QUAIL PAST AND PRESENT
BY
MICHAEL ROBERTS

This is an excellent book all about coturnix quail, the history and management for hobby and profit.

This book will tell you everything you need to know about keeping, breeding and housing coturnix (japanese) quail.

This book has some excellent colour photographs of the following colour mutations of coturnix (japanese) quail:-

melanistic tuxedo, dual purpose and meat quail, golden tuxedo, tri-colour tuxedo, british white, italian laying, light pharaoh, pharaoh female, golden, british range, dark british range, red tuxedo, black backed white, melanistic, fawn backed white etc.

There are also many other photographs of quail equipment, incubators, eggs ready for setting, quail in breeding cages, quail coops and runs and housing, commercial breeders etc.

Contents of the book are as follows:-

introduction
quail in the wild
man's association with quail
hunting quail
quail calls
how do I start (hatching eggs, young laying birds)
methods of keeping quail
hobbyist (a coop and run in the garden, indoor run or cage / aviary, moving quail)
commercial (on the floor, in cages)
food and feeding stations
water and low pressure drinking systems
breeding (in-breeding, cock to hen ratio for mating and fertility, hatchability)
breeding or laying shed (lighting, territory)
sexing (colour, size, foam balling, the vent shape, call)
eggs (collection of eggs, storage of eggs)
incubation (candling)
brooders (hobbyist and small commercial)
commercial brooding and rearing
killing, plucking and finishing (home consumption)
commercial slaughtering
diseases and ailments (quails on the floor, quail in cages, quail in aviaries, quail in the school)
economics
marketing (fresh quail eggs, cooked quail eggs, quail for zoo food, rearing quail for pet shops, quail for laboratories, quail for meat, quail for the ethnic market)
school project
quail sayings and quotations
weight (imperial to metric)
list of suppliers

What a list!

I have bred quail for 20 years and have a large collection myself and I can't really see that this b ook misses anything out.  The knowledge this book conveys for £8.00 is second to none.  I very much recommend the purchase of this book if you keep quail or are thinking of keeping quail.