All about Chukkars...

[Quail Fanatic]

Anybody breeding these things on a fairly large scale?

I plan to do this indoors. on the floor to start with.
Later I will invest in a cage system to make gathering eggs easier and cleaner.

Can anyone tell me specifics of what works for you?

How old do you let your breeders get before starting?
How long do they lay before they stop and need to rest/moult?
If I plan to have 1000  CHICKS per week, how many breeders would I need to be safe?
how many eggs will one hen lay?

[power]

delet

[Scorpion]

It's always best to start out small. Especially if you are starting with a new breed. After a year or two once you have experience raising the type of bird step up a bit. That way you can find a market for the animals on a smaller scale and work up as needed. If you start out with 4000, a safe number to produce 1000 chicks a day rotating the breeders in a cycle of rest and lay, you may find the food supply overwelming and go under due to lack of market. If a disease, which you have no experience with wipes out your flock and you loose 60% of your flock that you have a lot of money invested in feed you are in trouble as well. I'd say start out with 50-100. Sell eggs and chicks. If everything goes well, maybe the next year try 250-500, try that for a while and so on. If you notice there are a bunch of us little guys around, but not to many large scale opperations. Also you have to gear up to running it as a business and not a hobby. Only buy the wire with the money you make from selling the chicks and eggs the previous year. Make sure all bills are paid from the money you make. Quality incubators for rearing that many chicks are pricey as well, you may want to set up a 5 year goal and work your way up.

[Quail Fanatic]

Thanks guys,
I appreciate the caution.
I am not one to rush into things... I have asked these questions about other breeds as well and done my research.
I have some chickens, Quail, ducks, guineas, pheasants, and chukkars.
all for hobby purposes.
I have a market opportunity for these chukkars but I need some more info.
How many eggs will one hen lay per week?
my trio is not laying as of yet but thats probably a mix of new surroundings and age.
my quail on the other hand are faithfully laying one egg each and every day. (maybe they each take a day off a week but I am getting 6 eggs per day from my 6 pairs)
will the chukkars be as predictable?

how old should they be before encouraging/expecting eggs?

what is the cost of feed per adult breeder? (how much feed should I be feeding each bird?)

Thanks for the advice.

Also please let me know if you actually have this experience firsthand or if you are passing on info.
both are graetly appreciated but I'd like to know.
QF out

[Scorpion]

I've been raising them 18 -20 years, most of my info was gathered from co-op extensions. I get 4-6 eggs per hen a week. Don't provide stimulatory light until 30 weeks, that's when they can be expected to become sexually mature, it may take the males an additional 2 weeks to become fertile if they don't have enough light(to clarify any time stimulatory light is given regaurdless of age males require an additional 2 weeks). So the best answer I can give is to give them 12 hours of light a day and only incubate at 32 weeks. If light is given befor 30 weeks less hens will become sexually mature. My chukars need about 1/2 lb of feed per week a piece. That's how much I have to buy anyway.My chart says 200 grams a week, 454 is 1 lb, the rest could be wastage or fat happy birds, I always keep feed in front of them. When you step up numbers you must keep rodents under control or they will eat almost as much as the birds.
 Good luck

[Quail Fanatic]

Scorpion!!!!
Thanks so much!
That is exactly the type of info I was looking for.
Someone who has done it and can give specifics.
Thanks so much.
Do you prefer large colonies on the ground?
or pairs / trios in cages?
small groups in cages?
what worked best for you?
(anyone can add their opinions as well)

What size wire should I be using for the floor and at what slope?
(for the eggs to roll properly)
I have some older chicken layer cages that I am planning to "reno"
They need some of the larger size holes covered over with smaller gauge but I think they will work to get me started.
What is the optimal size cage for this?
How tall would be "too tall"?
ie- should I be worried that they will hurt themselves if the cages are more than 2 feet tall? (because I can cut them down if possible to save wasted space while I am adding in the new flooring.)

[Quail Fanatic]

Also are there any chukkar specific websites that could help me with this?
anything from a university etc.....?

thanks in advance!
QF out

[Quail Fanatic]

scorpion you want to go chat for a bit?
i see we are both online?

[Scorpion]

I bought a farm with 4 commercial chicken houses on it and am asking for input on ground raising as we speak. I've never done it but hope I can. I use a 1-3  breeding ratio and average 75%  fertility, having a total of 24 in each pen. I'm sure other folks have a better plan on this. I'm also looking into sloped floors, never tried them before. We use a little wooden dowel to slide to eggs forward.
 My pens are 1/2" hardware cloth bottoms, I just found a cheap source when I built them. I give mine 1 sq foot per bird but they are debeaked. I've rarely seen them shoot straight up, mine run and pile up in the corner. I just brought home some 1 week old or so cortunix, never raised them in the past. Those little devils are pounding the top out of the 8" tall cage.
 My brooder cages are 12'LX2'WX2'T. Like I said I can remeber very few times when the chukars go straight up, usually they try to run away, even have had adults to get out of pen and was able to catch them because they immediatly ran to cover to hide.

[Quail Fanatic]

where are you located?
approx?
usa?

[Scorpion]

NW AL near TN, I bought a small broiler opperation down here about 10 years ago.

[Quail Fanatic]

sweet!
Thats my plan as well.
Ontario Canada for me.
work on a farm fulltime.
would like to work on my own one day.
later eh?

appreciate all the insight!