Page 738 & 739 of The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.
The other day I was talking to my best friend about making changes in my life to make it more self sufficienct, and my friend suggested quails. He says that if you can care for a hamster, than you can take care of a quail. (He is my lifestyle idol. Well one of them. Definitely top of the list.) So I am all over the google trying to learn about quails and what it takes to raise them. And after a while, I started to think, if I am thinking about having backyard birds, then maybe I should consider chickens as an option. And so that brings me to the debate, backyard chickens or backyard quails?
There is a lot to keep in mind when determining which would be better suited for my backyard and so it is important for me to research both options and carefully consider all the pros and cons. I think that either would be a good babystep in homesteading journey, with the added benefit of eggs. Keep in mind that this is a list of things I would consider that I have found in my research. I am definitely not an expert, so I suggest doing your own research if you too wish to raise some backyard birds as your situation will, of course, be different.
“Why does a chicken coop only have two doors?
Because if it had four doors it would be called a sedan”
Chickens, and what to consider
Page 185 of Reader's Digest, Back To Basics. Those chickens look pretty happy to me, but that thing would take up my whole yard.
I figured with all of my homesteading books lying around, now would be a good time to use them for their constructed purpose, and research chickens. Here is what I have learned and are factors in determining the selection of my egg-laying fowl:
- Larger coop - According to Reader's Digest Back to Basics each bird should have two square feet in the coop. Which isn't huge, but much larger compared to a quail. It would also be taller with a run as well. I am thinking that if I were to get four birds, I would need at least forty-eight square feet.
- Poop - Makes excellent compost for the garden, but you also need to be sure to clean up the poop regularly to avoid getting flies, and having a gross looking backyard. I've heard that flies are actually a real problem with chickens, so cleanliness is important.
- Eggs - This is the part where the chickens make their keep. A chicken can lay an egg every day or so, so with four chickens, that would be up to four eggs a day. A chicken's egg is much larger than a quail's.
- Time commitment - From what I read, letting chickens out of their coop every morning, tucking them in at night, and making sure they have the necessities of life for their day, consumes the most time, and that isn't much. This level of commitment is not scary by any means.
- Feed - Chickens require feed, grit, and oyster shells. All of which I will have to purchase. They will eat some kitchen scraps, but that won't be a primary source of their diet, so I will always need to buy food for them.
- City by-laws - Hmmm, yes, very very important. I will definitely be sure to make sure it is okay and fully legal. My coworker said he had chickens in the city before, so it is probably okay.
- Neighbours - There are certain breeds of chickens that are less noisy than others, which would be what I would select. And I am hoping that with the abundant sharing of eggs, the neighbours would be quite happy with chickens. I would talk to them first of course. No really, I would.
- Predators - Aka my dogs. I think that chickens are large enough that my dogs would be more curious than murderous. The chickens would be in the enclosed run most of the time, but I would like to let them out every now and then, and I am sure it would be quite easy to avoid a beast vs. bird encounter.
- Meat - We would not chose meat birds, only egg laying birds, but of course, there may come a time when we need to "harvest" a chicken. I honestly don't know if I will be able to do it. It may drive me to be a vegetarian.
- The happiness of the animal - The biggest reason for raising your own animals is so that you know that they were raised ethically and had a happy life. It is hard to know how happy a chicken would be if it lived its life in a home with only forty-eight square feet. When we move to Vavenby, we will have free range birds that we will train to come home each night and I have no doubt in my mind that those birds will be happy birds. But I really will need to think about this one. And comparing them to chickens raised in battery cages doesn't count, because I would never have an egg from such a chicken.
Quails, and what to consider
Page 89 of Country Wisdom & Know-How. I don't know if I would want to live in a house like that if I was a quail.
Now, I honestly thought you could look up anything in my collection of homesteading encyclopedias, but when it came to researching quails, only two books came through. Luckily they were able to answer the questions I had in my head, although I did a bit of googling as well to paint a complete picture of what quail keeping in like.
- Coop - Quails require a much smaller coop. According to Country Wisdom & Know-How, a pen that is sixteen square feet, can house up to twenty-five quail. They suggest keeping it off the ground with a metal 1/2 inch mesh floor so the droppings fall through, unless you want to do a ground pen, which you would need to clean daily. That doesn't sound like a comfy happy quail house to me. Sue Cross from the Holistic Hen, suggests building an outdoor quail "run" that sits on the ground and has a soft top. This sounds much more human and natural to me.
- Poop - Quail poop is also an excellent additive for the compost. One quail keeper suggests putting straw underneath the pens for the poops to fall in to, so you can just scoop up the straw each week.
- Eggs - It takes five quail eggs to equal one chicken egg, but ounce for ounce, they have the same nutritional value. Quails usually lay an egg every day, so I am thinking I would probably have around five quail to get enough eggs to suit our needs.
- Time commitment - It sounds like eggs collection and other daily duties would take up a similar amount of time as a chickens.
- Feed - So far, it believe there is one type of game bird feed that quail require. So no oyster shells for these little birdies. Pretty simple, I think.
- City By-laws - I believe that most city bylaws do not mention quail, so they usually fall under the radar, although some provinces in Canada require a game bird license. Hmm, not too sure what that is, so I will most certainly look up municipal and provincial regulations on this.
- Neighbours - Through everything I have read so far, there hasn't been any mention of quails being loud and disruptive. I think they may make some chirping sounds, which my neighbours will probably find adorable, especially after they get their eggs of course.
- Predators - Oh the dogs, this one has me worried. You see I can really see my dogs killing a quail in a heartbeat, so I would have to be doubly careful to make sure the two never have a close encounter. The other concern is that quails can become stressed quite easily, and I have a feeling my OCD dog, Jack, might terrorize them since he likes small animals. This would infringe upon my desire to provide a happy life for the birds.
- Meat - Apparently, two quails make a yummy dinner for one and they taste just like chicken. Could I ever actually kill one, I doubt it, but the option is there.
- The happiness of the animal - This one really is a real concern. I could not put twenty-five birds in a cage, so that option is out, but even if I put them in a cute little outdoor house with a little run, I am still worried they would be traumatized by my dogs, not to mention my cat. The image a quail scurrying across the road sticks in my mind, and I honestly wonder if I could give them a happy life like the one they would otherwise have in the wild.
Sold! When the sold sticker went up on our house we had just purchased together. Cam is secretly happy.
Things to Consider for Both
No matter which type of bird we chose, there are certain things that are influencing our decision. And these are specific to our situation.
- Property values - Cam and I are planning on selling our house one day, and we are trying to get the most bang for our buck, and I am not sure how well a house would show with a chicken coop in the backyard. Of course, we could have the birds for a couple years and then take them down to Vavenby, and I am sure most people wouldn't be too worried about a post fowl clean up, but Cam and I are trying to increase the value of our house over the next couple of years, and even if a coop is only temporary, it will take some work to reseed and make the backyard look pretty the way city people like it.
- Winter - Obviously we would need to make sure these little birds are warm through the winter. I am not sure how committed we are to heating a coop all winter, so culling these birds might be our option here... oy. So many things to consider.
The verdict
Page 386 of The Essential Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal. Where happy chickens may roam.
And so, we have a lot to consider. Honestly, I definitely think chickens are it due to their larger eggs, more healthy constitution, and ease in providing a happy life for them. The downside is the size of coop and run they would need in order to have that happy life. And I know that the grass would be good and dead in that area after a couple of months of chicken scratching. I think that Cam and I will have to mull this over a bit more and weigh all of our options. It feels really lame not to take the plunge into something that I want to do so badly, but I just don't want dive in and have to be responsible for the life of an animal without giving it careful consideration. One thing this little debate has done is forced me to research how to raise some pretty cool birds. All of which will come in handy when we move down to Vavenby and we will raise birds for eggs. The happiest birds.