Culling Your Covey

While culling usually means to slaughter, many homesteaders also use it’s other meaning—“to select from a group”. As in, to remove a quail from a breeding covey and do something else with it.

Culling can also mean selling the quail, giving the quail a “new job” such as brooding chicks, or allowing the quail to live it’s life unbothered.

🍂 How long do quail live?

In the wild, quail usually live to about 2-3 years of age—due to being eaten. In captivity, quail can live longer if given time to rest between egg laying, typically in the winter, instead of excessive lighting. Happy quail can live to be about 7 years old, but overworked and sickly quail can die after only 1 year of age.

➖ Culling Roosters

When breeding you’ll end up with a surplus of roosters no matter what. You may only want to own 6 breeding roosters and 30 breeding hens at a time, but your hens are the ones who will decide the gender of their eggs!

You’ll need to come up with a plan for what to do with an excess of quail roos.

➖ Culling Hens

You won’t be breeding every hen you hatch, since you’ll only want the best hens possible going into your breeding pens. You can add them to a hens-only pen that only produces eggs, but what happens when they stop?

Hens have a finite amount of eggs (like humans!). After year 1, egg laying drops off quite a bit. You’ll need to come up with a plan for what to do with hens who can no longer lay eggs.

🍂 When to Cull

When you have excess roosters, and hens that no longer lay eggs, when is the best time to cull them all at once? For most people, the time to cull poultry is during Fall. This saves on heating a feed costs over Fall and Winter.

📦 Selling Your Culled Quail

What sets your roosters apart from everyone else’s? What sets your older hen apart from everyone else’s?

You’ll need to know, as unwanted roosters and non-laying hens normally don’t go for very much money. Some people even give them away for free, which completely ruins the market!

Have a surefire marketing plan that highlights why someone might want to pay premium for your quail. Be creative, and don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.

💵 Buying, Selling and Trading

Poultry Swaps are events where you can buy, sell, and trade your quail. Find out where the nearest Poultry Swaps are in your area and scope out the competition’s quail. What could you do better? Be sure to make friends, too!

Poultry Auctions are places where you can auction off culled quail. Where is your nearest poultry auction?

Are you okay with the idea of selling quail to slaughter, or slaughtering them yourself? If so, would you sell quail meat to restaurants or families? Make sure you read up on local laws if you intend to go down this route.

Thanks for reading! 🐥

https://raleighquail.notion.site/Culling-Your-Covey-a45a2725cac846128453d7b29479731c