Raising Quail for "Fast Food"

Episode Highlights

• Advantage of raising quail over chicken
• Basic things to get that Franchesca recommends when raising quail for the first time
• The process of hatching, breeding, and maintaining quail
• Process of raising quails for eggs and meat
• Personality and emotions of quails that you have to take note

About Franchesca Duval

Franchesca Duval is the Head Chicken Wrangler at Alchemist Farm in Sebastopol California. She is always tinkering with chicken genetics and pushes the edges of what is possible in the world of egg color and texture. She believes that beautifully colored eggs capture the imagination of humans and gently invites them to ask where their food comes from. 

Alchemist Farm is a humane chicken and quail hatchery that is pioneering a marriage of humane treatment of poultry with regenerative agriculture. 

Franchesca's farm demonstrates that a family business can thrive while doing right ecologically with a little creativity and a lot of heart.

They are the only chicken hatchery in the United States that:

*Runs on 100% clean renewable energy.

*Is 100% zero waste and has all plastic free shipments.

*Does not kill its male chicks upon hatch, they are donated to local impoverished families who raise them for food. 

*Keeps all of its breeding groups out on pasture and not in breeding cages. 

*Breeds for temperament. They have 35 roosters on our farm and their young children can walk right up to any of them and interact. No aggressive birds stay in their breeding program.

* Chooses one organization to donate a portion of their proceeds to every year. In 2019 it was End68HoursofHunger in 2020 it is The Children’s Eternal Rainforest. They are proud participants of the 1%for the planet foundation. 

 For the latest updates from the farm they can be followed on Instagram as well as Facebook