Quail farming in Kenya

Quail farming in Kenya; everyone seems to talk about this new business in town. I can bet this is not the first time you are reading about it. So have we, Kenyan farmers, found some hidden treasure or is the whole thing just mare hype? Let’s start by talking money; after all, that is what we got to make at the end of the day.

The demand vs supply trick

Quail farming in Kenya is a very new venture for poultry farmers in this country. Before 2013, quite a few people had been keeping quails but it is only in this year that the practice attracted serious farmers who started raring the small birds on a commercial basis. This coincided perfectly with a period during which Kenyans are becoming more aware of the benefits of healthy eating and have madly started looking for healthy supplements. We will get to the health benefits of quail eggs later: I just wanted you to relate the two facts to see a large and rapidly expanding market and the very small supply. This, in my view, is the greatest advantage that those already in quail farming are enjoying.

The cost vs profits of quail farming in Kenya

Let us do a comparative analysis between ordinary chicken raring and quail farming in Kenya:

Housing: In a cage measuring 4x2.5x1.5 inch, you can comfortably keep 50 quails. Such a space would house no more than half the number in case of chicken farming. Ask any commercial poultry farmer in Kenya and they will tell you that space is money.

Veterinary costs and risk of loss due to diseases: I have talked to many poultry farmers in Kenya and the one thing they dread the most is disease. With quail farming, you need no vaccinations, no medicines and you have almost no worry over the risk of losing your birds to diseases. Good deal, huh? And that’s no hype: these birds are wild, remember?

Feeding: . A mature chicken layer, when well fed, consumes 150 grams per day on average. A mature, laying quail, on the other hand, will only require 20 grams of the same feed.

Economic  calculations for quail farming in Kenya. Suppose you have 1000 quails. You will need 20kg (20g x 1000) of layers mash every day. That will cost you at most Ksh.600 (20kg x sh30). Quails are very good layers; each bird can give you up to 330 eggs per year for the first two years. That is to say they lay at a rate of about 90%. Thus, with 1000 quails, let’s expect 900 eggs each day. Now the best deal is that due to the great demand and little supply of quail eggs, they are currently being sold at Ksh.35 each. That’s no hype too! Just go to a supermarket stocking quail eggs and come tell us what you find out. So we have Ksh.31,500 in sales per day. Minus our feeding costs of Ksh.600 and any other running costs that definitely won’t go beyond Ksh.1000 per day, you have a clean Ksh30,000 profit per day.

Main question: how to start the quail farming business

Now most of those who responded were people already doing poultry farming in Kenya but had developed a keen interest in the quail business, after discovering the many advantages of quail farming over the kind of poultry farming that most Kenyans have been practicing. Most of them wanted to know how they could start quail farming on their farms (interestingly, very few were concerned about the market for quails and quail eggs; it is so obvious that this market is far from being satisfied.) So, here, I have put together an overview of what you generally require to start quail farming in Kenya. A more comprehensive material will be available later and, of course, I will be releasing chunks of it as they get ready, on this blog. So don’t forget to bookmark it and return for more information.

How to start quail farming: step one

Now this is very important: unlike with ordinary poultry farming in Kenya, you must have a license from Kenya Wildlife Services before you start quail farming. This is because these birds are predominantly wild birds. Initially, application for this license was only done from the KWS headquarters in Nairobi but thanks to the overwhelming applications that KWS got, you can now apply from your regional branch. It should take approximately 2 weeks after application for you to get the license.

Requirements for licensing

KWS requires that you first put up the farm structures and quail cages you intend to use. You will attach photos of the cages while submitting your request form. There are specific standards that you must adhere to while constructing the cages as follows: quails should be kept in cages with a plywood floor. It should be constructed in such a manner that it would be easy to clean the floor. A cage measuring 4*2.5*1.5ft can house a maximum of 50 birds. KWS will come to your farm to inspect this and if you have fulfilled all their requirements, you are given a request form and the license takes about 2 weeks to be processed.

Part 2

From out last work on "Poultry Farming in Style", we follow it up with more details. Many people are now getting into Alternative Poultry as a passion and a way of relaxation from the beautiful sight of geese, turkeys, the beautiful quail unison singing and not leaving out the beauty of doves, ducklings, etc.

There are quite a number of birds that one can decide to rear either for fun or commercially. These include; doves, geese, ostrich, turkeys, ducks, quails, guinea fowls, and bantam poultry

If you are to enter into this kind of farming, it would be best to also rear other commercial animals like dairy goats and cows as well as rabbits. There is a twist to this combination that we will look at within these set of articles. Many of the different byproducts of the birds can be used for decorations or as feeds to other animals within your farms.

As with any other farming venture, these birds come with lots of challenges. Despite the fact that you have the passion and the will to start this kind of farming; you need to have good knowledge into how to rear them. Knowledge areas will include, but not limited to:

·         Feeds and feeding programmes

·         Poultry birds’ diseases and how to counter them

·         Marketing skills to enable you capture a market share

·         Know the championing farmer organizations within this sector as well as the government bodies that assist farmers within the sector

·         Get to know other farmers within the same sector and tap into their experiences. This will come in handy to help you avoid most of the mistakes that have been experienced by other farmers before.

Now let’s touch on the some of the technicalities that you will need before you start:

QUAILS:

Quails are a small type of birds that mature in two months. The ones reared in Kenya are mainly Brown Quails (also called Swamp Quails or Coturnix Quails). They start laying eggs at about 8 weeks and only lay in the evening roughly between 4pm and 7pm. They are mature and ready for the market at 4 to 5 weeks at which they will attain a weight of approximately 180g.

Licensing: You have to obtain a license from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to commercially rear Quails 

Advantages of farming Quails:

·         Quails require minimal floor space where you can have about 6 to 10 quails for a space of one chicken. Or else, 1sq foot per bird with considerable height of the housing

·         This birds are quite hardy than other conventional birds i.e. chicken. This is mainly attributed to the fact that they are wild in nature.

·         Your quails will be ready for the market at about five weeks

·         They can lay approximately 280 eggs per year with a laying span of about 14 to 15 months.

·         They  start laying in about six to eight  weeks

·         Quail meat is considered to be White Meat

·         Nutritionally, the quail eggs are of very high nutrition and are used to treat many sorts of diseases based on number of eggs taken per day per serving.

·         There are many more advantages based on the purpose you raring the quails

Space needed to house quails

Quails are small birds and therefore do not require a big space but is necessary to provide enough space. The table below shows the amount of space needed by age of quail.

	Minimum Space Needed by Age of Quail
	1‐10 Days	10 days to 6 weeks	6weeks to 14 weeks
Floor space	5-10 birds/sq. ft	1-2 birds/sq. ft	1 bird/sq. ft

Sexing/Breeding:

The distinguishing factors between the male and the female quails are: male quails have a narrower/slim appearance while the females are a bit heavier with a broader chest. Males’ chest is rusty reddish while the female chest is whitish and spotted black. The males are also more aggressive and will try to continuously mate with the laying

Keep roughly four to five females per male (1male to 4-5females) to maximize on fertilized eggs. Avoid having many males within the same cage. Males are territorial and will tend to pick fights with each other.

You can keep several groups of quails on the same big cage (i.e. 2-3 groups), the tricks is try introduce a new group on not so distant date from the older group. If the quails adapt to each other, they will be aggressive to new members, especially males.

The males will sexually mature at roughly 8 weeks while for females it is roughly 6 weeks. For regions with below 15 Degrees Celsius, laying of eggs stops, high temperatures are also not favorable.

Fertilized quail eggs will hatch in 18days.

Feeding the Quails,

You can feed quails on protein containing grains, vegetables (irish potatoes, grass, cabbage etc) Quails need more of protein in their feeds than chicken.

If you are keeping them for eggs production; from the 1^st to 3^rd week, feed the quails with chick/starter mash. From the 3^rd week to when they start laying (at 8 weeks) feed them growers mash. After they start laying, you can now feed them layers’ mash till when egg production rate starts dropping. Proper feeding of the egg production quails with feeds of the right nutrient concentrates will help keep the egg production rate high and avoid thin shelled eggs

If the quails are for Meet Production; from the 1^st to 3^rd week, same as the layer quails feed them with chick/starter mash. From the 3^rd week to when they are ready for the market, feed them the Finisher Mash.

If you would like the best output from your quails, you might need to formulate your own feeds.

In general, this is the rations:

Growth Stage	Grams per Day	Protein Percentage
Chick stage	7g/day	24%
Growers stage	17g/day	22-24%
Laying stage	23g/day	18-20%

Provide your quails with clean fresh water at all times

Quail Droppings

Quail droppings can be used as feed for dairy cows and goats

Care for the quail eggs

·         Do not wash the eggs or wipe them with a damp cloth as this will remove the protective layer of the shell and expose the egg to entry germs.

·         Holding the eggs for longer than 10 days affects their hatchability.

·         You should always have clean hands when handling the eggs as hands are generally oily and this can clog the pores of the shell

Common causes for poor hatchability of the eggs

·         Continuous disturbance of breeders during mating season results in a higher percentage of infertile eggs

·         Using eggs from old breeders.

·         Hen crippled or deformed results in infertile eggs.

·         Holding eggs in storage too long.

·         Improperly storing eggs before incubation.

·         Failure to turn eggs.

·         Not allowing stored eggs to reach room temperature before incubating.

·         Wide variation of temperature during incubation.

·         Improper humidity during incubation and particularly during hatch-out (day 21-23).

·         Poor sanitation.

·         Washing eggs.

Diseases:

Quails will mostly suffer from the normal avian diseases. Those who are already into broiler or layers farming know almost all these diseases (Click HERE for most of the poultry diseases)

But there is one disease that fatally attacks quails:

·         Ulcerative Enteritis (Quail Disease)

This is popularly a quail disease. It is caused by bacteria if your quails drink or eat contaminated water or feed and sometimes their own droppings. This can easily wipe out you quails in a few days.

·         Quail Bronchitis

This is also very common on quails and can as well as “Ulcerative Enteritis” easily wipe out your stock.

·         All the other diseases are common to chicken (i.e. Broilers, Layers, Rabbits and other alternative poultry like turkey, geese, ducks etc.)

Click HERE for more info on the avian diseases.

If you know of solution or treatment for these diseases, please advice other farmers on the comments.

Tips in prevention of common disease outbreak

·         Do not hunt cheap chicks or eggs. Know the breeder's history. Isolate purchased chicks from your stock for at least 3 weeks, in case they carry a disease.

·         Start with clean disinfected pens and equipment. Clean water trough daily and refill with clean fresh l water. Clean feeders every time u refill.

·         Always provide several sources of feed and water to the birds.

·         Do not crowd birds.

·         Provide heat for sick birds. Chicks chill easily and require additional heat for a more speedy recovery.

·         Isolate young stock from adult breeders. Young birds are highly susceptible to many disease organisms.

·         Care for the youngest birds first and the oldest last.

·         After working with known sick birds, do not visit healthy birds unless you take a bath, change clothes, and disinfect or change shoes.

·         Remove individual birds and isolate from the rest until they recover and also remove dead birds from the pens daily and properly dispose them off.

·         Keep floor dry as wet floors are an excellent source of diseases and internal parasitic infections.

·         Do not allow unwarranted visitation. People can spread disease on the soles of shoes. For those who must visit, prospective buyers or health and management advisors, provide plastic boots or buckets containing disinfectant for shoes before entering the pen area.

Generally, to avoid disease disappointment with your quail stock:

·         Disinfect the housing before stocking it with quails

·         Quarantine sickly quails

·         Raise Quails separate from other poultry

·         Maintain cleanliness on the drinkers and feeders

·         Handle the quails gently and with maximum cleanliness

Supply and Marketing:

Locally the eggs are available in some local supermarkets i.e. Nakumatt, ABC place, Chandaria supermarkets, Karen Provision Store, and Tuskys. For the Quail meat, you still have to order from the farmers. They are not readily available on the markets

We highly doubt there are enough farmers to satisfy the demand within the food industry as well as the beauty products industry.

It could be the perfect time for farmers to start Quail Farming and be innovative to be able to entice the Kenyan community to add Quails to their dinner tables. Do not wait till supply exceeds demand for you to start on Quail farming.

Below is a pack of quail eggs:

And below is the price at KSh. 350/=

Below, for a taste of the eggs, you might need to beat 5 or 6 of them per serving: