Quail farming

Cage-reared quail. Laying starts in 35-45 days; an egg costs about Tk 1.20 to produce and sells wholesale at Tk 2.80-3.50. The market is narrow, and the bigger money is in selling chicks.

Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
Version 1

Quail farming

Starting capital: ৳35,000 – ৳2,50,000
Manpower: 1 – 3 people
First sale: 35 – 49 days
Break-even: 3 – 6.5 months
Kind of work: Farm · Medium difficulty

About the business

Quail are small birds kept in cages, and the money turns over fast. Chicks start laying within 35-45 days and keep laying for about eighteen months, on 20-25 grams of feed a bird a day. Imran Khan in Dinajpur sells eggs at Tk 3 each and day-old chicks at Tk 7-8, and once the birds stop laying they go to hotels at Tk 300 a kg. A Chandpur farmer puts the cost of producing one egg at Tk 1.20 against a wholesale price of Tk 2.80-3.50. The arithmetic is attractive, but one thing has to be said plainly: the market for quail eggs and meat is nothing like the chicken market. It is small, urban, and leans on hotels and restaurants. A village bazaar will not absorb a thousand eggs a day. Notice that almost everyone earning real money has put in an incubator and sells chicks, not just eggs: Shamim Al Mamun in Tangail sells about two lakh chicks a month at a profit of Tk 2-3 each. Eggs keep you alive; chicks are how you grow. Egg sales rise in winter and fall in the heat. Starting with 500 birds is the sensible way in - Sagar Bhuiyan in Gopalganj began with Tk 35,000.

Unit economics

Item	Range	Evidence
Monthly working capital	৳24,000 – ৳46,000	Editorial estimate
Selling price	৳3 – ৳4 / unit	Market quote
Variable cost	৳1 / unit	Market quote
Gross margin	57% – 66%	Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue	35 – 49 days	Disputed
Break-even time	3 – 6.5 months	Editorial estimate
Cash cycle	0 – 7 days	Editorial estimate
Waste / loss	5% – 12%	Editorial estimate
Daily capacity	600 – 900	Market quote

What you need to start

Tiered cages at about eight birds per square foot, feeders and drinkers, brooder heat, and a generator for load-shedding.Equipment
Day-old chicks at Tk 7-8 each and laying birds at Tk 65-70. Five hundred chicks is Tk 3,500-4,000.Starting stock
Poultry farm registration from the Upazila Livestock Office. Required: attested national ID copy, citizenship certificate, undertaking, two photographs, a handwritten application, land deed copy and, where applicable, a Department of Environment NOC. The fee is paid by treasury chalan (code 1-4441-0000-2335, VAT 1-1133-0020-0311). The amount is not published on the office page and must be asked for at the counter.Licence
Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type.Licence
Stocking density, heat and vaccination timing. Get any of the three wrong and the flock goes down. The same vaccines as chickens are used.Skill
A steady feed supplier and a dependable hatchery. Large hatcheries in Tangail and Dinajpur ship chicks nationwide.Supplier

How the work is done

1Find the buyer before you buy the birds. Who in your town takes quail eggs - the egg arot, hotels, Chinese restaurants? Ask them how many a day they can actually take.
2Go to the upazila livestock office and get the poultry farm registration list: national ID, citizenship certificate, land deed, photographs and the treasury chalan.
3Take the trade licence from the union parishad or municipality.
4Set up the house. Cages are built for about eight birds per square foot, with droppings falling clear below.
5Buy day-old chicks from a hatchery you trust at Tk 7-8 each. Starting with 500 keeps the cost of mistakes down.
6Quail are vaccinated with the same vaccines as chickens; get the schedule from the upazila livestock office.
7Measure the feed. A bird eats 20-25 grams a day, so a thousand birds need 20-25 kg daily.
8Once laying starts at 35-49 days, collect at the same hour every day and send the eggs to the arot the same day.
9Keep a backup for power. Chicks and brooders need heat, and without a generator a load-shedding spell kills them.
10After eighteen months of laying, sell the flock for meat - hotels pay about Tk 300 a kg. That money is part of the return, not an afterthought.
11To grow, put in an incubator. Almost everyone earning over a lakh a month is selling chicks at a profit of Tk 2-3 each.

Seasons

JanHigh
FebHigh
MarNormal
AprNormal
MayNormal
JunNormal
JulNormal
AugNormal
SepNormal
OctNormal
NovHigh
DecHigh

HighNormalLow

Where it works well

Strong fitBogura · An older quail-farming area; even the big Tangail farmer bought his first chicks from Bogura.
Strong fitDinajpur · Traders from Bahadur Bazar lift eggs from the farm daily, and there is a working hatchery here.
Strong fitTangail · Sakhipur has one of the country's biggest quail hatcheries, shipping chicks nationwide and advising new farmers.
PossibleChandpur · Commercial farms and a hatchery, with the Dhaka market close by.
PossibleDhaka · Hotels, Chinese restaurants and health-conscious buyers make this the real egg market, though space is costly.
PossibleGopalganj · A farm with an incubator runs in the sadar upazila and the district livestock office advises.
PossibleJoypurhat · One of the northern districts whose young farmers buy chicks and set up units.
PossibleNilphamari · Inside the same hatchery belt, so chicks are easy to get.
PossibleRangpur · Divisional-town hotels and restaurants create demand and the chick supply is nearby.
PossibleThakurgaon · Many here have started farms with chicks from the Dinajpur hatchery.

Risks and cautions

HighDemand: The ceiling is low. Quail eggs are not a substitute for chicken eggs; they are an urban hotel, Chinese-restaurant and niche-buyer product. One Dinajpur farm moves 800-1,500 eggs a day, and that is close to a whole district town's appetite. A second or third farm in the same upazila starts pushing the price down, and below Tk 2.80 there is no margin over a Tk 1.20 cost.
HighDependency: The people earning well sell chicks, not eggs, and the buyers of chicks are new entrants. The Tangail farm sells two lakh chicks a month at Tk 2-3 profit each. If new entrants dry up, that income disappears and everyone falls back into the same small egg market.
HighSpoilage: Disease and heat. Chicks die without brooder heat, and load-shedding is routine now. Overcrowded cages spread infection in two days. Losing one batch of chicks costs Tk 3,500-4,000 and six weeks together.
MediumWorking capital: For 35-49 days there is only outgo - feed, power, wages. The Dinajpur farm pays two workers Tk 12,000-15,000 each a month, so Tk 24,000-30,000 leaves every month before a single egg is laid.
MediumDemand: Egg sales fall in the heat. Gopalganj farmers say quail eggs sell best and pay best in winter, yet the birds eat and the wages run all year.

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