Quail is brown and a small wild migratory bird. Wild quails lay 7- 12 eggs every year. The incubation period of quail is 16- 17 days. Quail is warm, and the indoor temperature should be around 200 C. The equipment is simple and the management is easy. Lay eggs after 40-50 days.
First, the cultivation of young quail:
Quails before 40 days old. After the quails hatch, they can be kept in a small wooden incubator. A wooden box of 60 cm× 80 cm can hold 10-20 quails. Pay attention to heat preservation when brooding. The heat source of insulation can be electric lamp, kerosene stove, charcoal basin or Fengwo coal stove. It is best to use electric light to provide temperature from the top of the incubator, while using kerosene stove, charcoal or honeycomb briquette to provide temperature below or beside it. Heat preservation umbrellas can be used for large-scale brooding, and each umbrella can breed 200-300 quails.
The temperature of quail can be 350-370C at the beginning, and then the temperature will drop to about 240-260C every day, and the temperature can be removed after 20 days. Quails can be illuminated for 24 hours when they are 3-4 days old, so that they can get familiar with their living environment, eat enough and sleep warmly, and then gradually turn to natural light, and make up the light in the morning and evening.
Second, the feeding of quail:
Quails will run 5-6 hours after hatching, so it is better to start eating sooner rather than later. You can start eating with a mixture of corn, broken rice, wheat flour, etc., and it is better to add cooked egg yolk. After two or three days, gradually switch to full-price compound feed. The ingredients of quail can be corn 52%, bean cake 27%, fish meal 10%, bran 5%, grass meal 5%, bone meal 1%, and crude protein content 24-25%. The ratio of calcium to phosphorus is 2: 1. In addition, you can also add 15% of threshing material, or add 10 g of vitamins and appropriate trace elements per 100 kg of feed. Adding a small amount of antibiotics to feed is more effective, which can not only prevent diseases, but also promote growth. Quails can be fed in a small tank in the incubator, and a small amount of water can be added to make a paste feed. Quails like to eat, but the feed is easy to pollute and deteriorate in summer. To feed dry feed, you need to use a water dispenser to supply water continuously all day. At first, feed it all day, six meals a day after two weeks, and four meals a day after four weeks. It takes about 0.5 kg of concentrate to raise a quail.
Three, the mother quail feeding:
After 40 days of age, the female quail will be transferred to the laying period. The female quail has spots from throat to chest, while the male quail's chest is dark and without spots. The female quail can be kept in a cage on the 4th-6th floor. Quail cages can be made of wood, with a height of 160- 180 cm, a length of 90- 100 cm and a depth of 40 cm. The height of each cage is 15 cm, and the space of the excrement bearing plate is 10 cm, and each layer can support 60-80 quails. The middle can be divided into 2-4 small cages, and the bottom of the cage is tied with thick iron wire with a spacing of 0.5 cm, so as to leak feces. The bottom of the cage is high in the back and low in the front, and slightly tilted forward. After laying eggs, it can automatically flow out to the front baffle so that the breeder can pick up eggs outside the cage. The cage is made of thin iron wire with a spacing of 2.2-2.4 cm, and a feeding trough and a drinking trough are externally hung, so that the quail's head and neck can be stretched out to eat and drink.
The percentage of ingredients in the complete mixed drink of female quail is: corn 42, bean cake 33, fish meal 10, bran 3, grass meal 5, shell meal 6, bone meal 1, crude protein 27-28%, calcium-phosphorus ratio 4: 1, plus appropriate vitamins and trace elements. Feed dry food 3-4 times a day. Each female quail is fed roughage of more than 20g, and the egg feed is about 1: 2. Laying quails also like to eat semi-dry and semi-wet paste feed. Feeding wet feed has higher egg production rate than feeding dry feed, but feeding wet feed is labor-intensive and easy to deteriorate in summer, so it is more convenient to feed dry feed with clear water.
Strengthening light management can improve egg production rate. Usually, every 20-25m2 area, a 60-watt electric lamp is hung at a height of 2m, or an electric lamp is hung in each cage. It is required to keep 16 hours of light day and night, and the rest time can be changed to low-light bulbs to prevent the darkness from disturbing quail and affecting egg laying.
The female quail that lays eggs has a great appetite, and each quail needs to eat 20 grams of concentrated feed every day. The formula of concentrated feed is: corn flour 53%, bean cake 22%, bran 3.5%, fish meal 12%, trace elements 1%, bone meal 2%, shell meal 3.8%, fine sand 1.2%, and vitamins1. Green feed should be chopped and pulped, and mixed with concentrated feed at the ratio of 1: 1, and the humidity should be non-sticky. Feed it five times a day (including three times in the afternoon). Pay attention to regular and quantitative feeding, and don't change feed varieties at will.
Quails can be caged in 40 days, so they should adapt to the new environment as soon as possible and help them lay eggs as soon as possible. 60 days before laying eggs is the peak period, so it is necessary to strengthen feeding management.
Quails rarely get sick, and epidemic diseases are rare, but once they get sick, they often lead to the death of the whole nest, so it is very important to be careful to prevent diseases. Quail cages should be kept ventilated, dry and clean, and disinfected regularly with 3% ~ 5% Lysol disinfectant. Once a week, quail is disinfected in the intestine (oxytetracycline calcium salt and chlortetracycline additive can be mixed in the feed) to prevent infectious diseases. When a large number of quails are raised, quails should be vaccinated in the same way as chickens.