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Hi, and welcome to the Poultry Nerds Podcast. I'm Carey Blackmon, and I'm here with my co host for the show, Jennifer Bryant, and we're here to help you figure out how to raise the healthiest, happiest, and highest quality birds possible.
Aaron Guidroz:Hey everyone, this is Aaron with Geatro's Family Farm. We're a small homestead farm based out of South Louisiana, and we raise quail and chickens. Thanks for having me today, hope you guys enjoy. Yeah that's how I am. Like, so for Quail Con my big thing is I like to help like small people homesteaders that are raising quail on making a profit or, okay, so my, I'm going to tell y'all my title for Quail Con for my speech is homesteading with quail. breaking even and beyond. So it's basically just to try to help the small homesteader, with a few birds that wants to pay for their feed and have their own meat and stuff like that. And that's where I started. It was just as a homesteader, my wife and I were 18, 19 years old, got married and Neither one of us came from a farming background and we're like, we don't like what's going on with the meat in the store. And let's start raising our own stuff. And here we are. Everybody thought we were crazy, but here we are. And then our goal when we first started our business was if we could pay for all the feed and then provide meat for us, we were doing great.
Jennifer:And
Aaron Guidroz:then it started well. Let's build this barn. Let's build this and let's have the birds pay for it. And now I got dump trucks dumping dirt in my yard right now to build another building. The birds paid for it, so it's fine. Yeah.
Jennifer:Let's talk Bob White today because we, I get a lot of questions about Bob White's and I don't really know anything about him other than what I've heard. So do you have a lot of Bob Whites?
Aaron Guidroz:I have a few Bob Whites. I kinda transitioned over from Bob Whites to more Coturnix because of the meat. I still enjoy Bob Whites. Bob Whites are a beautiful bird. Their song is unmatched. Actually I have a video on YouTube I done maybe two years ago on the for meat Bob Whites versus Coturnix. And Coturnix beat them hands down, but they're still a valuable bird. It's still fun to shoot. I still like the Bob Whites hunt. We don't have any Bob Whites native here, even though Louisiana wildlife and fisheries says we do. I've been hunting and fishing is the swamp. So I've been hunting and fishing in the swamp since I was a child. And I've never ran across a wild Bob White and I raise them. We like to. Shoot them. We like to eat them, just a fun bird to have around.
Jennifer:Why don't you explain to us the beginning process, like their life cycle and how long to incubate and how long it takes them to grow and lay and all of that good stuff. So our podcast is more geared towards beginners, like that don't know anything. So talk that way.
Aaron Guidroz:So as far as incubation on Bob White their eggs are going to be slightly smaller than a Coturnix. It'll be like a standard sized Coturnix egg. You're going to do the same incubation temperature, 99. 5. Except for it's a 23 day incubation period on day 20, you're going to lock them down. I dry hatch. So I have, I had no humidity. It stays around 15 to 20 percent with adding no humidity. And then on day 20, I, after day 20, I had 75 percent humidity, same temperature, 99. 5 degrees. And I find with Bob White and like pheasants and stuff, more of the wild game birds, I I'll let them go longer than I would a coturnix egg hatching. Sometimes I'll let them go to that 24, 25 days because, you'll have more hatch out. Coturnix, I don't go 24 hours past. Brooding is substantially different with Bob White and Coturnix. Just first off your length, you're going to be brooding Bob White for six weeks, depending your climate as compared to Coturnix. When you know, Bob White, you're pulling them out of the brooder when Coturnix are laying just about
Jennifer:wow.
Aaron Guidroz:So I do for Bob White in the brooder. We're looking around one bird per half a foot, half a square foot. So two birds per square foot for the brooding for the first three weeks. Then after the first three weeks, then I go one bird per square foot. And that helps with aggression. Because they are more of a wild bird and, it's not like a coturnix where you can select for temperament. It isn't. They're not. They're just a wild bird. And if you, and one big tip I'll give anybody that's wanting to get into Bob Whites, they will be aggressive in the brooder. I would definitely like if you're starting to see like mass aggression, lower your temperature by three or four degrees. And it'll calm them down. I know it, it's like against everything we know as far as brooding, but that I found that works for me just fine. I
Carey:understand that. Cause when I get hot, I get it. I get irritated.
Aaron Guidroz:I'm a big southern
Carey:boy.
Aaron Guidroz:When I started to get agitated,
Carey:when
Aaron Guidroz:I start the brooding from the incubator, I'll put my brooders at 98 degrees. And I'll be looking to decrease about five degrees a week. Now, if you end up with an aggression situation and you just lowered your temperature by five degrees, go ahead and lower it, three or four more degrees and keep it at that. And then when it comes to the next week, then you're going to drop it back down. Another five don't ever go back up. And they are super busy birds, Jennifer, you raise button quail. What button quail look like in a brooder Bob Whites, Same thing, except for bigger.
Jennifer:About
Aaron Guidroz:two weeks old these suckers could fly like
Jennifer:really
Aaron Guidroz:yeah Not a glorified flight, like you don't want to have a topless brooder These things are so fast. They really made her
Jennifer:wire.
Aaron Guidroz:I have wire bottom brooders
Jennifer:Okay,
Aaron Guidroz:and wire top brooders.
Jennifer:All right, and they're the same feed 30 percent protein feed
Aaron Guidroz:Yeah, so I use the game bird Starter That's the, 28 to 30 percent for the first 12 weeks. Then after that, I'll go down to a, like a 24, 26 percent because Bob White's, my personal opinion from my experiences, cause I really never had anyone sit down and explain to me, Hey, this is how you take care of a Bob White. This is I've done online reading, but. That could go in multiple different directions, the information you could find out there. I found that if you try to keep them on a higher protein, when they are starting to lay, you end up with a lot more egg bound hens, you have a lot more prolapses, and Bobwies typically have a short laying season, so if you lose a hen or, you got an egg bound hen that she's not gonna lay for a while, and you don't want her to lay for a while you wanna try to eliminate as many possible problems you can. You know that you could control because they have their own problems on their own
Jennifer:Okay, so let's go back to the brooding. So you've got them under heat for six weeks. You've got them on high protein Though so at six weeks, where do you put them
Aaron Guidroz:at six weeks? I'll go to a mid level I do things a little differently because I do everything outdoors unheated because I live in South Louisiana. We're 85 degrees today Nice and warm. I go, it's like a, I call it a mid level grow out cage. It's no egg roll outs. It, I use same one as my Bob whites and my Coturnix and I'll keep them in there. Bob whites will live in a colony when it's not breeding season, that's when they'll start with the aggression, hens will kill hens. You want to pair them up when it comes to laying season. One to one.
Jennifer:So a lot of buttons.
Aaron Guidroz:Unless you have a bigger aviary where you can have, one bird for every four to five square feet. With several hides and, things to do like that, then you can have multiple, but they are super aggressive in mating season after that, like in the wild Bob Whites. So like in the wintertime, they'll come together and form their covey and they live together for winter time. And in the spring, when laying season comes, they'll start to spread out and pair off.
Jennifer:Okay, so how old are they? When they start to lay,
Aaron Guidroz:they'll start to lay around 14 to 16 week. But it's seasonal so like right now what i'm doing right now is i'm preparing for next spring I use a shortened version of the Bob White season So the birds i'ma hatch out now are gonna be for next spring breeders. They'll start laying for me They'll start laying here in the february beginning of march and they'll lay through May and start tapering off like the second or third week of may and usually by middle of june there they're done laying You
Jennifer:So how big do they get?
Aaron Guidroz:So for a mature bobwhite, it'll vary anywhere between five to seven ounces for a mature Bob White
Jennifer:okay, so you've got a small egg, a small bird, a short laying season. They take up more space. They're aggressive. What's the pro to keeping these birds? I enjoy listening to
Aaron Guidroz:their noises, their sounds they make. They just, I wouldn't recommend someone just starting out for Bob White's,
Jennifer:right?
Aaron Guidroz:And I'll get people to, they'll call me up and then I want to get started with queer on one Bob White's. I'm like how about you try this instead? Cause I have some of my Coturnix said I could just get, I could put them in my pocket and just walk around and they'll just stay in my pocket and just look around with a Bob White.
Jennifer:So do you have them in cages or in we hear people talk about putting them in flight pins. You got to teach them to fly. That kind of stuff.
Aaron Guidroz:Yes. Flight pins are recommended. I do keep some in cages. The cages are like 14 inches tall. It, you have to be very quick to grab the eggs. I don't trust egg outs with Bob whites. And because when they fly, most of the time they're not coming back, you lose them. Coturnix, I find Coturnix, sometimes I'll get some out, they come out because I'm clumsy a lot of times and I forget to close the door
Jennifer:to the
Aaron Guidroz:cage. And, but they just stick around
Jennifer:and they're like, what do we do now?
Aaron Guidroz:Yeah, they want to get out so bad to get on the ground and they're just like, Hey, let me back in with my friends.
Jennifer:Okay. So did Bob White eggs taste better? Are they worth more?
Aaron Guidroz:If you're going to sell them to customers, they're worth more. The average price for a Bob White hatching egg is around 2 a piece, here locally. Which, caternix eggs, depending on who you ask anywhere between 50 cents and a dollar for a coturnix egg, around here, where I live at, in South Louisiana. But Bob White are around$2, and adult birds Coturnix adult hens here will sell for Six to seven dollars bob whites will sell for nine to ten dollars a piece. You can make more money It's just gonna take you a longer time
Jennifer:You have more money invested in them and yeah And space Huh interesting
Aaron Guidroz:Lifespan I'm going to say recycle Bob Whites. So I don't really keep anything over a year. So like the birds this year are going to replace the bird from last year, and so on and so forth. So I don't really keep them, but. They'll lay consistently for three to four years
Jennifer:So your order of operations would be to harvest your layers when they quit laying Say june 1st Yes, all of those eggs And basically start again.
Aaron Guidroz:Yes
Jennifer:Interesting.
Aaron Guidroz:I don't really sell my whites much anymore years ago I did and then I had tennessee reds and They were very aggressive.
Jennifer:Tennessee Reds, are they like a variety of Bobwhite or something totally different?
Aaron Guidroz:The color mutation of the Northern Bobwhite.
Jennifer:Okay, so everything to raise them is the same?
Aaron Guidroz:Yes. Like when they came and like For the biosecurity stuff. I was like I do this rather than this, which I am totally biosecure. I don't bring anything here from the outside. I don't allow visitors. And on occasion, when I do have a friend, which I don't probably that's more friends than I have when they do come over. Everything's sanitized. I don't, I just, I have too much money invested and that's my birds at the end of the day, if I don't sell anything, I'm still keeping my birds because they are my birds. So I don't want anything to happen to them because they're my pets. My turkeys are my babies. My emus are my babies.
Jennifer:Chickens, they can go, right?
Aaron Guidroz:My wife has silkies and she loves silkies. Now I can tell you a good part about the silkies. So like usually our first few rounds of turkey eggs will incubate them. They will incubate. We have some to sell because we sell chicks locally. But like after that, when I'm tired of incubating them, I give the eggs to silkies hatch them out and they raise these suckers out and then come November, I go in there and I collect my turkeys. And I really didn't have to do anything. The silkie hatched them out, the silkie brooded them, the silkie did everything with them and I have dinner.
Jennifer:Yep. So the bob whites are more just a variety for you to have variety in the freezer as far as you're concerned.
Aaron Guidroz:For me, it's more of the experience of it,
Jennifer:the
Aaron Guidroz:sound. I'll just stop and sit. If I'm feeling a certain spot, I'll just stop and sit and enjoy a few minutes of peace. And the Bob Whites add that extra sound. It's also sporting to shoot, have, get a couple of dogs, working them in some bushes and have a little fun like that. And then we eat them. We don't waste them. Of course. I just like to live by myself.
Jennifer:So what is the theory behind? The legality of the permit. Why are they trying to govern the Bob Whites?
Aaron Guidroz:I'm not sure. And I know there's special buyback programs. I can more than the northern part of state that they'll buy Bob Whites to release back into the wild because the population is going down substantially. Yeah. Bob White in the wild averages about a year of lifespan. Same thing like fraternities. They are the bottom of the food chain. There's they don't prey on anything aside from a few insects and seeds in the ground Everything preys on them, everything bigger than them is bob whites food So their lifespan in the wild is not well poor guys and I think they're a beautiful bird I think we should have more but I don't know if it's more of a government thing one of the key tabs on What everybody has I'm not one of those tinfoil hat wearing people, but
Jennifer:I am.
Aaron Guidroz:Yeah. I wouldn't recommend starting with Bob Whites just for the simple fact of a little bit more difficult to care for. You have a lot more money invested to realize that. This is not working out for me. My, my whole thing is I'm a homesteader. That's where my roots lie is being a homesteader. So everything is cutting costs and what's the most cost effective way to do this. What's the most cost effective way to experiment and try this, what, without costing a ton of money, because. The people that have endless supply of money are not worried about raising a quail. Most people, I don't want to generalize here. Most people are raising quail to cut costs at home and, separate themselves from the grocery store. And Bobhiteiss is just not an answer for that. All you Bobwhite breeders listening to this, you know exactly what I'm saying. Unless, if you have 10, 000 Bob White and you're selling chicks and selling eggs like crazy, you're not worried about the cost because you're making double the profit as a Coturnix. You're raising this and you're a homesteader and you think you're going to have a good meat source, you're better off raising a chicken. As much as that hurts me to say. It's going to grow out the same amount as a white American Bresse.
Jennifer:Yeah. If you're talking about a seven ounce live weight bird, you're only talking about three ounces of meat, maybe. That's, we just took my grandson to Sonic and he ate a bigger hamburger than three ounces. So yeah.
Aaron Guidroz:When you look at a Coturnix, when you look at the, like on a butchered bird, I should have rewatched my video. I can't watch myself on YouTube. And, but if you look at like the skin bird side by side, the legs are big on our Coturnix, the breasts are bigger on our Coturnix. You could stick a Bob White inside of a Coturnix.
Jennifer:Oh, wow.
Aaron Guidroz:That'd be like a turducken, but with bobwhite inside of Coturnix.
Jennifer:Do you raise any other game birds just out of curiosity?
Aaron Guidroz:I raised rain neck pheasants and I stopped about a year ago because I wanted to make a quail aviary. So their enclosure is now a quail aviary.
Jennifer:Okay. Did you eat those?
Aaron Guidroz:Yes.
Jennifer:What do they taste like?
Aaron Guidroz:Like the Bob White and the pheasants and Coturnixary taste the same. It's a dark meat. It's they don't take long to cook. Don't get crazy on your temperature when you're cooking those guys. It's red a little bit more reddish like when you I scan most of my stuff. If I'm doing it here, I'm skinning it because time is valuable. And I'm trying to remember the weight on the pheasants. Pheasants were just a hair over a pound. I would say around the 18 to 20 ounce range.
Jennifer:Do they lay year round?
Aaron Guidroz:No, they're also seasonal layers in the spring.
Jennifer:Okay. And how big are their eggs?
Aaron Guidroz:Like a silky somewhere in the say in the 30 to 40 gram range
Jennifer:So they're more an ornamental bird kind of akin to maybe a peacock.
Aaron Guidroz:Yeah.
Jennifer:Okay,
Aaron Guidroz:but it's useful as a peacock I love quail
Jennifer:do you have
Aaron Guidroz:Standard Browns had some bourbon reds and wasn't in love with them. So ended up with settled on Standard Browns a few years ago, and they grow big enough for me to eat really don't cause me problems. They don't eat a whole bunch of food there. They live in with the Silky Bachelors right now because I need I needed a place for Silky Bachelors. So I was like They can't beat up a turkey, so they're living together.
Jennifer:You would think the turkey would stomp on the silkies.
Aaron Guidroz:No when I feed the silkies, eat first and then the turkeys go eat.
Jennifer:Interesting. Anything else you want to say about Bob Whites? And then I want to talk about Coturnix for a minute.
Aaron Guidroz:I'm done with Bob Whites.
Jennifer:Okay, good. So what are you not happy about with the Browns?
Aaron Guidroz:I just, I think they should be bigger. The, and I haven't really put as much focus in the Browns as I do with my Egyptians and my Whites. And then I've been fooling with my celadons a lot lately. So I just let them go and it's getting close to time to replace them. I think I actually, I have some that I'm satisfied with, but it's only like 30. So on my website, I pulled out for like math, the larger quantities because my breeders, the big breeder cage I have, I just, I don't sell those eggs. As hatching eggs.
Jennifer:So how big are your birds?
Aaron Guidroz:They are staying more around the 13 ounce, like 12 to 13 ounce range. So they're a little smaller and they were bigger.
Jennifer:Oh yeah. How big are your eggs?
Aaron Guidroz:My eggs are around 15 to 17 grams.
Carey:Thank you for joining us this week. Before you go, be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they are released and they're released every week. Feel free to email us at poultrynerds@gmail.com to share your thoughts about the show. Until next time, poultry pals, keep clucking, keep learning and keep it exciting. This is Carey signing off from Poultry Nerds. Feathers up, everyone.