USQUAIL's Quail School is based on the basic principles of primary education. It's a great starting point to learn about the basic's to answer the How to... Quail?" questions you may have in a familiar structure.

"Alright class. Settle down... Jimmy, stop fiddling with Maggie's pigtails!" Today we are going to learn all about Quail!"

You know the drill. We've all been there. School is about learning how to do the basic stuff it takes to learn how to learn to do it better. Quail School is just that. It is by no means the all-inclusive educational resource that Harvard President's would want to plagiarize from, but none the less, it does provide a foundation for which non-quail owners, "quail newbies", and the rest of us quail-edumakated quail folk can converse, grow a relationship and perhaps exchange some commerce. Quail school is a useful resource to have in your pocket when Customer Karen wants to buy 4 quail chicks in January for she/her kids because she saw a cute Instagram post yesterday, and she thought a "brooder" was just a way to describe bad behavior (mal-behavior? dis-behavior? who knows, right?). Many successful established quail businesses have created more higher levels of learning that they host on their website at the expense of many painstaking hours of dedicated keyboard time, such as Zack from Myshire Farms "Quail University" that discusses genetics to achieve the German pastel color morph. That is not this, and this is not that. But it is essential none the less, "Quail-essential" one may say. And as with all of our USQuail materials... since we are a "member-owned" cooperative, feel free to add a link to the Quail School page in your own website (or ask us for the embed code if it's not posted) or add the quail school module in a new website you create using our resource suggestions or one we create for you... because you are too busy selling quail now that you are a member of the US Quail Cooperative! As for Zack's Quail University... I will have to reach out to him and get him to become a member. I want to do a podcast with him on our QuailTV soon anyway. But that's another post.

Back to school, I want to take you for a spin around the classroom and show you how this will be enabled once you become a member. Think of this as Parent-Teachers Day. This short video clip hopefully playing above is the starting point for the various lesson modules, or the "IN-tro" part of an interactive video. Once you click on a lesson such as Language for example, you will interact with that lesson's content and will be returned to a similar lesson selection snippet in the OUT-tro as you selected from at the end of the intro. Complicated? No, not for you but we had to have an extra dose of Brain Force Ultra to make sure it worked as designed. All you need to know is when asked, make a choice or simply "play all" and get schooled.

LESSON PLAN:

• LANGUAGE - We were going to title this "English" but we broadened the scope as we hope to include both an English and Spanish lesson that teaches in bilingual fashion. Want to know the Spanish word for "Brooder"? (hint: it's not brooder-o) Take the class. The language module is basic quail vocabulary including grammar where appropriate (Quail pl. is Quail, not quails. example: "1 quail, 2 quail, 3 quail a covey."). These are basic necessary words and phrases, the dictionary description, and a photo or two. The narration provides for proper phonetics and pronunciation. After completing the Language module, anyone can talk Quail- talk. And if you're anything like us, we all know how you love to quail talk!

• HISTORY - This is more of a story about the Old World Quail and the New World Quail, where they came from, how they got here and for what purposes they are best suited for. The module also addresses quail in various cultures and includes a few recipes that are as good today as they were when they were first cooked up.

• MATH - The "quail math" module is more of a visual calculator tool to help new quail owners decide just how many quail to buy in order to achieve their desired results. For Example, Jaun wants to start feeding his family of 4 quail eggs a couple times a week. I suggest that maybe someday he would want to have his quail pay rent and cover the cost of their keep. Running the numbers, including the cost of "housing" and "food" (cage & feed for those of you who watched the Language lesson), and deciding upon whether to buy day old chicks vs ready-made laying hens, Juan can determine just how many babies he wants to buy to get 10 hens. We often pre-refer folks to "quail school" who text us that are just getting started so they can know what they want based on knowledge. We are working on an online calculator (Google sheets or .xl spreadsheet) that will do all these calculations for you.

• HEALTH - Recognition of the signs and symptoms of good health versus illness is essential. For us breeders we know that one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch at times. We go over what eggs to choose to incubate for best results, various illness one may encounter when raising quail and the susceptibility depending upon their environs. We discuss "medicated" feed, GMO vs non-GMO feed and the various optimal protein and calcium content, and we discuss medications, treatments and pre-treatment routines to help keep both bird and farmer happy. We also talk an alternative look into the dreaded "Avian Flu" and offer comment from leading scientists that may provide a different viewpoint. There is an attack on our poultry supply. It's always a good idea to know thy enemy.

• SEX-ED - How to "sex" your quail at various ages and color morphs, how quail sex, themselves, and the wisdom to know the difference. Knowing how to determine the sex of your quail is very important... especially to the other quail. We delve into mating habits of wild and contained quail and the best methods to prevent aggression and over-mating, fertility rates and the like. Unless you are only planning to own a small number of hens so you can have enough eggs to have "omelet day", you should become educated on how to know the sex of a quail. After all, how will you know if the guy you bought your quail from isn't selling you roosters? (hint: one good way to purchase quail from a trusted, vetted breeder is to only purchase from US Quail members!)

• SHOP CLASS - Shop glass deals with all of the DIY tricks you will want to know how to do to save money and take pleasure in knowing that you Did it Yourself! We share photo expose's of many USQuail member projects from automatic feeders and drinker systems, cage building tips, temperature-controlled brooder heaters... all the way to making a 700-egg incubator out of a dishwashing machine.

• BIOLOGY - Here we look at the various breeds and "exotics" options available and discuss the pro's cons and economics of raising each. We look at size (Button quail - Jumbo Quail), Color (various genetic breeding techniques), and Breed (Coturnix, N. Bobwhite, Gambel, Montezuma, to the ultra rare not seen in 80 years Manipur Bush Quail). Knowing what niche you want to focus on and why you want to raise quail starts with understanding the biology. This time, you can "trust the science".

• SOCIOLOGY - Or "How quail interact with each other in various environments 101". Quail are funny little beasties. They do not like changes but prefer routine. From their food, their cage mates, the lighting... anything that disrupts the routine, disrupts their social behavior. This is further explained and interdependent upon the next course below...

• PSYCHOLOGY - Think like a quail and you will begin to understand why they behave the way they do. If you understand that a Quails Life is dependent upon only 3 things, then you can begin to create environments to minimize disruption and therefore stressors upon a bird or it's covey. These three things are Food/water (eating), Predation (not getting eat-ed), and sex (making the love). Thats all they think about. We show you how those needs can be most effectively met in a controlled environment,

• PHYS-ED - "Gym Class" was always a favorite of mine. Playing is Fun! It disrupts boredom and idle hands are the devil's work (or something like that). Her we discuss "sand baths" (after gym showers?) and how to make the sand medium, best sand box designs, and how often it should be offered to keep cage aggression at a minimum, keep scale mites at bay, help minimize "bumblefoot", and control boredom so we have no school yard bullies.

In conclusion, quail school is a useful tool to use as an educational prompt for your quail business customers, or if you are just learning about quail and may someday want to join us in our Parallel Poultry initiative and start raising quail for profit. There has never been a greater need for a diversified alternative to globalized corporate controlled or printed meat GMO-laced mRNA "Food Factories". Not having to create this tool for your own use is the model of our entire cooperative. If you make something that is useful to the cooperative, post it, share it, make it... we are all in this together. Join US Quail and take advantage of Quail School, QuailTV podcasting feed, marketing templates and more. Start posting blogs, upload photos to the gallery or creating videos to help us flesh out our content. The better our content, the higher the SEO ranking, the more buyers visit looking for Quail near you, and the more new quail businesses we build into the network.

~ US Quail Cooperative

QUAIL SCHOOL