Using a Quail Brooder in a Homeschooling Classroom
Ten intrepid students set up and learn to use a quail brooder.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Students hatch quail and set up a quail brooder to learn about these incredible birds.
Story and photos by Ann Accetta-Scott
It may seem a bit old-fashioned, but small, one-room schools are on-trend. I’m lucky to be teaching a homesteading curriculum to 10 delightful students at the Hardison Mill Homestead School. We focus on hands-on learning without textbooks or an accredited curriculum. The kids learn to work together to complete tasks and solve the problems of some difficult, but real tasks.
The last project we worked on was assembling a Hatching Time CT60 incubator and set Coturnix quail eggs. (See “Homestead Curriculum: Incubating Quail Eggs“, originally published in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Backyard Poultry magazine.) The students were responsible for assembling the incubator, ensuring the temperature and humidity held, setting the quail eggs, and locking down the incubator in preparation for hatch day.
Now that the quail have hatched, it’s time for the kids to put together the new 2-tier Hatching Time quail brooder. The feed trays and self-waterer made caring for the quail extremely easy, especially in a school setting.
Students learned the following lessons about brooding quail from first-hand experience.
Quail Brooder Lessons
Quail are really quite easy to raise. If you search “quail brooders” online, you’ll see photos of the birds being raised in large fish tanks, aviaries, or tractor brooders on pasture. We decided a simple, indoor method would allow us to keep the quail safe during brooding and give the students different daily lessons about animal husbandry. The following are topics
(among others) that we covered.
Quail Waste
The waste from quail is so acidic that it can burn the pads of the bird’s feet. For this reason, it’s extremely important to keep the brooder and grow-out pens clean. Our quail brooder had a plastic-covered mesh floor with a dropping tray, so we opted not to use anything like wood chips, which need to be changed daily. The student just pulled out the tray and emptied it every day, and the mesh protected the birds from contact with their poop.
Feed and Water
When my husband and I were raising quail on our acreage, we ran into several problems connected to feeding and watering the birds. For instance, the quail chicks became extremely wet because the waterer was too large for them, even when small rocks were added to the tray. We also discovered that the typical feed trays needed to be bigger. Little quail chicks could climb into the poultry feed trays and would become stuck. The Hatching Time quail brooder that the school kids were using has automatic waterer and feeder trays.
The external feed trough reduces feed loss and creates less of a mess inside and outside of the quail brooder. As excited as I was with the feed trough, I was even more pleased with the automatic water system. The drinking system holds 2 gallons of water and minimizes not only a mess from occurring in the brooder but also keeps the water clean and free of waste and feed.
Quail Brooder Temperature and Lighting
Our quail brooders were kept in a small barn, which was a great location. However, the light in the barn did not reach the inside of the brooders, causing the quail to live in minimal lighting. Sadly, this did slightly hinder growth. We shared our experiences with the kids, so they could learn from our mistakes, and see how different brooders solved several of the problems we experienced.
For most of a quail’s life, it will require a heat source. When quail are spooked (which happens easily and often) they fly straight up. Having a low-ceiling brooder is essential, and also one with light and heat sources that won’t burn them.
We explored different options with the kids so that they could learn how to do this kind of research and see what’s currently on the market. The Brinsea Eco-glow is a great option for quail chicks. A heat lamp can easily injure the birds if they should somehow manage to fly into it. The Hatching Time brooder includes tiers, each of which has a 20-inch space heater with the option to add a bulb for extra lighting. Semi-transparent walls allow natural lighting in while providing a draft-free brooder. The insulated design also traps heat and helps maintain the desired temperature within the brooder.
Additional Lessons Learned
Students learned about the life cycle of quail. Because most of the quail were destined to be a meat source, they learned that (much like the Cornish
Cross chicken), quail reach maturity between 6 and 8 weeks. We did also want to raise some of the birds so that we could have eggs to eat and set for the next round of incubation.
Compared to chicken eggs, quail eggs are a much healthier option. The eggs contain more fat and protein by weight and are high in iron and riboflavin, B12, amino acids, and antioxidants. We also talked about selecting eggs for incubation, and that they should be medium-sized eggs to fit comfortably in the quail trays.
Ann Accetta-Scott homesteads on two acres in Washington State, raising poultry, goats, and rabbits. She’s an educator and encourager of all who seek to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Ann is also the face behind the website A Farm Girl in the Making and author of The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest. She can also be found on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
Originally published in the Feb/Mar 2024 issue of Backyard Poultry magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.