Ozarks Quail Farmer - Rick Smith

Birds About All Gone

2012-01-17T14:37:00.000-06:00

We have been delivering lots of our final brood of birds and should be completely out in a couple weeks. It has been a really good year. We learned a lot again. Lost a few but not near as many as the last season. There is just so many small things to do to eliminate those loses. I have ordered eggs already for the upcoming season. I would like to expand again but I am going to just enjoy the size we are now and help my friend sell his birds. Our son is doubling the size of our gardens and getting ready to place starts under grow lights. My wife says the grocery costs rise almost weekly. Gas prices seem to keep us home more. Our son bought an old Honda car that gets 40 miles per gallon. We're going to can and freeze more from the garden. We are preparing an area for about 20 blueberry plants and the same in raspberries. Started our little orchard last spring and it did well. Have formed a little 'help each other' group with our friends and neighbors just in case it gets tough in our country. If you watch much news it's not looking good. At least we have a nice home and a few acres of land to live off of. Guess we could always eat quail every night. ha!

Time To Order Eggs & Chicks For Next Season Already

2011-12-17T14:57:00.000-06:00

We still have a few thousand birds in our fly pens yet to be delivered. We will be selling them for all the orders we have for birds mostly in Jan. & Feb. Many of the other game bird growers are already out and my phone rings almost daily for folks needing birds now. I hate that I have to tell them all the birds we have left are called for. I try to get them to order early next year for delivery now. Many said they will. My supplier is ready to take booking orders on eggs and chicks. My buddy Larry is building a large brooder barn and pens so hopefully we will have at least 5000 more birds next season. I keep saying I am not going to get bigger but the demand due to growers retiring is causing a huge shortage at least in the midwest states. Made a futures deal with my feed supplier for 20 ton of feed. Feed costs are low now so I am thinking I can keep my bird prices the same for 3 years now. Really learned a lot more this season so it keeps getting easier and bird loses have dropped. Have been getting a great reputation as having quail that fly great. The preserves that use us also get that good reputation and that increases their business. It's going very good.

Back To Work

2011-11-29T14:48:00.000-06:00

With Missouri's main deer season over we are again getting calls to pick up birds. It is always slow during that time. Nobody goes out into the fields with the deer hunters on the prowl. Met with a friend today about him raising some quail and helping us with all the orders we get. He said he would do 5,000 next year. The lady from the Mo. Dept of Ag came by and disease tested our birds. We were just fine and again renewed the NPIP certification seal. Have been getting calls for a lot of quail as meat. We are not presently doing that, but we have a USDA inspected processor not far away so we may think about that as another outlet. Going to be in the teens tonight. I sure hope our 7 week old birds make it through fine. I really need them in Jan/Feb.

Seems Everyone Wants Their Orders Now

2011-11-08T09:18:00.000-06:00

Last week, starting Thursday, a lot of our pre-order guys wanted their birds. I guess being November and cooler was the reason. We either delivered or had pickups of around $10,000 worth of quail. My phone is still ringing often with bird inquiries,but I just can't help them out. Debbie & I have figured out a way to catch about 100 birds at a time in about 30 seconds with a funnel system. Even with my disabilities I can help a lot and it stresses the birds very little. This is fun and rewarding for an old retired business guy.

STILL BUSY

2011-10-31T13:30:00.000-05:00

We are very busy with bird pick ups and deliveries. Getting calls almost daily now for quail. Even getting requests from preserves, which seems strange. They should have gotten their birds already. Been getting a lot of request from hunters for a place to work their dogs. We have been sending them to a couple of close preserves. If I had the energy I would set up an area and charge a little for dog working. Weather is still fairly warm so the younger birds are getting bigger and stronger before the nasty stuff hits in the next couple months. Hopefully we won't lose many because they are all pre-sold. This is so enjoyable. I think I talked a friend of mine into putting up a few barns and fly pens to help supply all the bird needs.

MORE DELIVERIES AND FARM PICK UPS

2011-10-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

Every day now we are either catching birds to fill pick up orders or we are delivering. I enjoy delivering birds as I get to meet new folks and see their farms. Making weekly deliveries to the big field trial club at Grovesprings, Mo. Always lots of dogs and horses to dodge. We just put the quail in the club fly pens and then go to the clubhouse for a little chat and refreshments. Great bunch of folks from all other the midwest. We are selling to a lot more to the private dog trainers. They usually need 10-20 birds per week. We just place the birds in our specially designed trainer cages. They bring their empty cage back and exchange for a full one. If we are not around they just put payment in lock box and go huntin'. Works really good and the guys love the convenience. We had our last hatch a couple days ago - 1700 birds. I'm sure it won't be enough but will make for a really good year.

Deliveries Going Strong

2011-10-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

As the cooler weather and calender hits October the bird hunters start getting that itch. We delivered hundreds of quail Saturday and had pickups all weekend. It's good to start receiving money instead of it all going out. I am thinking about buying a pickup with a camper shell for deliveries. My van works fine and is easier to get in and out of with my bum leg, but the birds really stink up the van on longer delivery trips and Miss Deb is not fond of that. Delivered a few hundred to Hay Hook Hunt Club in Norwood. Robert and his wife are really good folks offering very fair priced hunts. I really like it when couples do this together as Debbie and I do. As we get older we enjoy doing a lot more together than when we were young and career oriented. I am starting to enjoy being retired and not busy all the time. With our son and his family buying a farm a few miles west of us we get to see them and our grand daughter more. That is so good. I lost my mother last week. She was a wonderful mother to my sis and me. Alziemers finally took her. I remember my father and I hunting most weekends many years ago and mom fixing our quail for our hillbilly family dinner. I miss her so. I believe we will be together again one day.

One More Hatch

2011-09-21T18:45:00.000-05:00

Due to the demand for Feb, March birds I decided to hatch another 2,000 quail. They will be mature in January. It is much harder to raise them in the cold weather if they are less than 8 weeks old. I will make sure the brooders are warmer (more expense) longer. When I turn them out to fly pens we will leave the brooder barns open so they can come and go for shelter in case of ice or snow. We seem to be hearing from a lot more guys training their dogs. Maybe that's a sign more are getting back into quail hunting. Been building a lot of transfer cages. Sure makes it easier to have birds ready when the guys or gals come to pick up. They just bring a empty cage and pick up the full one. If I'm not home they just leave money in lock box. It's a trust thing, but I have never been cheated. They always want more quail.

The Calls For Birds are Daily!

2011-09-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

Just as expected, we are getting calls daily for quail. Had to decline over 1500 bird sale yesterday. That is hard for me to do, but all birds are pre sold already. Heard about another game bird farm that is downsizing due to health so his customers will be searching. People are showing up at the farm with cages wanting to pick up birds and it's only September. Yikes!!! I might think about another brooder barn and fly pens next spring. I am happy at my current level, but the need is there. We'll see!

Birds are going to Hunt

2011-09-07T18:07:00.000-05:00

We have started selling lots of quail last weekend. The dog trainers have got the fever with the cooler weather here. We have stopped taking orders. With the addition last week of more field trail bird orders all our production is called for. I guess that is good. As an old retailer I just hate having no inventory but better sold out than setting on a bunch of hard eating quail. Even though I'm not doing this for a living the money is good. My son has bought a farm and will build a house on it. I think he will put up some fly pens and we can raise a few thousand more in the next season.

Lots of Birds in Fly Pens = Lots of Feed

2011-08-26T13:46:00.000-05:00

We have thousands of birds running around the fly pens and they sure eat a lot. We are feeding over 25 bags per week and the local feed store really likes us. We changed to a different feed store late last season. We gave them a heads-up on making sure they do not run out of game bird feed for us. Since we are their only game bird feed account I was concerned they might not buy tons of feed for us, but they have really done good. I had projected feed costs being about $27.00 per 100# during this time of year, but surprisingly it is only $24.50/100#. So profits should be better. Even though we have had extreme heat, we have hardly lost any birds at all. Those we do lose we donate to the Conservation department for taxidermy lessons for kids. We really watch their waterers and have provided lots of cover and even sprayed water on them every couple of days. Really starting to get orders and inquiries daily. Some of my customers are increasing their orders due to more early bookings. We're about to the point of being booked up.

Birds Are About Ready to Sell

2011-08-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

We will have a few thousand bobwhite quail fully mature and ready to go the first week of September. We will catch them if the temps are not over 80 degrees. Last year we transported some in 90+ weather and lost over half of them due to heat stress. We have many dog trainers that are really ready to pick some up. Still getting a lot of calls for small amounts (<100>)of birds. We really enjoy those sales since I get to usually spend some sportsman time with them when they pickup. One of the bad things about life after my stroke is I spend a lot of time here at the farm by myself and sometimes I get lonely. It's a far cry from when I owned my sporting goods store and saw hundreds a day. So the opportunity to meet new folks and view their culture is refreshing. If you read this blog, I would welcome an email from you. I received one a few weeks ago from a guy in Alabama whose father also survived a stroke but was giving up on life. He said his dad followed my doings and now wants to try something on his farm. That really makes me glad that I possibly might help someone through fighting my adversity. Even though these handicaps and issues can be a burden most of the time, there is so many other parts of my life that I have found that I am a much better person for this.

Setting Eggs

2011-08-08T12:17:00.000-05:00

We are filling our incubators with eggs tomorrow. I've decided to make this our last hatch this season. Those birds will be full grown by January. It's just hard to raise them when they are young and it's cold. We just lost too many last season to take the chance. I know I will need more birds but I am happy at the level I am. Been raining off and on for a couple of days with a chance for more the next few days. Seems like the gardens are burnt out even watering them as much as we did it was just too hot for a great garden season. We harvested a lot and our son has been canning. Tomatoes are very tasty and cucs are making great bread and butter pickles. The attitudes at my coffee stop are not improving. The old farmers have a lot of hay but many are selling their extra to the farmers in Kansas who are hurting. They are getting $120.00 a bale. It is $35 here. Fuel delivery costs make up a lot of that increase.

GOOD THIRD HATCH

2011-08-02T14:40:00.000-05:00

We had a 86% hatch rate for our third hatch. With the extreme 100+ degree hot days for what seems to be everyday we were really surprised and happy about that. Our incubating room is not climate controlled. Incubators are heaters for bring up to and maintaining them @ 99.5 degrees. The problem is they are not cooling units. So when the room got over 100 the incubator temps surged to 102 for a short time. We had fans running on them but that wasn't enough for all day. I figured it would really cause a lot of malformed or dead inside the eggs. We had a few born a little early and some not quite right, but have lost very few chicks. I spoke with some other growers that have seen a lot of loses in the fly pens due the heat. We have lost only 6 birds. We made a lot of covers and it has really paid of. I also called my egg supplier this morning. His layers are just not producing. He is really hoping for cooler weather soon. His temps in Kansas was 112 degrees Monday. But I will be getting almost all of the eggs I ordered next tuesday. My phone is ringing a lot this week from dog trainers wanting to book birds. Just checked my outside barn thermometer, it says 104. I'm too old too fight it outside in this heat.

Farm Happenings

2011-07-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

I visit a diner for breakfast coffee a few miles from us a couple times a week. It's a good way to get out and visit with other local farmers. The extreme heat has just got everyone in a bad mood. It seemed to be a fairly good hay season and the dairy guys are making some money. Cattle & horses are hunkered around the ponds. Chickens aren't laying very well. There just isn't much talk around the table. We try not to talk politics, but we all are sick of the way our leaders are acting. Inflation has hit us all hard, both for farm things and our home goods. Although my feed bill has gone down per 100 quite a bit the last month. A good corn & soybean yield has helped that. But everything else from the pine chips I place in the brooder barns floors to the electric and propane costs have gone up a lot. We are having trouble with black snakes getting into our brooder barns and eating a few quail chicks. I don't want to kill them. They do a good job on mice, but it gets expensive to feed them $4.00 quail so we take them off to another area. Birds in fly pens are growing and we aren't losing any to heat. We built a lot of good covers and have lots of water available for them. I suspect a lot of growers are going to be short on the numbers of quail they were hoping to raise. I will be a few. The guys that sell eggs are not getting very good production which in turn hurts the numbers for all of us.
I will bet that when the season gets here it will be hard to get birds from any of us if they haven't pre-ordered from us.

HOT!!!

2011-07-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

100+ everyday this week. Did get some overnight rain and cloudy this morning so maybe it will be only in 90's. It's hard on the birds but they have lots of cover and grass to hide in all the fly pens. Keeping our water barrels filled for auto waterers. The incubators are running a degree too hot for a short time during the hottest part of the day, but won't hurt the eggs if it doesn't get higher for a longer period. Really need to air condition our incu room, maybe next season. Been eating a lot of our potatoes and green beans.Have eaten a few tomatos and cucs. Glad we are on a well. Spoke to a friend of mine in town and his water bill for his garden is very high. Our grand daughter spent some time with us Sunday. That really makes our day. Our guard dog Shadow is guarding as he sleeps in the hedges trying to stay cool. Please keep your pets water full and make sure they have shade.

Moving Birds to Flypens

2011-07-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Our first hatch of quail is now 8 weeks and ready to transfer to flypens. Our brooder barns are setup so all we have to do is open a small door at one end and the quail exit to the flypens. We are putting 900 - 1000 quail per pen. June was the 5th driest month on record so we really have to watch our waterers. I am adding an extra waterer to each pen just to be on the safe side. Our feeders need filled every 4 days only. The flypens are shaded until 11:00 each morning. They have full sun until 4 p.m. so we make sure the birds have plenty of cover to retreat from the heat. We also run a water mister every couple days. I will be getting another big batch of eggs in a couple of days to set. I spoke with my egg supplier and his birds aren't laying as good as wanted in this heat so he is having to short a lot of his orders. I put my order in with him very early last year so I am first on his list. This ain't my first rodeo. Lack of rain has really hurt the gardens, but we still are harvesting. Tomatos about ready. Green beans coming on. Shaun checked his bees and thought there was about 80 pounds of honey in the hive. Should put up a lot this season. Feed prices actually dropped last week due to corn, soybean futures dropping. I hope that continues.

Our 2nd Hatch was Very Good!

2011-06-20T12:04:00.001-05:00

We just finished moving quail chicks from the hatch room to a brooder barn. Out of 3,000 eggs we set there is now 2675 chicks. That is a very good hatch rate for us. It is such a hot spring the brooder heat system is not being used as much so our energy costs are lower. We are so far enjoying a lower than normal loss rate on our first hatch in Brooder Barn #1. But as I have proven before, that can change in an instant. I have my costs based on a percent of hatched to sold so any less loss helps the bottom line. I have been enjoying trying to live a simpler. less stress life. I am now remembering life back in the 50's. I found my old little hand held radio and now go out on my front porch with a big mason jar of iced tea and listen to my 'Cardinals' play baseball. For those reading this blog and have those memories you'll know how great I feel being able to relax and watch the world go by in the country. I am going to find some 'Green Hornet', The Shadow, etc. old radio shows I listened to in my youth and re-enjoy them, too.

Just Going About Daily Chores

2011-06-12T15:29:00.000-05:00

Kinda boring on the farm. Quail are brooding great, they are about ready to go on auto feeders and waterers. Our second hatch will be next Sunday. Our next brooder barn is all ready except putting down the pine chips. Received 2 orders this week from dog trainers. Our garden is giving us lots of greens and the blueberries are going great. The strawberries are all but done. Noticed some pears coming on our young trees. We haven't heard any cicadas yet. They seem to be all around the area near us. Was looking at our grove of persimmons and there is going to be a huge crop this fall. Thinking about doing a 'You Pick' on them. Our neighbors are cutting their first hay crop, it is very good. Life in the country is sure peaceful, especially if I leave the TV off and the crazy news that seems to permeate the world.

Conservation Agent Records & Pens Inspection

2011-06-06T10:40:00.001-05:00

We had a MDC agent stop by Saturday to inspect our brooder barn, fly pens and sales records. I am glad they regulate the game bird industry so the birds are treated good and it makes us all play on a level playing field. All our records where perfect and the way we care for our birds was certified as top notch. Since I have to develop ways to care for them that works for my disability that cuts down on some of the work it actually is better for the birds as well. The birds in the barn are growing fast and eating a lot. We had one fly out of the barn as we went in to feed them yesterday. It flew into the woods (it amazes me how well a 2 week old chick can fly) and we just counted it as a loss. But a couple of minutes later our guard dog Shadow came up to the barn with the bird in his mouth. It was unharmed so we just put it back. He is such a great dog. The weather is so extremely hot for June. It allows me to turn off the brooder heat lamps so that is saving a few bucks. Orders are not coming in now, so it will probably pick up in August.

Batch 2 of Eggs in Incubators

2011-05-28T09:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we picked up another 3,000 bobwhite quail eggs in Kansas. The fellow we get them from is a large supplier of eggs and day old chicks. He is concerned about his production. Seems the cloudy, cold spring is having an effect on the number of eggs he is getting so he cannot fill all his orders & his hatch percentage is lower than normal. I sure am glad I pre-ordered early so I am about first on the list for eggs. There will be guys not able to get eggs for a while so the adult bird production this fall will suffer. We also compared feed prices. He just ordered 4 tons of bulk feed and it was 15% higher than same time last year. I am finding the same here. If the overhead increases doesn't stop soon the prices we all sell adult birds will go up dramatically. Which in turn usually slows down sales. I am really trying to cut overhead and keep my prices in line. I have been speaking with a local wind & solar power guy that has quoted me 3 wind turbines large enough to power all the system. It is initially expensive but I believe I could pay for it fairly quickly. I may end up doing this.

Our Joplin Neighbors Got Hit Hard

2011-05-23T09:54:00.002-05:00

Last evening a huge tornado hit Joplin, Mo. Our farm is between Joplin & Springfield. I have some good friends from my career in the outdoor sports business that live and have stores there. Trying to contact them. When it seemed like the storm was going to hit us, too, we just grabbed the dogs and headed east. The storm took a right turn and went south so we stopped to eat and wait it out. It is storming again right now. It's been a week since our first hatch and we have only lost 16 chicks out of 2500. I am very pleased. We have watched the brooder temps closely since the weather has been so sporatic. With spring rains being so intense we decided to put down a large tarp on the brooder barn floor before we spread pine chips. Any water running on the barn floor, which is very little considering the fields have flooded, has gone under the chips and kept the birds warm and dry. Baby quail are so sensitive to a number of issues and without some experience and fore thought you will lose hundreds. We are picking up our next big batch of eggs friday, so the cycle continues.

Our First Hatch Went Really Well

2011-05-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

Our first batch of quail started hatching monday and ended wednesday. Out of the 3,000 eggs we incubated there was a little over 2,500 hatched for an 86% hatch rate. I am pleased with that especially since it was the first batch of spring eggs which can be not as fertile as latter eggs. We placed them in 2 brooder barns and so far have only had about 20 die. This is very common the first few days due to birth defects, etc. It has been a cold spring and the first night in the barns the temps got down to 38 degrees. I was spooked about this since these young birds cannot take cold at all and will pile up bad. We added a few more heat lamps and so far so good. It is expected to warm up to 60's at night shortly. We sent out a couple dozen more price lists and have already gotten orders from that. I believe we will have 80% of our production booked shortly.

Farm Life is Always an Adventure

2011-05-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

This weekend we had a good spring time on the farm. On saturday our son Shaun came out to see his mom for Mothers Day. He brought her 2 trays (100 plants) of flower starts. He adores his mom. While he was here he spent a lot of time on the garden. We are very grateful for his help, he has a big garden on his families farm, too. I went in for a rest and he came in for a drink. When he went back out he came running back in to tell me his bee hive was swarming. I jumped on the tractor and headed out there. There was tens of thousands of bees in about a ten yard area. After a few minutes maybe half or more swarmed on a tree nearby and the rest went back into the hive. I have seen many swarms on trees, but I have never seen them in the process. He wanted to catch this swarm and put it into another hive box, but by the time he got it ready they were gone, so he lost half or more of the hive. Hopefully we will still get some honey from the bees left. While we were watching this my friend Pigeon Pat showed up. He raises those wonderful white homing pigeons and has 100 or more birds. He does pigeon releases at weddings, funerals, etc. I was down to only 4 birds left so he was nice enough to bring me 6 more young ones to raise. I hate to admit it, but living in the country with lots of hawks I lose more than I would like. He stayed and chatted for a while. I really enjoy his visits. You can see his website at; PigeonPat.com

Sun's Out & Life is Active on the Farm

2011-05-04T11:37:00.000-05:00

Debbie weeding

Clematis

It's always so wonderful to see spring in all it's glory. We had days of rain and huge flooding in the area. Now the sun is fully out and all the critters and plants are searching it's warmth. Especially Debbie and I. Debbie spent a fortune at the nursery last weekend. They told her their business was off over 25% this spring due to cold, wet weather. I hope it gets better for them. They are our country neighbors and really good folks. So we are hanging flower baskets all around the house, planting a lot of patio pots and weeding around our 2 acre yard. The garden is fully planted and a lot of veggies are peeking out. The strawberries are forming, too. We are seeing a ton of hummingbirds and many birds are migrating through. The beautiful orioles,grossbeaks and indigo buntings are a delight around the feeders. Wild turkeys are going to nests so we will have some young poults running around chasing bugs soon. I can't remember seeing the bees as active as they are now. They are all over the hives, coming and going. Will have a big batch of honey this fall. The 3,000 quail eggs will hatch in less than 2 weeks. We will finish putting in our pine chips and testing all the brooder heaters today. Still receiving orders for fall/winter birds. Went to feed store yesterday and tried to make a early deal on a few tons of feed. They are reluctant to quote a long term price for me because of the constant rise of grain crops. Can't blame them. I sure hope the quail prices I have pre sold at will not cause me to lose my shorts. I did tell everyone to be aware of possible increase if corn & soybeans keep going through the roof. Time to go out and enjoy the nice weather. I really wish I didn't have my disability so I could do more, but it is what it is and I still really enjoy my farm life.

Pigeons on feeder

Shadow watching everything

Rain, Rain & More Rain!!!

2011-04-25T11:01:00.000-05:00

It's been raining almost constantly for days. The thunder rolls are pretty much non stop. When it finally stops everything green will explode. I am really looking forward to a big garden harvest this year. We have been trying to work on the brooder barns but it is just to nasty out so we are on hold. Won't need them for 3 weeks so really no hurry. We just mainly need to put down the floor tarps and pine chips and get the heaters in place and tested. The grains are coming up in the fly pens and we are going to plant some sorghum in a couple more. We are getting ready to send out a bunch of 2011 price lists and wait for responses. We decided to pre-sell about 80% of the birds. I am helping a young couple start a small game bird farm. I usually do not share any hard earned raising secrets (if there is such a thing), but they are good people and with the number of farms quitting we could use some young folks doing this for the future.

We are Beginning the 2011 Growing Season!

2011-04-20T09:20:00.000-05:00

We received our first batch of 3000 northern bobwhite eggs yesterday and now have them incubating. Seems like a long time ago since we hatched quail. We have a few thousand adult birds pre-sold and are still getting inquiries every few days. It would be so easy to expand even more, but I am happy and really enjoy doing this at our current levels. My father has had so many health issues and just can't get around very well, but he came out to the farm and helped me place the eggs in the trays and incubator. He was the most dedicated quail hunter and had some great dogs. Even though he can't hunt anymore he sure is glad to help me raise the birds he once hunted every year for over 60 years.

Spring Time is Great on the Farm

2011-04-07T11:53:00.001-05:00

With the temps in the 60's to 80's and warmer nights I think spring has sprung. We really enjoy being country folk when everything starts to come to life. My day usually starts going out on our front porch with a cup of coffee and some breakfast. Debbie joins me and being English she has her morning 'spot a tea'. Our redbud, dogwood & russian olive trees are leaved out, but the oaks and hickories are just coming to buds. Our country grass is just spotty green, but it will be full soon. We have an almost 2 acre yard and it looks like a park when everything is green. As the sun comes over the woods behind us the animals come to life. Being that we live in the middle of the woods there is wildlife galore. The birds this time of year are eating, hunting mates and nesting all day. Their songs and flying around can keep us in awe for hours. We seem to have dozens of cardinals chasing each other through the trees. We have 5 bluebird houses and everyone has a nest in it. We try to feed them mealworms, but with so many of them it really gets expensive. I bet this morning there was 50 finches fighting for food on our feeders. The goldfinches have all but lost their winter yellow colors. Robins are all over the yard, prancing and singing for a mate and looking for worms and bugs. The crows are really noisey and a little annoying, but they are doing their thing, too. The bees are everywhere. We are hoping for a lot of honey this summer.

My favorite this time of year is the Mockingbird. Our yard has a few tall persimmon trees along the outer perimeter and these birds will find the tall trees and just sit there and sing all kinds of different songs for a long time. This doesn't last very many days then they are mated and nesting, but it is so cool. The hummingbirds are just arriving. We have 4 feeders out and will add a couple more as they gather. I think we usually have about 50 -75 hummers all summer. The orioles, grosbeaks and many other migraters always give us a visit. That will happen anytime now. Debbie loves her flowers and has thousands. The phlox and many others are making it known it is spring. My favorite is the hosta. We have them scattered all over and they really brighten our place up. I raise a few Bonsai trees, too. They are beautiful tiny trees and I enjoy trimming them. This weekend we are going to work on our fly pens. Fix any holes, clean around the electric fence and start tilling inside to plant crops for the quail. Over the winter Debbie made three family quilts. One for our son and his wife, one for our new grand daughter and one for me. Debbie is very talented and we all are greatful. Real soon know it will be very busy, but I am going to take time everyday to enjoy my retired rural life.

Still Spring Cleaning

2011-03-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

Not much going on. The weather is screwed up, had 1/2"snow last night. Should be 65 or better Friday. I am ready for warm all the time. Still just cleaning barns and incubator room. Spoke with my egg supplier in Kansas. We are shooting for last week of April. Starting to plant more garden seeds. Our garlic is about 8" tall. The strawberry plants are really come through the straw. The bees are really active. Hoping for LOTS of honey this year. The bird booking orders are still coming in. I decided to book all but about 5,000 for guys needing them that do not know for sure now. Our son and his family is selling about 100 doz. eggs a week to a local organic grocer. Probably could do a lot more if they had more layers. They are getting there pasture ready for the jersey milk cows. Folks line up for the good raw milk. The grandaughter is really growing. We had her saturday and it was so much fun. She's going to be a beautiful country girl. She is 3 months old and got her first tractor ride with her mom a few days ago. Stay tuned, we are getting ready to get busy on the farm!!

Just Cleaning & Picking Up

2011-03-15T10:02:00.000-05:00

A little boring on the farm. With spring just around the corner and the weather being 65 one day and snowing the next we are trying to clean up the brooders and fly pens. We pretty much made it through the winter unscathed as far as anything tore up or broke. We built everything as strong as possible and it paid off. We are also just cleaning up around our big 2 acre yard. You know, fallen limbs, leaf piles, trimming overgrown bushes, garage cleaning, etc. Spring always feel so good. A renewal and I can get out more. The winter cold really bothers my handicapped side so I got cabin fever really bad. Still getting fall orders for birds.

Starting our Cleanup in Preparation for Startup

2011-03-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

With this nice weather we sorely desire to work outside on the farm. We have begun to clean up our incubator room and giving the incubators and hatchers a good disinfecting, too. Our brooder barns floors are covered in roof felt and pine shavings. We put new pine in after every session of birds, but felt in once a year, so we started that long process. The fly pens are inspected for little holes that preditors make when they try to get in before our watch dog Shadow gets 'em. Took all the feeders and waterers out and started cleaning them. Our 55 gallon water barrels that feed each pen will get disinfected and whatever falls into them is removed. We have a little more electric fence to run and new netting to hang. Plus lots of other stuff that will show up as we inspect. Our gardens are tilled and new areas are marked off. We have 2 areas about 20'x 40' & 2 - 20' raised beds. Adding a bunch of rasberries, grapes and prarie flowers for the bees. Our son and his family is moving to their new farm in a couple weeks. They are moving to some land that is also CSA farm that has about 80 summer share customers. They are going to sell their eggs and raw milk. Should be good for them. Leslie takes care of all the farm sales and chickens and cows. Shaun is testing for an arborist certification real soon for his Greenways job he loves. We are still getting calls for birds and booking orders. Should be an interesting 2011.

A Day With A Friend on the Farm

2011-02-24T12:13:00.000-06:00

I had asked my old friend Mark to come out to the farm yesterday. We both are just 2 old, eccentric, bib overall wearing country boys. We decided to to have a bit of breakfast first. There is a Route 66 diner just a couple miles down the road from the farm that always has rib sticking biscuit and gravy. We didn't want to have a big breakfast since we knew we were going to fire up my Big Green Egg when we got back. Granny Debbie had to go to work but she prepared the pheasant feast for the smoker. My lovely bride is from England and Mark always teases her so she really wanted to stay with the guys, but to bad, your job called first. She did fix an ole recipe from her english granny for Mark to snack on. They are simply called - sausage rolls, but they taste anything but simple. She spoils him even though he constantly threatens to steal her dog, Shadow. We fired the Egg up and when it reached 350 degrees our 2 young 1 1/2# pheasants and a couple ears of last years sweet garden corn landed on the grill. She wrapped each bird with a strip of our homegrown bacon and stuffed them with our garden onions and a piece of mandarin orange for a sweet flavor.

It takes about 45 minutes for them to finish. We had a seat in front of one of my brooder barns and had a feast for a king. As we stuffed our faces we both just started to laugh. We had just been talking about the shape our country is in and how food prices are skyrocketing and possibly might be shortages. Finally Mark said - people in the big cities will be looking forward to a meal like this at a fancy restaurant and willing to pay a lot of money for a pheasant dinner and us good ole' country boys are just sitting in front of a barn and flypen full of stinky quail on a pretty fall day like it's no big deal. Believe us when we say it's not. The big deal was the fellowship of 2 old friends as we shared our past good times and making plans for new adventures as simple Ozark hillbillies. Wouldn't trade it for anything!!

Good Weekend on the Farm

2011-02-21T16:20:00.000-06:00

It was a good weekend for us on the ole quail farm. Saturday was a beautiful warm day. Our son Shaun came out and tilled a lot of ground for new blueberries, rasberries and prarie flowers for the bees. The bees were very active and we noticed they were coming in with their legs loaded with red pollen. Debbie was preparing lunch for her quilt circle. Shaun's wife Leslie, her sister, mother and another friend are making quilts to donate to the mid wife that delivered our granddaughter Cedar. She does about 50 births a year and many have lots of needs. They thought giving those babies a heritage quilt would be a great ministry of help. It does me good to see the ladies sewing together and enjoying the country life. While they sewed Shaun & I caught the remaining pheasants and one of my dog training customers came and bought them. We just have a couple hundred quail left and they are ready to deliver in a couple weeks. I took orders this week for about 1,000 more fall delivery quail. This is so rewarding to live this simple life and fellowship with those that want to take care of themselves and give to others, too. My good friend Mark and I are planning a day sometime this week to fire up the Green Egg smoker and cook some pheasant for lunch. We might even make a short trip down Route 66 for some pics to post on our; MissouriRoute66.blogspot.com. We have been good friends for many years and it's always a lot of laughs we we hang out. Watch for the results of our pheasant feast, hopefully.

Loving the Feel of Spring!!

2011-02-16T09:58:00.000-06:00

We are in a stretch of nice winter weather. Going to be in 60's for the week or so forecast. About all the snow is gone and the wildlife is sensing spring in the Ozarks. The bluebirds are going in the nest boxes. Seeing robins in good numbers in the fields. What quail we have left are mature and we really aren't doing anything except keeping the big feeders full and water thawed. We are going to start cleaning out the brooder barns soon and getting the incubators cleaned and tested. It's still a couple of months until we get started again, but getting out in the warm weather really makes us desiring spring on the farm. We have planned this years garden area and are going to expand the blueberry, rasberry and strawberry areas. We are going to plant a few apple & peach trees and more grapes. It looks like our bee hives are going to make it through just fine. I don't want to think the worse but with the weekly grocery prices rising and about everything else I want to grow all of our food if we can. Deb will can, freeze and dehydrate a lot for use later. Plus it seems everyday they report some food preservative is killing us. I grew up living a simple, self sustaining life and right now that sounds good to me again.

Delivered Quail and Pheasants Today

2011-02-07T15:45:00.001-06:00

'Debbie dragging a cage of pheasants from fly pens to delivery van.'

We just delivered a bunch of bobwhites and ringnecks to our friends at Ozarks Mountain Bird Hunts in Yellville, Ark. before the next big snow. It is not ideal to catch these birds in a foot of snow in the fly pens. But my lovely bride did an amazing job and we made the preserve happy. They are still having a lot of bookings for hunts and said it looked good through March. All of our hunting preserve businesses seem to have had a good year. I need to figure out some way to keep birds longer in this bad weather. It is easy to lose a lot and not be profitable with what is left. I charged more for them and he understands, at least they didn't have to cancel hunts due to lack of quail. We are booking many birds already for next fall. The quail & pheasant I cooked a couple of days ago was delicious. Think I'll do that again soon.

Let's Eat Some Quail While We Are Snowbound!

2011-02-05T12:18:00.002-06:00

With 15" of snow covering everything and I have pretty much gotten all my bookwork and plans for next season up to date I decided to sweep off our Big Green Egg smoker/griller and cook some quail and pheasants. I have a lot of birds in the freezer so after a thaw and adding the coals to the Egg it is now in progress. Can't wait to enjoy shortly. Below is the recipes I used for both. Please feel free to comment on these and share your own.

ROASTED PHEASANT

    * pheasant, quartered
    * 2 carrots, sliced
    * 5 baby red potatoes, quartered
    * 1/2 onion, cut into chunks
    * salt and pepper
    * 2 pinches thyme
    * 1/4 cup chicken broth




Add the carrots, potatoes and onion. Sprinkle on the thyme and season to taste wtih salt and pepper.
Add the chicken broth in pan. Place covered in roasting pan and cook in the oven at 350 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes or until meat feels tender.

Quail with Mushrooms

Wipe carefully, inside and out. Then bind each bird with a slice of bacon. Put birds into a buttered pan and baste occasionally while they are roasting. If they are large birds, they will require about 1/2 hour to cook. when they are done, put them into a warmer for 2 minutes while you add 1 tbsp. of butter, a little hot water, and the juice of 1/2 lemon to the fat in the pan, stirring to make gravy. Serve the birds on toast with gravy poured over them; garnish with a wedge of lemon or currant or grape jelly. On the same plate, serve mushrooms as follows:
Mushrooms
Peel fresh mushrooms and cut the stems free. Put them in a dish with enough melted butter to make them all thoroughly shiney. Add salt and pepper rather generously. Let sit 1 hour and then broil on a grill in time to serve hot with quail.

We Were Spared !! Hey!

2011-02-02T13:20:00.000-06:00

We ended up with about a foot of snow. The fly pens are loaded down, but have not collapsed. I guess we did an exceptional job of supporting them. I think we may have lost a few birds due to depth, but not hundreds. I am supposed to deliver a few quail and pheasants friday but we can't catch them as of now. I am just so glad it won't cost a lot of $$ to fix pens. COME ON SPRING!!!!

Hoping For the Best !!

2011-02-01T11:43:00.000-06:00

The weather folks are predicting up to 15" of snow. We dodged the ice, it went a few miles south of us. Thank God! Just went outside to check fly pens, barns and birds. Barns are covered but OK. Birds inside barns should be fine, but those outside are under their cover areas and it is being overtaken with snow. Hopefully we can clear an area around their cover for them to escape later. Bad news is the snow is very wet and heavy. We propped up all the pens as best we could, but I don't believe it can handle over a foot of wet snow. They will probably collapse and kill my birds. It could cost thousand to repair the pens. Oh well, part of this business is the weather. We will just suck it up. After I about died from a stroke a few years ago everything else is not much to worry about. Just heard on the news that the Hark Rock casino in Tulsa just had their roof collapse. Sure hope nobody was hurt.

Booking Birds For Next Fall

2011-01-24T15:14:00.000-06:00

With the many calls I am getting a day for birds now I am also getting booking orders for next fall. I guess they are finding out there is a shortage of birds so they are getting on the early order list so they don't run out next year. This really helps me to plan and I may sell everything real early this coming fall season. Fine with me!
I received a call this morning from the Mo. Dept of Conservation. They are wanting to buy quail from us for a youth hunt. I am going to make this work with what birds I have left.

Snowy Quail Day

2011-01-21T12:59:00.000-06:00

Snow came through the area yesterday. We got spared the large amount and just got a little over 2". Every time there is winter weather I worry about the pens collapsing and birds dying. Went out to check a small pen and some of the birds were huddled up keeping warm. They are hardy critters once they get fully grown. Still getting calls daily for birds. Many from out of state and most from preserves and field trialers we haven't sold to before. There suppliers are out, too. I have started to send out next falls price lists and I am making a push for these guys to order birds now for delivery next season. Some are doing that and I think more will pre-book since they are going to be out of birds with a couple of months left in this years season. It sure makes it easier to estimate sales and guarantee them winter birds. I have to charge them .25 per bird more for feed costs for longer holding times. They understand!!

It's Cold Outside

2011-01-12T10:10:00.000-06:00

It is 2 degrees this morning. I was really concerned the birds might have froze, but as we feed & watered them they are all fine. Once these critters get over 10 weeks old they are really feathered out & tough. We have given the birds in the fly pens a lot of places to hide . The birds in the barns still have heat lamps on them. I'm about ready to turn them off and let them stay in barn.

The Guys from the East Coast are Wanting Birds Again!!

2011-01-04T15:33:00.000-06:00

We've had 2 calls so far this week from east coast states looking for lots of quail. They got hit hard by that big snow/ice storm last week and apparently it tore down the flypens and killed thousands of birds. The fellow last night said he lost 25,000 quail. How devastating would that be. Losing $100,000.00 in sales plus the cost of repairs. WOW! He asked me for at least 10,000 birds to help him fill the preserve orders for now. Of course I am not big enough to help him. He was pretty desperate. I really hate that for him and the preserves losing all that hunting business because of lack of quail. I can attest this quail business is very sensitive to disasters with losing a lot of birds really fast. We did find another cabinet incubator yesterday for a good price so we bought it. We should have all our incubating bases covered for awhile. I got last years wild quail numbers report from the conservation department yesterday. Missouri is doing better than some states but we are down a great percentage number from even 10 -15 years ago, let alone from the years of 60's & 70's. They are really making a push for habitat restoration. If you have a farm I hope you will make it quail friendly before they are all gone.

Time to Start Getting Ready for New 2011 Hatching!

2011-01-01T12:00:00.002-06:00

Even though we are still holding both pheasant & quail for next months sales, we have to book our eggs for the next season. If you don't do it early you will not get any. I know it seems strange but they are really in demand and first order first served. I have really thought about producing my own eggs but I would have to have about 5,000 hens & 1,700 cocks, along with another bigger barn and lots of cages. I would have a big feed bill for them and decided to just buy from a breeder that has that as his business model. We booked 3,000 eggs per month beginning in April delivery. The first couple of months eggs will come from south Texas & the rest from Kansas. We still really enjoy working the birds and meeting new friends.

Lots of Calls For Birds

2010-12-29T10:19:00.000-06:00

It was a really good Christmas with family on the quail farm. We loved the time with our new grand daughter. She is so good about being passed around and not fussing. She does let us know when it's time to eat or be changed. Good to be grand parents and let the kids deal with that. Just as expected, we are getting calls daily for quail. We can't help them since all of ours are pre-sold. I tell them to book the birds for this time of year delivery with whomever they are buying from but they just do not want to do that. It would help us all out immensely. I really hate to see the hunters unable to hunt since they don't have the birds. But we all don't want to carry over a lot of unsold birds. No worries about that the last couple years. Just wait, next year I'll have a lot of late birds and noboby will want them. That has closed some growers in the past. So far, so good.

Icing on the Fly Pen Netting

2010-12-24T08:57:00.000-06:00

It is freezing rain at the farm today. They are not talking about a lot, but any is too much. Big snows and ice are really hard on the netting around the pens. I know of one gamebird farm that quit last year after a big ice storm brought his pens down. These pens are very expensive to build so losing a bunch of them was just too much to bare. I had one collapse myself, but was easily fixed. We braced ours up the best we could, but even with that it can rip the netting. Lets hope for a winter reprieve.

Milder Weather Makes it Easier

2010-12-21T13:04:00.001-06:00

With the milder day and night temps it is so much easier to take care of the birds. Haven't has any quail die in a while. I was getting bummed out as the younger chicks just couldn't handle the single digit temps even under heat lamps in the barn. I had to tell 2 field trial customers we aren't able to furnish birds for their Feb. trial. I know they didn't like that but I had to take care of my long term customers with the limited bird available. I called around to other gamebird farmers I know and they are out of birds completely. We all wish the folks that need birds would pre-order them earlier so we could plan better. I have a lot more do that every year, they now know they won't get birds if they wait too late. There is a limited production of birds and getting worse as the farmers get older and retire. Our heated waterers are working good. We have decided to get rid of our pigeons and chickens. We seem to have way too much to properly take care of. Just quail, our 2 dogs and 1 old cat will do for now.

Busy Day on the Farm

2010-12-17T14:58:00.001-06:00

Were visited by very knowledgable lady from the USDA to test our quail. The NPIP tests. She did 30 birds for pollorum typhoid (blood test) and avian influenza (throat swab). They were healthy so I am good for another year. Then we had a hunting preserve call for pheasants. Debbie caught them (she really wants them gone, they are so strong) and the guy came and picked them up. Should have most quail picked up Saturday. Money is coming in handy for Christmas. With the nights in the teens and 20's I am really glad I bought some heated waterers.

Check out our funny ad on You Tube !!!

2010-12-14T13:04:00.003-06:00

My good friend Mark, has spent decades as a marketing director and artist. He is also a very funny guy. He made us a really funny sales ad for You Tube. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know.

VIEW THE FUNNY AD @

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV6mTjvqGzk

---------------------------------------------

Delivered the last bunch of 2010 birds

2010-12-13T11:07:00.001-06:00

On Friday, my friend Jimmy & I delivered a few hundred quail to one of our preserve customers in Arkansas. He told me he would need a lot of birds in Feb 2011. I will have some then, but probably not enough. It is hard to brood birds once it gets cold. Next year I think I'll just raise a couple thousand extra in the fall and then add maybe 50 cents to the selling costs for extra feed. He said he was fine with that. We are having the USDA inspector come out next Friday to test our birds for disease. They will pass and we will be NPIP certified. (we were this year). To sell quail into most other states they must have a NPIP form filled out in order for them to import into their state. It's a hassle but a good thing.

Our New Grand Daughter

2010-12-07T14:24:00.000-06:00

Our son Shaun & his wife Leslie had their first child, our first grandchild, last Friday. Her name is Cedar Eden. She is a beautiful, healthy girl. We love her and look forward to all the time we spend with her.

Nearing the End of this Quail Raising Year

2010-12-07T12:03:00.000-06:00

As I look back on this years quail raising I am glad I am doing this in my retirement. Even though my brain attack forced me to do this earlier than I had wanted to (by about 10 years). I feel I have made the most out of a bad situation. We raised and sold thousands of birds. We have met a lot of good country folk as they have come to our farm to pick up birds. We have sold to hunters, dog trainers, field trials, preserves, restaurants and markets. I truly feel this adventure has kept me active and helped me heal a lot. I have accepted my bad arm and leg. I walk now without a cane(slowly with a limp) and I can hold things with my hand. So I am doing fine. I do know I feel more at peace with myself and look forward to a long life.
We have learned a lot about raising quail and pheasants. We are not going to do pheasants anymore. They are just too big and strong for my wife to handle. She was feeding them once when a bunch decided to take off near her and one hit her face. It cut her lip and cheek. She has become afraid of them somewhat so it isn't worth that. They are beautiful birds and are very much in demand but they take up 10x the room quail do. We lost hundreds of quail this year from chicks to about 12 week old birds. Some to the heat and rain (we just weren't prepared to protect them in the fly pens) Some chicks were lost when I believe a virus got in the brooder bar. We completely cleaned it out & sprayed disenfectant. That seemed to fix that. Since we had a lot of people want birds in Feb & March of next year we decided to have a couple late fall hatches. That makes those birds really young now. Even though we heat out barns, when it gets 10 - 20 degrees at night these crazy birds pile up by the hundreds and suffocate themselves. The full mature birds are doing just fine outside in the flypens, so it seems young birds just can't handle the winter cold. Next year if we have birds wanted in Feb. we will just make sure they are fully mature by Nov 1. and just charge the people $1.00 per bird more for extra monthly food costs.
It was a good 2010 and we are looking forward to 2011. We have fixed most of our errors and will do better next season, I hope. Even with all our problems it was profitable and paid for our construction, so next season we will not build or buy anything but eggs, feed and maintance.
We still have maybe 1000 quail & 100 pheasants to sell, but they are called for and will go shortly, except the February birds, if they live through the harsh weather.

Pics From This Season

2010-10-22T11:36:00.001-05:00

Top pic is one of our fly pens attached to a brooder barn.

Next pic is our new logo designed by;

Artist Mark Skidmore; http://earth-monster.com/emi/

Then the OQF sign at farm entrance, also by Mark Skidmore.

Next is the curious quail.

Last is a big covey of quail feeding.

Lots of Quail Needed

2010-10-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

Just as I thought, no matter how many birds we raise it doesn't seem to be enough. All our birds are booked through Feb 2011 and I am contracting for next fall already. Had a call from another quail farm in North Mo., they do about 20,000 and due to health are going to shut down. If we're not careful, not only will the wild quail be in great shortage so will the farm raised. Had our first bunch of pheasant processed yesterday and my daughter in law delivered them to a restaurant. Really interested in how they will sell there. It's a ole' English pub type place so they should do well. If I can get the processing fee a little lower for the quail I will sell them for meat also. It appears we will be doing alot of field trial quail business in the future. We take them to the area and let them go into their fly pens and leave. Makes it very thorough and quick. Almost hate to answer my phone fearing I have to tell someone 'No' for quail. As an old retailer I never like to miss a sale.

Last Setting of Eggs

2010-09-04T12:44:00.000-05:00

We decided to set another 500 eggs. That will make the birds full grown in Mid January. We are still getting a lot of calls for birds and I have a feeling it will get worse (or better) as we get into fall. Having to tell folks we are all sold out. I really hate doing that. I believe we could sell many, many more than we raise, so I am going to have to ponder this winter on whether to expand or be content. It will depend on whether Debbie wants more work. We had over 6" of rain a couple days ago and it flooded all the flypens. Only lost about 50 birds, thank goodness. Spoke to a guy in Texas that said a few years back they had a mini flood and they lost many thousands. That would have wiped us out. The restaurants are excited about serving our pheasants. If they sell alot this winter I may build an area only for meat birds. Still really enjoying doing this. My buddy Mark is going to help me catch and transport the birds I have to deliver. That will be a great help.

Incubator Full / They've Started Picking Up Quail

2010-08-03T11:56:00.000-05:00

We filled up the incubators with fresh eggs and we have had hunters/dog trainers already coming out to pick up a few hundred of the 11 week old fly pen birds. I had rather sell 16 week mature birds but they insist on getting the younger ones. They stay coveyed better they say when they release them at the younger age. It's their money so I just do what they ask. These fellows hand out hundred dollar bills for these critters like it's nothing. This business can be real profitable if you watch your expenses. I'm on track to do over $50,000 in bird sales. We so far have lost very few for whatever reason and my feed costs are staying under $20.00 per hundred. Once in a while a coon or something will dig under the pen. I don't know if they eat any, but I do know a few birds go out the hole before I plug it. I had maybe 30 birds loose on the outside so I bought a call back cage and put a noisy rooster in it. It worked great. I think I caught them all back. Also, I went to Harbor Freight sales and bought 3 live traps. 2 coons are now moved elsewhere. I baited the traps with ham sandwiches, they loved 'em.

More Chicks - More Eggs - Too HOT

2010-07-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

We hatched another 2500+ quail and have them all in brooders. Since we improved our brooding barn system we have lost very few chicks. Had something dig under one of the fly pens a little. They didn't get in but a few quail escaped. We see the loose birds trying to get back in with the others, but we can't get close enough to catch them. I am going to buy a call back cage and recover them. I also picked up a critter cage trap when I went to MFA to pick up feed. Hope to catch them and not our barn cat. Norman and I are driving to Kansas on Monday and pick up 3,000 more eggs. We will put them in incubators when we get back to farm. Still getting some calls for fall bird sales and a couple more calls from restaurants for processed birds. Really enjoying doing this. It is SOOOOOO hot though. One thing bad about my stroke is it screwed up my brains thermostat. I get very hot & sweaty very quick. It wears me out and I have to rest. We have automated most everything with barrel auto waterers and I bought those 175# fly pen feeders so we fill them up only a couple times a week. (Debbie does that - she works out at the gym 5 days a week so she can lug around the 50# sacks of feed. I am so grateful and proud of her.) She keeps telling me she wants me to fire her, but that ain't happening.

Very Busy

2010-07-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Things are going very good. I have about 5,000 quail still in brooder barns. We will release 2000+ into 2 of our fly pens this coming friday. The eggs in incubator will hatch July 19/20, that will make us about 7,500 quail so far. Our son finished the new fly pens and they look great. Trying to talk him into building 4 more this fall. He has a new job and a baby coming so I will just hire someone else. Our newest brooder barn has 700 pheasants that are 3 weeks old. Just ordered 1,000 blinders for them. Putting them on is a lot of work and with my disabilities I'm not much help. We are still getting lots of inquiries for both quail & pheasants. The field trial people are ordering 200-400 each. I like the pheasants but they take up so much fly pen space I can't make as much profit for the room I have as I can the quail. Have some restaurants waiting to buy them this fall. We are now getting our eggs out of Kansas. Hopefully they will give us a good hatch like the Texas eggs do (about 85%). We have started buying feed at our MFA by the ton. That saves 15% and they are very kind to this old crippled guy. I miss my old career, but really enjoying this gamebird raising and the people I meet. Hopefully I can make enough to cover my big initial outlay of $$.

Round 2 for Eggs

2010-05-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

I received round 2 of my spring eggs today and have filled my incubators up. The first batch was really fertile and I'm sure these will be, too. Still do a little work daily as I strive to make the farm more handicap friendly. Grain crops are growing in the flypens and I am still getting calls for fall birds every few days. I am not doing anymore
contracts but people still want on the list if I have any left. I am entertaining more expansion next year as my wife is hinting at quitting her part time job and staying home with me and farming the quail. What have I started!!!
She says we could take off in January & February and spend winter on the beach. We'll see!

They Haved Hatched

2010-05-19T08:45:00.001-05:00

I had 2562 hatch from my sitting of 3000 eggs. Very pleased with that rate. They have been placed in my brooders and we haven't lost any yet. We are still working on the flypens and should finish the heat in pheasant barn next week. It's a good start to the new year and the contraptions I devised to allow me to do the work being handicapped really makes me feel good about this quail farming. Should get in another batch of eggs in a week. Gives us time to clean out the mess made from the last hatch.

It Has Begun - Yea!!

2010-04-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

I received my first batch of 3,000 eggs yesterday and with the help of my father we racked them and put in the incubators. Plugged in the power default alarm ( sometimes us country folk lose power for no reason), this is a moneysaver. Hate to lose all the eggs due to no heat. I have my generator hooked up ready to throw the transfer switch if power is off more than a few minutes. In 23 days the fun really starts.

It's About to Begin

2010-04-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

We are just a few days from setting our first eggs of the season. I am ready to go. The incubators and hatchers have been disinfected and temp tested. Our new brooder room (good for 2,000 birds) is ready, all but the pine chip floors. Our new brooder barn (a 4,000 bird capacity) will be built next week and we are close to done with the 4 new flypens. It appears I will need to expand the pheasant part. More of the preserves and restaurants want these great gamebirds. I am looking forward to seeing how much I can do physically this summer. I am grateful for my healing.

Spring Has Sprung

2010-03-31T13:52:00.002-05:00

It feels like spring today with temps almost 80. I have my incubators ready for eggs. I finished my smaller brooder barn last weekend and I am itchin'to begin. It's bad enough being crippled up, but ad in the cold weather when you are mostly house bound and it really makes cabin fever set in. My egg supplier called yesterday for payment and told me he would ship on April 20. Which hopefully means I will have eggs in incubator by April 23. My dad will come out and help me put them in the trays and into the cabinet. My mom has alziemers so he is with her all the time and can't get away much. This is good for him, too. My son is still working at least one day a week on the new flypens. He is a newlywed so I don't ask much of him. My pigeons are now setting eggs and my rabbit had a litter yesterday. Life is going on at the farm.

Getting Lots of Winter Birds Inquiries

2010-03-07T11:03:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was a little surprising. Early in the morning I received a call from South Carolina. He was from a large, very successful hunting preserve. Business had been so good he had completly ran out of quail. Apparently there is not a gamebird grower from the east coast to Missouri that has any birds left. They wanted 1,000 and would have sent a truck to pick them up. I am completely out. He said it appeared he would have to cancel a lot of reservations for hunts. Then in the afternoon I received another call from Georgia. Same thing, only he wanted 10,000 birds. They both said business was slow until after Jan 1 then it went crazy. I hate to miss sales.
I bought 2 nice plastic 55 gal barrels for the bell auto waterers, only paid $8 ea. I am going to try and buy 10 more from him. I also ordered 4 rolls of 1' netting from 3T Products for my new flypens. Today I cleaned up and heated up my GQF brooders to get them set at the correct temps. Will do my Cabinet incubators and cabinet hatchers also. It's a little early but the weather is warm and I am itching to get started.

Bought Another Incubator & Barn

2010-02-27T09:37:00.001-06:00

I placed the order to have another brooder barn built. It will be a metal building 20 x 50. I am going to attach a 20 x 150 fly pen on one end. The builder said he would get to it in April. I decided to get another 1200 egg incubator. A new one cost about $750 delivered. I checked out Craigslist for a couple weeks and found a like new 'Sportsman' model cabinet with 3 hatching trays. Just what I wanted for $300.
I am feeling physically better and want to get busy if the weather would warm. Starting to get more inquiries about buying birds from us. I have a feeling I could sell way more than I can raise. Spoke to my son and his wife about them getting more involved and then maybe we could expand.

More Booking Orders - Now More Facilities

2010-02-19T10:12:00.002-06:00

I contracted another 2,000 birds, quail order for fall. They also want some pheasant and chukars. I accepted it so now I have to build another barn and 2 more flypens. Buy more brooders and feeders and waterers. I am not going to spend over $5,000 more. At least not this year. It is exciting. I am getting that ole' business drive again but without the huge stress. After the stroke and all it did to my body and mind I really thought that drive was gone, but it's back at least enough to enjoy it. I promised my wife I wouldn't go wild. She worries, I'm grateful.

Orders and Brooders

2010-02-10T09:41:00.006-06:00

Last weekend I got fall booking orders for 7,000 bobwhite quail @ $3.75 each. This pretty much takes all my 2010 production plans and I haven't even hatched yet. Too early. I am rethinking about raising more. Might have to build 3 or 4 more flypens and another barn. Will have to really think about that - a lot more work for a retired guy. I did receive 4 more GQF brooders. They brood 125 quail for 4 weeks with very little loss, I love them, will end up with 20 of these before the season starts. Figured my feed costs from last year. With gamebird feed costing me around $19.00 per 100#, It looks like a quail from birth to 16 weeks costs me .88 cents for feed each. With egg cost I will have about $1.13 in a bird not counting fixed costs(utilities, insurance, marketing, some labor help, etc). Tired of cold and snow, I'm ready to start farming.

Booked Pheasant Chicks

2010-01-27T09:07:00.002-06:00

I decided since I'm not going to raise but about 1,000 pheasants that I would not take up my incubator time with hatching their eggs. So I booked 1,000 pheasant chicks for May 1 delivery. Haven't raised any pheasants before so I am really looking forward to that. Over the weekend we went to a local restaurant that specializes in locally grown meats and produce. He said he wanted to start serving our quail and pheasants later. Could be a good sales area for us. I also found a USDA inspected meat processor that said he would process the quail for $1.25 each and pheasants for $2.25. I think for the long run I'd rather have all my meat done with a USDA stamp on the package for restaurant sales. I also purchased a $500,000
liability insurance policy. Better safe than sorry. Getting cabin fever !!! Been flying my white homing pigeons everyday. It's amazing how they always come home. Hope to do some funerals and weddings this spring. Won't charge any $$, just as a service and to stay busy.

Sold a Breeder Set

2010-01-16T10:41:00.002-06:00

Since I am going to raise way more birds than I can get eggs out of my breeders capacity, I decided to sell a set of my breeder cages. We had a nice farmer girl from North Missouri come down and buy them. as I mentioned before, one of the main reasons I am doing this is to stay connected and I love the farm culture.

New Years Beginning

2010-01-04T09:48:00.002-06:00

It is now the first Monday in the new year. We have 5 inches of snow, but I am ready to start raising quail again. Yesterday we took 30 butchered quail and 6 partridge out of our freezer and tonight we are having a family and friend dinner at our house. Deer meat, fish and quail. I will cook them on my Big Green Egg cooker. It doesn't get any better. I am setting up my Quickbooks accounting program for this years business and before I started this days blog I just order 8,000 bobwhite eggs. They will be delivered 2000 at a time beginning April 1. I am feeling better and even though it is real slow I think my leg and arm is still progressing. Probably never get back to normal, but I will always keep hope and be happy in my skin wherever the Lord leads. Happy New Year.

The New Years Plans

2010-01-01T11:19:00.003-06:00

It is Jan 1 2010 . All the birds were gone by mid November. I could have sold at least 3 times more without much effort. In fact I keep getting phone calls from dog trialers, trainers, preserves and for meat birds. We are booking orders for next falls birds. As I mentioned before, I am not doing this for a money business. For almost 3 decades I owned businesses that sold many millions of dollars of stuff. I do not want to get back into that stressful, 'I have to sell this' situation. In fact we are donating our profits to keep this little hobby just a hobby for me to keep active. I really enjoyed last years quail raising. I learned a lot, made a bunch of mistakes, but mostly I loved the culture of the quail hunting people. I made some new friends and look forward to 2010. Although I am not doing it for a moneymaker, the business guy in me still likes to see growth. So I am expanding. My plan is:

1. Raise 8,000 bobwhites, 1,000 ringneck pheasants & 1,000 chukar partridge.
2. I am building 3 more 100' x 30' flypens. (My son has 1 started)
3. Have another 25'x 15' brooder house built.
4. Purchase 5 more GQF brooders.
5. Sell meat birds to a local 'natural' grocery store.
6. Go to 3 -4 farmers markets for selling meat birds.
7. Look to make more new friends

It's Time For the Birds to Go To Work

2009-12-31T10:39:00.001-06:00

The 16 weeks it takes to grow the quail to full maturity is now over, it is late October. I decided to do a little more marketing. I listed the birds on Craigslist and had about 30 inquiries. Again, most didn't have any permits so I helped them get that process underway. I told them I am sure I would be out of birds. I also lost maybe a half dozen birds in the flypens from whatever happened.(they will fight)I decided to see if there was a market for dead birds. There is! I found a large taxidermist that bought every dead bird I had, as long as its feathers were intact. Helps a little with feed costs instead of throwing them out. I decided to contact the states department of agriculture and have them come out to certify my farm as NPIP. This was an interesting testing blood process and the agent was great. I passed so we are a certified NPIP - AI quail farm now. We built a website and had a couple hunting preserves contact us with an offer to buy all the quail. It was at a reduced price from what I was asking so I said if I had any left they could have them. I might look at preselling a couple thousand next year at a cheaper price to preserves just to have a guarantee sell of at least some, we'll see later.
So its time to let the hunters have their birds. We had 200 birds go out at 13 weeks old they really needed them and they flew really hard. I had approx 1,000 birds in the pen to start with and had 800 pre sold without really trying very hard to sell. I called the guys and they all came out and helped me cage them and left very happy.

FlyPen & Selling

2009-12-30T08:54:00.002-06:00

It's mid September and the birds have been in the flypen for a couple weeks. I am well pleased at their progress. I had only had 4 birds die in there. They are eating alot, my feed bill is high, but what I expected. Just a part of doing business. While the birds are maturing I have been marketing them. After 25 years in the hunting & fishing industry I have a huge network of potential quail customers. I have an email list of just over 10,000. Knowing I could overwhelm myself with orders I elected to just send out 1,000 emails asking if anyone was interested in either live birds or meat birds. The return was indeed great. Many of my old customers just wanted to wish me good health and tell me they missed me. (I spent 2 hours reading these with tears in my eyes as I remembered the past and how much I truly loved my career that was cut short). I booked about 500 live bird sales from these guys just for working their dogs and could have sold all the 1,000 birds I had, but most people didn't realize they had to get a special permit to have live bobwhite quail in their possesion. I told the rest of the inquiries how to get the permit knowing that if just a small percentage of them got it I could not supply them with enough birds. I also sold about 100 of the quail as processed meat for those that remembered feasting on them in their youth and missed that table fare. (there is a lot of potential business in processed birds around the Ozarks).
I am selling the birds at a minimum of 16 weeks old when they are fully grown. This would be late October.

1,000 Babies, Now What!!

2009-12-18T15:36:00.003-06:00

It is late June and eggs have now spent 20 days turning in the incubator, so I stopped turning them and placed them in the brooder cabinet. Raised the humidity to 70% and left temp at 95 degrees. 3 days later I have a little over 1,000 baby bobwhite quail. Am well pleased because I had almost 80% hatch rate. So now its time to put in the brooders. While I waited for this hatch I had to get more brooder space. I decided to purchase 5 GQF gamebirds brooders. I am really looking forward to using these. I believe they will make it a lot easier than the cages I had built earlier and the 5 cages will hold about 600 bobwhite chicks. (pic above). So I filled these up with chicks and put the other 400+ in the wood & wire cages with the 250 watt red bulb heat lamps. I am getting more factory brooders, it takes a LOT less space to brood the chicks. After 4 weeks went by I was amazed at how much better I did with the GQF brooders. I lost hardly any chicks compared to the homemade brooders where they would 'pile up' some. With the outside of cage feeders and waterers it was so very easy. Since I am handicapped this made the job very doable. I now believe I can do this. I now took the brooders to my pre-flypen barn (My wife and son really did)released them from the door on the brooder, where the birds will stay inside on the ground but still under some heat for 4 more weeks. I have set up the automatic bell type waterers connected to a 50 gallon plastic barrel outside the barn that catches rainwater runoff. really works great. For food I use big 30# feeders that last a few days so I dont disturb the birds. Dont want them getting used to human contact so they will be wilder for hunting. After 4 weeks (8 weeks total) I am opening the release door in back of barn and turning in to my 100' flypen. (which I am having built while they are in the barn)

The Next Step

2009-12-16T10:38:00.004-06:00

It is now June. If afraid after 3 decades of being a retail businessman the desire to sell and see a business grow is still very strong. The doctor said I had to keep both physically and mentally active. I wasn't doing it for the money this time, more as a rewarding hobby, so the stress was not there like before. The doctors tell me to be less stressful, right! So I decided on the budget I would use to expand and since I am physically screwed somewhat I had to ask my wife for her help. Of course, she jumped in there with me. It is fun for her dealing with all the babies. Now the poop is another story, but that worked itself out.
So I had a 15 x 30 brooder barn built and some 12 foot rows of open top cages that a handicapped guy could lean over to feed and water. They worked great. I knew I didn't have enough egg layers to supply me with fresh hatching eggs, but I enjoyed taking care of the breeders and gathering eggs so I kept them and sold the eggs. I decided to spend the money and get a cabinet incubator, so I bought the GQF 1500 series Professional cabinet model that incubates over 1200 quail eggs at a time.
I was ready to go so I bought 1200 eggs from a huge gamebird farm in Texas. He shipped them securely, I set them in the cabinet incubator, set the heat and turning controls, filled the humidity bucket and was off and waiting for 20 days to go by.

My First Plan

2009-12-15T08:47:00.007-06:00

I decided to buy a few pharoah quail. 2 males and 6 females.(this is early March, 2009) Harvest their eggs , incubate them and learn how to raise them up to adults. So I got a small 100 egg incubator, put a weeks worth of harvested eggs in and wait the 17 days. It ended up being about 30 eggs and about 20 hatched. I placed them in a plastic brooder tub with a heat lamp and 100 watt bulb over them. Amazingly I only had 2 die in the 2 weeks they stayed in the tub. By this time they were getting a lot bigger, so I had a friend build me an 8 foot 2 section cage with 1/2 inch wire on the sides and bottom. I placed it in my barn, put in the young birds and a heat lamp. After 7 weeks total they all were alive and full grown. Eating and crapping constantly. So now what do I do? I spoke with another friend about doing this and he knew a guy that raised the Bobwhite quail, which is what I wanted to raise. I visited his place and got hooked. He had a great story about why he was doing this. He was a business executive that lost his wife to cancer shortly after they had retired. He was lonely out on his farm all by himself after 40+ years of marriage. He had bird hunted for years but that had really slowed down. So he decided to raise about 1,000 quail a season, process and package them. He would put 4 or 5 in a bag and tell his old or new friends from church or werever and ask them if they liked quail meat. If they did or wanted to try it he would tell them to drop by his place and pick some up. They loved coming out to his farm and he loved having the visitors. He is a good man. I thought since I had a stroke and was trying to heal I to was lonely since I couldn't get out much. I would give this a try. I built up my pharoah stock since they were a lot easier to raise and are full grown in 7 weeks. I had my son butcher a bunch of them and freeze them for me. I too enjoyed giving them away. But I found most people wanted the white meat bobwhite instead of the dark meat pharoah, so I made the change. I bought 7 breeding cages (each cage had 3 sections with each section holding 2 females and 1 male). So I had 21 sections full of birds.(Picture of a 5 cage rack shown above) I bought 40 female and 20 male bobwhites as my egg producing stock. In a weeks time I had about 150 eggs.

Why I Started

2009-12-14T10:16:00.003-06:00

Raised in a tiny Missouri Ozarks town in the 50's and 60's I grew up everything country. My dad and I hunted and fished a lot. After finding myself I decided I wanted to make a career in the Fishing and Hunting business. Myself and my business partnered open a very successful retail and wholesale business in that field. After 25 years of enjoying this I had some serious health issues and had to retire. After 2 years of healing I new it was time to get back to a more active life. Always loving to quail hunt and knowing how the bobwhite quail was almost gone from the Ozarks, yet the demand to hunt them was still very strong. Doing my research showed me there is a great demand for these birds among dog trainers, hunting preserves, field trial organizations and just simply for food. So in March 2009 I began my quest to get back to life through this wonderful bird. I am enjoying it so very much.