Short answer: A quail lays about one egg a day, so the business is a sum of hens, not one good bird. In this article a 300-hen flock gives roughly 6,000 saleable eggs a month and uses about 225 kilograms of feed, and the income depends on breakage and on how many buyers you have lined up before you stock. Size the flock to the buyers you can name, not to the cages you can build.
Key takeaways
- One hen gives about one egg a day in good conditions, so plan in hundreds of hens, not single birds.
- Feed and breakage eat the margin, so track both from the first week.
- Keep roughly one cock for every four hens, and no more.
- Sign buyers for a weekly volume before you stock the cages.
- Quail chicks are quoted on request, so get the figure in writing before you plan.
One egg a day, multiplied by more hens than you think
A quail lays roughly one egg a day when she is at her best. Not every day, and not every hen. Over a month the average drops because of stress, heat, moulting and the odd bird that goes off lay. For planning we use 0.7 eggs per hen per day. That leaves room for the bad weeks, and it stops you building a business on the best week of the year.
Quail eggs are small. Most weigh roughly 10 to 12 grams, so a tray of 30 weighs about a third of a kilogram. That changes how you price them. A buyer who thinks in eggs will compare you with the chicken egg on the shelf. A buyer who thinks in weight will compare you with something else entirely. Find out which one your buyer uses before you set a price.
What different flock sizes actually produce
The table uses 0.7 eggs per hen per day, 30 days a month and 25 grams of feed per hen per day. The sales column uses GH₵1.50 per egg. That is a round working number that makes the sums easy, not a quote, so put your own price in and see what changes.
| Hens in lay | Eggs a month | Feed a month | Sales a month at GH₵1.50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 2,100 | 75 kg | GH₵3,150 |
| 300 | 6,300 | 225 kg | GH₵9,450 |
| 500 | 10,500 | 375 kg | GH₵15,750 |
Notice what happens to the feed. It rises in a straight line with the hens, which is fine, but the eggs only pay if the buyers take them. A flock of 500 you cannot sell is 375 kilograms of feed a month paid for in the dark.
Buying the birds, and why the cock count matters
Quail chicks are priced on request at Halaal Farms. Message us on WhatsApp with the number you want and the month you need them, and ask for the figure in writing before you commit. Do not build a whole business around a price you heard second-hand. You can place the order through our order form, and the quail chicks page lists what we supply and how the birds are packed.
Most of the cost of a quail flock sits in the hens you keep for eggs, not in the cocks. A common working ratio is one male for about four females. Every extra male is a bird that eats, takes space and gives you no eggs. If you buy a mixed batch, plan to sell or cull the surplus males before they start to bother the hens. Our advice is to buy too few males rather than too many, and to add a few later if the hens show they need them.
Keep the stock records simple. Write the date the chicks arrived, the number you had, the number that started laying and the number you have now. That one page will tell you more about the business in the first year than any bank balance. If you are comparing a small-bird project with a larger one, our price list sets the chicken figures next to each other.
Space is cheap until you need more of it
Quail do not need a big yard. They need dry, quiet, well-ventilated space, and they need that space to stay quiet. A startled quail hits the wire, and a bruised breast or a broken wing takes a bird out of your sales.
Stacked cages are the usual answer, and the cost of them is the real cost of the set-up. Choose a design you can clean in a few minutes a day, with a tray or a slope that rolls the eggs to the front, out of reach of the birds. Before you pay for a second tier, check the first tier by hand every day for a week. If you cannot reach the back of it without a stool, the next tier will cost you more in labour than it saves in space.
Keep the house out of the afternoon sun and keep air moving through it. The hottest hour of the day is the one to watch. Dim the lights in the house if the birds are flighty, and keep dogs and visitors away from the cages.
The daily routine that decides your egg count
In a small flock the routine is the business. A missed collection costs you more than a bad week of feed, because eggs left in the cage are the ones that get broken, eaten or dirtied.
- Collect eggs in the morning and again in the late afternoon. Do not leave them overnight on the wire.
- Check water in every tier and top it up before the birds finish it.
- Pull dead or weak birds out the same day and write down what you saw.
- Top up feed in small amounts and keep the bags sealed in between.
- Count the eggs and write the number down before they go to the store.
- Clear the droppings trays so the eggs stay clean and the air stays fresh.
Do this for two weeks and you will know how many eggs you really collect in a day. The number will probably be lower than the one in your head, and that is useful to know before you promise a buyer anything. Our FAQ page has the basic numbers if you want to check a point first.
Broken and small eggs eat your margin
Quail eggs have thin shells compared with a hen's egg, and they break when they roll down a wire tray or get knocked by a bird. Breakage is the first leak in the business. Five per cent broken sounds small until you do the sum at the end of the month.
Grade the eggs at collection. Keep the clean, unbroken ones for the buyers who pay best. Put the cracked and dirty ones aside for home use or for a buyer who takes damaged eggs at a lower price, and be honest with that buyer about it. Small eggs are still good eggs, but a buyer who orders by the tray will send back a tray full of small ones.
Egg-eating happens in quail too, usually when the nests are bare, the flock is crowded or a bird has already cracked an egg. Keep the trays clean and collect often, and an egg that rolls out of reach will not get eaten. If you find an egg-eater, take it out of the house and do not wait to see whether it stops.
Who buys quail eggs in Ghana, and how they order
Start with the buyers, not the cages. Before you stock a single bird, write down three people or businesses who have said, in plain words, that they will buy a set number of eggs each week. Hotels, restaurants and small-chop caterers are the kind of buyer we would look at first, because they order in volume and they care about freshness. Shops and minimarts can take eggs too, but they usually want a regular delivery and a clear price on the tray.
Ask every buyer three questions. How many eggs a week? What pack size? Which day do they want delivery? A buyer who says "whenever you have them" is not yet a buyer. Quail eggs sell in trays of 30 or in smaller cartons of 12, and both are easy to price if you use the same pack every time.
Keep your prices simple. Two prices is enough, one for clean eggs and one for damaged ones. A third price for a special occasion order is fine, but do not let the sheet grow until you cannot remember it on the phone.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
A worked month for a 300-hen flock
Take a flock of 300 hens in full lay, with the numbers from the table above. Over 30 days you expect about 6,300 eggs. Allow 5 per cent for breakage and for small eggs you cannot sell as first grade, and you have about 5,990 to sell. Call it 6,000 for round numbers.
At GH₵1.50 each that is roughly GH₵9,000 in sales. Feed comes to about 225 kilograms a month, so put your own bag price against that figure. A 50-kilogram bag at the price you really pay is the number that matters, not ours. Add labour too. If one person spends an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening on the flock, that time has a value even when no cash changes hands.
The cost of the hens is the last line. Spread the price of the chicks across the months the hens are in lay. Quail usually lay hard for about a year and then slow down, so a bird bought at the start of the year is a cost you spread over a year of eggs. That is why the first six months look thin and the second six can look better, provided the buyers stay with you. Our starting budget guide shows how to fit these lines into a first-year plan.
What ends a quail egg business in its first year
- Stocking before you have buyers. The eggs wait in the store and the feed keeps going out.
- Too many males. Every spare cock is feed you pay for with nothing coming back.
- Selling by guess. Without a daily count you cannot tell whether a bad month was the flock or the feed.
- Ignoring breakage. A small percentage on paper becomes a large share of the income.
- Building cages before testing the daily work. A house that is hard to reach gets neglected first.
Each of these is easy to avoid if you write the numbers down in week one and check them every Friday.
How we would start from a small flock
If a new farmer asked us for a plan, we would suggest starting with 100 hens, not 500. At 100 hens you produce about 2,100 eggs a month on paper, which is enough to learn the routine, measure your real breakage and sign two or three buyers. Keep the notebook for three months, then decide the next step from your own figures and not from anyone's brochure, ours included.
If you are weighing a small-bird egg business against guinea fowl, the guinea fowl egg article sets out the collection and hatching side in the same practical way. Our full breed overview covers the other birds if you are still deciding between quail and chickens.
When you are ready to order, send us your number and your month on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503. Delivery reaches all 16 regions, and the delivery page explains how the cost is confirmed before payment. Our about page has the farm's location in Opeikuma, Kasoa, and visits are by appointment.
Questions farmers ask
How much can a small quail egg business make in Ghana?
There is no fixed figure, because it depends on the number of hens in lay, the price you get per egg and how many eggs break. As a rough sum, 300 hens at 0.7 eggs a day give about 6,300 eggs a month. At GH₵1.50 that is about GH₵9,450 before feed, labour and the cost of the birds. Put your own numbers in and keep a month of records before you trust any of them.
How many quail should I start with for eggs?
Start with the number of buyers you can name, not the number of cages you can build. For a first season, 100 hens is a sensible size to learn the routine and measure your real breakage. Once you have a month of records and buyers who order every week, grow the flock in planned steps rather than in one large purchase.
How many male quail do I need?
A common working ratio is one male for about four females. Extra males eat feed, take space and do not lay eggs, so keep only what you need and sell or cull the rest before they start fighting. If the flock is mixed and you cannot tell the sexes apart early, check the males again when the hens start to lay.
How many eggs does a quail lay in a month?
A laying quail gives roughly one egg a day at her best, and a flock averages lower because of heat, stress, moult and birds that stop laying for a while. For planning, use about 0.7 eggs per hen per day, which works out to about 21 eggs per hen per month. Track your own flock for a month and use that figure in place of ours.
How should I store quail eggs for sale?
Collect them often, keep them clean and dry, and store them in a cool place out of the sun. Refrigeration keeps them longer if your buyers have it. Mark the collection date on each tray and sell the oldest first. Avoid washing them unless you have a plan to dry them straight away, because washing takes off the protective layer on the shell.
Where do I buy quail chicks in Ghana?
Halaal Farms supplies quail chicks, and the price is quoted on request. Message us on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503 or use the order form, tell us the number and the month, and ask for the price in writing before you pay. Delivery reaches all 16 regions, or you can collect at the farm in Opeikuma by appointment.
Is quail egg farming better than keeping laying hens?
Not in general. Quail need less space and start laying sooner, but their eggs are smaller and more fragile, and the market for quail eggs is usually thinner than the market for hen eggs. Laying hens suit a farmer who wants volume and a wide market. Quail suit a farmer who has buyers lined up for small eggs and wants a quick start. Compare the two on cost per egg over a full year, not on the price of a single bird.
