How are the quail doing Don?
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Marcus, I am down to about 18 birds now because my freezer is full of meat and we get more eggs than we can use. They are easy keepers and I could double or triple the amount of birds in a short time if I wanted because they hatch out in 18 days and mature in 6 weeks. The only downside is I canāt let them free range so I have to buy the feed.
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Iāve spent the last 4 days watching quail raising videos and reading, I may get into them next once my rabbitry is established and running and producing meat. I already have I think 5 buyers lined up for meat and quail I think would be another easy selling but I need to sit down and math out what feed cost would be and incubator
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I get males for free from a friend that haches them. Thats good eating. But like Don sayd only downside is they cant forrage.
One once escaped me and l found it in the bush nearby probably like close to a month later, skin and bone literaly, but alive. I dubt he even tryed to find some food.
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iv selected the farm im going to order eggs from, deciding on a incubator right now and after the rabbits kindle in a few days ill build out a hutch system. bummer to not be able to forage well, but good clean meat is getting harder and harder to come by these days so ill gladly raise it myself to keep quality food in the house for the family
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I just read @Norman89 post about his quail raising experience and agree with everything, especially the dust they create, so I am building their own digs on an old snowmobile trailer so I can get them out of my garage. I will pull the trailer closer to the house in the winter and in the back yard in the summer. I had old overhead garage door panels saved which worked nice for the walls.
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What a great repurpose use for old garage doors! Iām sorting through my lumber pile finding the best of not dry rotted lumber thatās swollen with rain to slap together right now for this meat bird hutch 
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Since I think you have some larger CC chainsaws or at least knows someone that does Iād get one of these chainsaw lumbermills for those projects. I have a Granberg that I bought years ago but never used it much since I find my 60 cc chainsaws are a little underpowered for slabbing my hardwoods. May be fine for your DF. These Vevor rigs seem cheap enough and apparently come with rails which mine didnāt. Just a thought.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=chainsaw+sawmill
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It needs a service window! It is like a food truck or at highway speeds, a fast food joint. 
It is a neat use of old garage doors.
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Iām guessing that you donāt sell your quail eggs Don but Iām wondering if Michigans new cage free law would apply to birds other than chickens? Iām guessing that free range quail would be a challenge. Probably make a good video though.
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I need to read the news more often, what morons passed that law?
It only applies to farms with more then 3000 hens. and one consequence is that 'hens will be walking in their own feces which may create a disease problem on the eggs, but the health of the chicken being able to roam around is outweighs the spreading of the disease" and
āone of the benefits of the caged system is you are able to control the what nutrition the hens gets, in the cage-free system, they are all in a group and you are unable to control the nutritionā.
They are still all still raised inside.
Apparently the LT Governor signed the act into law in 2019 when the governor was out of stateā¦
Mr Gilchrest
āAs leader of statewide task forces on jail, pretrial incarceration, and juvenile justice, he worked across the aisle to champion historic legislation to build a smarter and fairer justice system that saves taxpayer money and helps hundreds of thousands of Michiganders access better opportunity for jobs and housing.ā
He certainly didnāt save consumers any money on this.
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