How to Make Money With Quail

Why you should consider raising quail for profit

Quail are small, hardy birds that require little space and are easy to care for. They are amazing egg layers that can lay up to 300 eggs a year (more than most chickens!) and have a quick life cycle. They mature in only two months from hatching, making them suitable for fast and sustainable production.

With the right tools and knowledge, it is possible to make a sustainable business from quail. In this article, we’re going to talk about how to get started with a quail operation that will bring a worthwhile income.

Can you really make money with quail?

Yes. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There’s a lot of naysayers out there. But they don’t have the right mindset or any idea how to make money. We’re going to talk about mindset and how to make money in a moment, but for now, let’s look at some numbers.

If you have 10 quail hens laying eggs, and each one lays around 6 eggs a week, you’ll get sixty eggs a week. Let’s say you put all those in the incubator. Most likely, you’ll get a 60-70% hatch rate. But let’s cut that down further to account for losses. Let’s say you have 30 chicks available to sell, and you sell them for $5 each. (If you have high-quality, in-demand birds, you can easily get that much and even more). That’s $150 dollars a week. $150 times 4 equals $600, which means that you could make that much a month.

Of course there’s expenses. One adult jumbo quail eats around 2 ounces of feed per day. Let’s say you have two males, so twelve quail total. Everyday, they eat 24 ounces of feed, or 1.5 lbs. That means a 40-pound bag of feed is going to last about 20 days. If that bag costs around 25 dollars, you’ll need to subtract that from your monthly income, along with $13 (rounded) for the other bag of feed you’ll need to buy. Your total profit for the month? $562.

Of course, that doesn’t account for electricity or water bills. But as you can see, the potential to make money is there.

Business mindset

Before we go any further, we have to address something extremely important but often overlooked: your mindset. The statistics for new businesses are rather dismal…with over 65% of businesses failing within the first five year. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bls.asp.

Many business coaches will say one of the main reasons people fail because of their mindset.

They waffle, don’t take their businesses seriously, don’t make smart choices, and as a result, end up broke and frustrated. Then they decide their idea doesn’t work and quit, say there’s no money in their endeavor, when in reality, the problem was with their mindset.

Getting your mindset in order is a major step towards success. With the right mindset, you’ll be able to grow your business with ease and conquer setbacks.

What constitutes a business mindset?

Since you are treating this as a business, you need to do market research. Find out what’s in demand. And understand that what’s in demand now might not always be in demand, so keep your mindset flexible and your options open.

Come up with a plan. How many birds are you going to start with? What are you going to sell? Is there a demand for what you want to sell? What do people want?

Set up record keeping and prepare to keep track of expenses.

Don’t expect to make a sustainable income until at least a couple of years. It can happen sooner, and with many people it does. But for the sake of resilience, don’t expect to see many fruits your first year.

You must be flexible.

If some idea isn’t working, or you find you are struggling to sell a certain product because there’s simply no demand for it, quit it and find something else to sell that does have demand. Follow the money. Don’t be so stubborn and inflexible that you end up sabotaging your own business and mental health. In other words, don’t be a try-hard.

And yes, this happens all the time. People get too caught up in their own ideas and making them work, even if they aren’t good ideas, that they miss opportunities to actually succeed.

The product you sell now might not always be in demand. When it falls out of demand, you must adjust to that change. Don’t expect the world to adjust to you. You can try to hard sell your products and stubbornly insist on selling the same things, but that’s a path to failure.

Look for opportunities. You should explore different ideas and ways to meet the needs of people in your community.

Accept that sometimes, even seemingly good ideas don’t work. That is ok. It doesn’t mean the world is over or you have to beat yourself up. You must experiment a little to discover what works best for you.

Have a mindset to serve.

As a business, you should be looking to fulfil a need in your community. What is it that people need? Food for themselves? For pets? Fertilizer for their garden? Decoration? Education? What are restaurants looking for? What can you provide to better people’s lives?

Have a unique selling point (USP)

• What is special about you and your products that sets you apart from everyone else?

  
  

• Why would someone choose to buy from you as opposed to someone else who is in the same business?

  
  

• If you were the customer, why would you buy from you?

  
  

• Do you raise your birds more naturally? Are they bigger and hardier than other birds in your area? Do you offer special guarantees?

Have a mission

What is the mission of your business? Having a special mission will help you brand your business and give it a sense of purpose.

Start small

You don’t need to start with a hundred birds. Maybe start with ten breeders, and expand as the market demands. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Starting small gives you flexibility to grow and expand in a way that benefits you.

Market your business

Connect with other people, your workplace, your local churches, online communities, hunting clubs, falconers, Asian restaurants, and wherever else potential customers may be. Be active on social media such as Facebook and Instagram.

It’s good to choose a main platform to focus on for marketing and a secondary platform to fall back on.

Remember, don’t assume there are guarantees in this game. If one platform fails or your account tragically gets hacked or deleted, have a fallback option.

Set up an email list and gather as many potential customer emails as possible. Few things are more powerful for getting conversions than an email list. You can create a landing page using a tool such as ConvertKit to gather emails for your business. Create a regular newsletter to send out and allow people to know what you’re up to and what you’re selling.

Choosing the right quail stock

Choosing the right stock in one of the most important steps in raising quail for profit. You don’t want to get “any old quail.” Find out what people want in your community by asking what they are looking for and what’s popular to raise. Get a feel for what is in demand. Find out what other people are selling. Ask yourself, what can I do better? Perhaps people like celadon quail, but many of the ones in your area have genetic issues, which is common in these quail. Do research and find a strain that doesn’t have these issues.

You can find particular color patterns to sell or quail with particular abilities. Have something specific to sell that’s in demand. You want to be able to charge enough to make your endeavors worthwhile. Buying any old quail off craigslist isn’t going to cut it. Offer something of more value, either a special color, breeding, or ability. Get your quail from a reputable, established breeder.

Things you can sell:

Meat

Quail meat is hard to find and in demand at many Asian restaurants. Quail are ready to butcher in as early as six weeks, so this can be a lucrative market.

Eggs

As with meat, quail eggs are in demand at many Asian restaurants and markets, and you can find many customers in your communities.

Chicks

If you have a specialty variety of quail that’s in demand, hatching and selling chicks can be very lucrative.

Adult birds

Adult birds can be sold for more, although you will be investing more feed and resources in them.

Feathers

Feathers can be sold to artisans and for crafts and tie-fly fishing.

Manure

Quail manure is great for gardens and in demand.

Raw prey for pets

You can advertise quail for raw prey for pets such as dogs, cats, and ferrets.

For dog training

If you raise bobwhite quail, find hunting clubs. Many people will purchase them to train dogs.

Eggs shells

Ground-up eggshells are a great source of calcium for gardens, especially tomatoes.

Feet, skins & internal organs

These can be used as dog and cat treats and toys. Internal organs are especially nutritious and great for pets.

Wings

These make great cat toys.

If you want to get really unusual, you can even clean the skulls and sell them as decoration.

It’s important to make sure you choose two or more of these options. In order to make a serious profit, you must have several streams of income. One could work, but generally isn’t going to cut it.

Be creative. Be smart. Most of all, be resilient. Setbacks happen and results can be elusive. But with a bit of perseverance, they’ll come…often quicker than you expect.