Artificial Breeding Techniques for Quail, the "Animal Ginseng"
The quail is a common delicacy on modern people's dining tables. Not only is quail meat delicious, but quail eggs are also widely popular and have rich economic value. So, what breeding techniques are there for quail? Let's find out together!
1. Site selection and house construction
Quail like to live in quiet places, so when choosing a site, you should choose a place far from urban areas, factories and other noisy locations but with convenient transportation. Around the quail house there should be no pollution and no other poultry farms, there should be sufficient water sources, and a sunny, wind-sheltered place is most suitable for quail growth. When building the house, you can build it using the flat-ground method to ensure the quail house is warm in winter and cool in summer with strong ventilation. The height of the quail house must not be less than two meters, and the top should have crossbeams laid in an “”-shaped style. Take measures to prevent natural enemies in the quail house and prevent rats, snakes and other quail natural enemies from invading and harming quail growth.
2. Breed selection
Quail breed selection is the key to determining whether quail breeding succeeds. When selecting breeds, observe the growth of the young quail and choose young stock with good growth, bright and spirited eyes, no size differences, round and long heads and necks, smooth and glossy feathers, and moderate body size. Also determine the breeding breed according to your own breeding direction. For example, egg-type breeds include White Feather, Longcheng and others. It is best to choose male and female breeding stock around half a year old. After selecting the stock, raise them together in a male-to-female ratio of 3:1 to promote mating, fertilization and egg laying in quail.
3. Incubation management
After the female quail is fertilized and lays eggs, it naturally enters the incubation period. The incubation period is a relatively important stage. At this time, breeders should do a good job in incubation management to ensure the quail chicks are strong and the incubation is successful. About one week after the female quail lays eggs, select eggs with clean shells and no impurities, reasonably and clearly distributed speckles, nearly identical specifications, and normal shape as breeding eggs. Store the breeding eggs in an environment with a temperature of about 15 degrees and a relative air humidity of about 78%. During storage, prevent the breeding eggs from direct sunlight and wind. After about one week, the hatching rate can reach 80%. When artificially assisting incubation, machine incubation is mainly used, and electric blankets and various poultry surrogate incubation methods can also be used.
4. Timely replacement
Timely replacement means selling old quail that can no longer reproduce or that have reached a certain age at the right time. This is a key means of ensuring quail can maintain efficient breeding continuously, because quail have a relatively short lifespan. Generally, about one year after quail lay eggs, their natural mortality rate greatly increases, so old quail with declining reproductive capacity should be culled in time and sold as meat quail for dishes. This not only provides an additional source of economic income, but also prevents increased breeding costs, reduced breeding benefits, or even losses.
The above is the quail breeding technique summarized by the Tuliu.com editor. We hope it can help all breeders!