs a day, or roughly 1,440 eggs in a month of thirty days. These are assumptions, and your pen will vary with the season, the feed and the age of the hens. Use your own record to replace them as soon as you have one.
The feed sum follows the hens. Assume each hen eats about 25 grams of ration a day. Sixty hens then take 1.5 kilograms a day, or 45 kilograms in a month. Add the calcium and the grit on top, and weigh what you put out for a week before you trust the figure.
Eggs lose value fast when they are broken, cracked or left too long, so the sale should be planned around collection as well as around the flock size. A pen of 60 hens that produces 1,440 eggs in a month but loses a tenth of them to breakage has sold only 1,296 good eggs, and the feed bill is the same either way. That is the number to watch.
| Stage | Age | Housing | Feed | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brood | Hatch to 3 weeks | Warm brooder, dry litter | Starter ration with high protein | Chicks spread evenly under the heat |
| Grow | 3 to 6 weeks | Pen with space to move | Grower ration, sexed by throat | Throat colour and steady weight |
| Lay | 6 weeks onward | Quiet house, timed light | Layer ration with shell calcium | Daily egg count and shell quality |
Use the table as a guide for the early stages. The grower and layer rations are different products, and the switch between them should be on a record, not on a feeling.
Mistakes that stall a Coturnix flock
The mistakes below come up again and again in quail flocks, and most of them can be avoided with a timer, a notebook and a close look at the birds each morning.
- Changing the light hours in one large jump, then wondering why the hens stopped laying.
- Using a general poultry mash with too little protein for a laying quail.
- Leaving sharp wire or rust in the cage and accepting the injuries as normal.
- Keeping a cock in a small pen with four hens and expecting good fertility.
- Collecting eggs once a day in the heat and losing a tenth of them to cracks and spoilage.
- Selling quail chicks without knowing their sex, then discovering the pen is mostly cocks.
Each one is a small fault, and each one shows up in the record first. A Coturnix flock is forgiving for a week and unforgiving for a month, so check the numbers weekly.
Checklist before the first Coturnix chicks arrive
Go through this list before the box is due. Quail chicks are small, and a missing item is more dangerous for them than for a chicken chick.
- A brooder with a warm zone and a cool zone, tested the night before.
- Dry litter and clean drinkers with a shallow edge so chicks cannot drown.
- Starter ration with high protein, stored dry and off the floor.
- Housing with small-mesh wire, no sharp edges and no loose fittings.
- A light timer for the lay programme, set and tested before the first lay.
- A sexing record sheet, a laying record sheet and a place to keep them.
- A plan for who will buy the eggs, and a rough idea of how many a week they will need.
When you are ready, use the order form on our home page, or message us on +233 24 915 1503. Delivery is confirmed before payment, and our delivery page sets out how we pack and send the birds. For a wider look at prices and what we supply, see our day-old chick prices, and the FAQ answers the questions we are asked most.
Questions farmers ask
How old are Japanese quail when they start laying?
Most Coturnix hens start laying at about six to seven weeks, though some take longer depending on feed, light and season. The first eggs are small and irregular, and the flock settles over several weeks. Note the date of the first egg in your record, because it is the anchor for your later calculations.
How do I tell male and female Coturnix apart?
Look at the throat at about three to four weeks. Males have a rusty or brown patch and a plain colour, while females have a pale throat with dark speckles. Mixed or unclear throats need a second look a week later. Do not rely on size alone, because the difference is small in young birds.
How many hens should I keep with one male?
For breeding, one male to three or four hens is a common and sensible ratio. For egg production alone, you do not need a male at all, and a hens-only pen is quieter and simpler to manage. Watch the hens' backs for bare patches, which show the pen is too crowded for its males.
What protein level do laying quail need?
A laying Coturnix needs a ration of around 20 to 24 percent protein, higher than most general poultry feed. Check the label before buying, and keep a separate source of shell calcium available at all times. If the eggs have thin shells, check the calcium and the protein first.
Can I hatch Coturnix eggs at home?
Yes, with a clean incubator, a steady temperature and disciplined records. The incubation period is seventeen to eighteen days. Store eggs for a week at most, set them at about 37.5 °C, and check your thermometer against a second one before you start. If you prefer to buy chicks, ask us about our current quail supply.
Why have my hens stopped laying?
The most common causes are a sudden change in light hours, a ration with too little protein or calcium, stress from noise or disturbance, and injuries from sharp wire. Check the light timer first, then the feed label, then the housing. A stopped flock usually restarts within a week of a stable routine.
Do you sell quail chicks, and how much do they cost?
We supply quail chicks, and the price is quoted on request, so please message us on +233 24 915 1503 before you plan the budget. We put every quail price in writing before you send a pesewa. Delivery cost is also confirmed before you pay.
