Quails vs chickens for eggs?

[Nenad]

Who is better when it comes to laying/space requirements?
Lets say 5 quail eggs equal 1 chicken egg but you can keep 5 quails in 5sqf while you need 4sqf coop and 10sqf outdoores for 1 hen.
Which one would be better by the end of the year for egg production?

 

[Noraaaaa]

I think quail need outdoor space as well. And I would say hens because you can get a great pair of laying ones (like leghorns).

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

I would say hens because quail eggs are so small you would need to eat like 4 for a meal and also a lot of recipes call for chicken eggs, not quail. Quail also need a special set up, think covered run. I would say your better bet would be chickens and go with a high production breed(s) such as White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, or Golden Comets.

 

[NatJ]

Who is better when it comes to laying/space requirements?
Lets say 5 quail eggs equal 1 chicken egg but you can keep 5 quails in 5sqf while you need 4sqf coop and 10sqf outdoores for 1 hen.
Which one would be better by the end of the year for egg production?

I don't know about quail.

But as regards chickens:
Depending on how many hens you want to have, you often can keep hens with 4 square feet of space each and no run. People in with long, snowy winters often end up with this for several months at a time, and it can be done year-round if you can keep them from overheating in the summer.

If one chicken egg equals 5 quail eggs, and you can get one chicken egg per 4 square feet but 5 quail eggs in 5 square feet, the chickens would be better.

But this does not work for very small flocks of chickens. Visualize a single hen in a space 2x2 feet, or 4 hens in a space 4x4 feet. They barely have room to move. But if you have 36 hens in a space 12x12 feet, even though they have the same 4 square feet each, they all have room to flap their wings, run across the room, dustbathe, and so forth. So 4 square feet each only works once the total space is a certain amount big.

If you want to give them more space than that, you still do not really need 14 square feet per chicken (4 of coop and 10 of run). Just make a "run" (10 square feet each) and in warmer climates you can skip the coop. Make sure the run has a roof, put the roosts at one end, and put partial walls to block wind from reaching the roosts. There is no need for an extra 4 square feet per bird of "coop" space in a setup like that. Or in cold climates, you can allow 10 square feet per bird of indoor space and figure it's an indoor run, again with no need for a separate coop. That works even for very small flocks. For example, 2 chickens in 20 square feet will be okay (although with 20 square feet, you can probably go up to about 3 or 4 chickens.)

Hmm, I wonder if the guideline should really be something like 10 square feet for the first chicken and 4 square feet for each chicken after that? I think that might take care of the small vs. large flock differences.

 

[Toothpick]

Quail are also ground nesting birds. You'll have to search your run for eggs and they might not be in the same spot every day. And likely they will blend in. Best bet is to catch them sitting on the nest.

They start laying earlier than chickens by about 2 months or so. But still only do 200-300 eggs. Now factor in the fact that you'd need 4-5 quail eggs to equal 1 chicken egg. You'd likely need 4 quail to every 1 chicken just to satisfy enough eggs to eat/sell.

My money is on Chickens. But I can see the appeal of quail if your space is limited and you just like having a lot of birds to take care of.

 

[Toothpick]

5 quail eggs equal 1 chicken egg but you can keep 5 quails in 5sqf while you need 4sqf coop and 10sqf outdoores for 1 hen.

This sounds like it pretty much equals out.

5 quail eggs equal 1 chicken egg
1 chicken will fit in the same space as 5 quails

It just depends on what you want to raise I guess.

 

[Nabiki]

Quail feed is more expensive that chicken feed. They have different nutritional and housing requirements.

 

[Nenad]

I don't know about quail.

But as regards chickens:
Depending on how many hens you want to have, you often can keep hens with 4 square feet of space each and no run. People in with long, snowy winters often end up with this for several months at a time, and it can be done year-round if you can keep them from overheating in the summer.

If one chicken egg equals 5 quail eggs, and you can get one chicken egg per 4 square feet but 5 quail eggs in 5 square feet, the chickens would be better.

But this does not work for very small flocks of chickens. Visualize a single hen in a space 2x2 feet, or 4 hens in a space 4x4 feet. They barely have room to move. But if you have 36 hens in a space 12x12 feet, even though they have the same 4 square feet each, they all have room to flap their wings, run across the room, dustbathe, and so forth. So 4 square feet each only works once the total space is a certain amount big.

If you want to give them more space than that, you still do not really need 14 square feet per chicken (4 of coop and 10 of run). Just make a "run" (10 square feet each) and in warmer climates you can skip the coop. Make sure the run has a roof, put the roosts at one end, and put partial walls to block wind from reaching the roosts. There is no need for an extra 4 square feet per bird of "coop" space in a setup like that. Or in cold climates, you can allow 10 square feet per bird of indoor space and figure it's an indoor run, again with no need for a separate coop. That works even for very small flocks. For example, 2 chickens in 20 square feet will be okay (although with 20 square feet, you can probably go up to about 3 or 4 chickens.)

Hmm, I wonder if the guideline should really be something like 10 square feet for the first chicken and 4 square feet for each chicken after that? I think that might take care of the small vs. large flock differences.

By what you say that if the flock is big enough you can give hens 4sqf per 1 hen but can it be done with quail? If I have 25sqf(which is good for 25 quails) could I possibly add another 10 or 20 quails in that space for them to still have enough room to be happy? If It can be done with quail I guess then they're just better for eggs comapring to hens. Of course more cleaning is needed.

25sqf of space can't house 6 Hens since the flock is too small but it can house maybe 3 hens that will give me 1-3 chicken eggs daily

25sqf can house 25 quails which will give me around 3-4 chicken eggs daily. But since quail flock of 25 is bigger/more space for them
maybe if I add 10 or more quail then I'll get 1-2 chicken size eggs.

 

[NatJ]

By what you say that if the flock is big enough you can give hens 4sqf per 1 hen but can it be done with quail? If I have 25sqf(which is good for 25 quails) could I possibly add another 10 or 20 quails in that space for them to still have enough room to be happy? If It can be done with quail I guess then they're just better for eggs comapring to hens. Of course more cleaning is needed.

25sqf of space can't house 6 Hens since the flock is too small but it can house maybe 3 hens that will give me 1-3 chicken eggs daily

25sqf can house 25 quails which will give me around 3-4 chicken eggs daily. But since quail flock of 25 is bigger/more space for them
maybe if I add 10 or more quail then I'll get 1-2 chicken size eggs.

That is a very good point, but I don't personally know enough about quail to answer it.

Here's a thread that does appear to talk about it a bit:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ber-of-quail-together-how-many-males.1418241/
I don't know if it actually answers the question, just that it does talk about it a bit.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-much-space-do-quail-need.277040/
This looks more helpful, even though it's an older thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/pen-size.1597228/
And here's one that mentions up to three quail per square foot, but says that's only for "commercial" breeders, not for hobbyists (I assume the idea is that hobbyists want to provide nicer conditions, although that isn't explicitely stated.)

Depending on what style of pens you are putting them in, you might be able to stack the quail two or more levels high. Chickens are taller so they need a taller pen. Chickens also like to sleep on raised perches, while I've read that quail just stay on the ground, so the chicken pen needs even more height to let them walk around and get up on the perches. Since a chicken pen needs to be several times higher than a quail pen, that means you can stack more quail pens before they get too high for you to reach.

 

[NatJ]

I just thought of another detail:
if you do not care about the birds being happy, just about them staying alive and able to lay eggs, then cages can work well. There is a reason commercial producers of chicken eggs started keeping hens in small cages! It limits the ability for them to pick on each other, and makes sure each hen can reach the food & water (stick her head out of the cage is the usual method.) A wire floor lets the droppings fall through, and they cannot scratch bedding into the feeder & waterer.

Most people who keep chickens or quail want to provide them with a nicer life than that. But if you are just looking for the most efficient way to stuff them into a space without them killing each other, then it does work.

I'm not actually recommending that you keep any kind of birds in small wire cages, just mentioning it for the sake of comparison, and because thinking about what you don't want is sometimes helpful in deciding what you do want.