Raising quails a fun challenge for Fenelton teen
FENELTON — People driving past Sydney Bester’s house will hear sounds common to a farm like “cock-a-doodle-doo” and “quack,” as well as another less known bird call, a “tweedledee” sound that comes from a fowl less common to the Butler County area.
Bester, 14, an eighth-grade student at Karns City Area Jr./Sr. High School, has been raising quails alongside chickens and her pet ducks for about a year now. She acquired the quail as chicks from a breeder and has been caring for them outside of her house in Clearfield Township ever since.
A member of Butler County 4-H for years, Bester had always heard quails were difficult to raise, but having raised flocks of hens and roosters in the past, she was up for the challenge.
“The quails are very interesting; people told me not to raise them because they say they are hard,” Bester said. “But I did it anyway. They’re not super hard; they are like chickens, just smaller and more maintenance.”
Gary Costel, leader of the Butler County 4-H Poultry Club, said this is the first year quails and pheasants have been allowed to be raised for 4-H by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Quails are a protected species in Pennsylvania, but members of 4-H expressed an interest in raising them for the club.
“I knew 4-H clubs in other counties across the country had done it,” Costel said. “I got approval from the extension office, and I went through the process with the game commission before we introduced them.”
Bester’s Italian quails live in her backyard inside a small cage with a miniature barn attached to it, right next to a slightly larger duck cage and a chicken coop. She goes out every day for about an hour to stock their game bird feed, clean their habitat and collect their eggs.
The quails come in a variety of colors, from white to brown to black, are only about the size of a tissue box, and Bester carries them around with one hand. She has 24 quails — a majority of them female — which can lay an egg a day while in season, which Bester said are best enjoyed hard-boiled.
Quails like to sleep outside and bed themselves down in the ground more than chickens do, but quails are not free-range and would run away if released from their enclosure. They are also not the best survivalists, so Bester had to cover their feeding dish so that they won’t break their necks if they get scared and run into it.
“They are prey animals, so they like to bed down in,” Bester said. “They can fly, but they’re not very good at it.”
Gary Costel’s son, Tim Costel, 17, is president of the 4-H Poultry Club, and started raising quails of his own last year. He said the main benefit of quails is their small stature, which lets owners care for many at a time. Plus, their eggs are not only tasty, but nice to look at.
“Their eggs are pretty cool, and quail are small in general,” Tim Costel said. “It's basically the same care as chickens.”
Gary Costel also said quails won’t be eligible for sale in the 4-H livestock auction, so people who raise them have to sell them and their eggs on an individual basis. However, if enough 4-H members raise quails in the future, they could become part of the auction.
“Right now we have two or three kids raising quail,” Gary Costel said, “but I expect that number is going to rise once kids start getting introduced to it.”
Bester plans to raise them for about a year before selling them for their meat. For now, she interacts with her birds like they are pets, and she said she has to get stern with them when they make too much noise or when they fight with one another.
Some of the quails’ eggs are also being saved so Bester can raise more once her current flock is sold. Costel also said he plans to save some eggs to raise quail chicks in the future.
“The ones that will hatch next will all be different colors,” Bester said. “I’ve got a lot of eggs.”
