Where can I buy quail eggs in San Diego?

At the Corner Harvest stand, 1264 Lincoln Ave in University Heights — half dozen $5, dozen $10. You can also order at cornerharvest.farm/order for yard pickup, or have them shipped anywhere in the USA from cornerharvest.farm/ship.

How big is a Coturnix quail?

A dressed bird is about four to five ounces — jumbo lines reach six to eight. Figure one to two birds a person as a main course, or one each as a first course.

How many eggs does one quail lay?

A healthy Coturnix hen lays roughly 250 to 300 eggs a year and starts at about eight weeks old, which is younger than almost any other bird you can keep.

Do quail eggs taste different from chicken eggs?

Richer, because the yolk is a bigger share of the egg. The white is a little firmer. Most people describe them as a more concentrated version of the same thing, not a different flavour.

Can I buy whole quail in San Diego?

Yes — Corner Harvest sells whole Coturnix quail at the stand in University Heights: full plumage (feathers and entrails intact, the way chefs dry-age them) for $10, or New York dressed (plucked, head and feet on, entrails in) for $12. Chef packs of five are $45. Order at cornerharvest.farm/order; quantities are small, so chefs on the flock list get first call.

← The Bird House

The Bird House · No. 01

Coturnix Quail

Name: Fresh Quail Eggs — 18, Shipped
Brand: Corner Harvest
SKU: shipeggs18
Price: 29.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

Coturnix japonica

The little brown bird that starts laying at eight weeks and never really stops. Ours live forty feet from the stand, and their eggs go from the run to your hand the same morning.

Corner Harvest raises coturnix quail on a corner lot in University Heights, San Diego.

The bird, in numbers

4–5 oz

Dressed weight

jumbo lines run 6–8 oz

8–10 wks

Hatch to the table

250–300

Eggs per hen, per year

laying from about 8 weeks old

Mild · dark · tender · clean · quick

Flavour in five words

$5 / $10

Half dozen / dozen eggs

shipped 18 for $29 · 36 for $44

$10 / $12

Whole bird: full plumage / NY dressed

chef pack of 5 = $45 · order at /order

40 ft

From the run to the stand

1264 Lincoln Ave

How it tastes, how to cook it

1
Dark meat, no gaminess
All of it is dark meat — closer to duck than to chicken, but mild. If someone tells you they don't like game birds, this is the one to hand them.
2
It cooks in minutes
A whole quail is done in about four minutes in a hot pan. The mistake everybody makes is cooking it like a chicken and drying it out.
3
Eat it with your hands
There is no dignified way. Pick it up, work the little bones, be glad nobody is watching.

Thirty minutes in salt water, four minutes in a screaming-hot cast iron pan, five minutes resting. That is the whole recipe.

A speckled Coturnix quail egg held between two fingers — One egg. Actual size.

A Coturnix quail egg sitting in the grass bedding of the run — Laid in the bedding, found the same morning.

The first quail egg from the Corner Harvest flock — The first one, from our own birds.

A New York dressed Coturnix quail — plucked clean, head and feet on — on a black board — New York dressed, plucked by hand. Not one tear.

Can you buy one?

Available today

Eggs today. Whole birds today.

Quail eggs are on the stand right now — half dozen $5, dozen $10 — and we ship them anywhere in the USA. Whole birds are on the board too: full plumage (feathers and entrails intact, for dry-aging at home) $10, or New York dressed (plucked, head and feet on) $12 — chef packs of 5 for $45. Order at cornerharvest.farm/order for pickup at the stand; chefs on the flock list get first call on each batch.

Buy eggs now Ship eggs — from $29 Join the flock list

Go deeper

How we dress a bird

Full plumage vs. New York dressed — what each means, and how we handle, chill and label them.

Read the guide→

Plucking a quail

The scald and pluck in eight illustrated steps, start to finish.

Read the guide→

Quail eggs

Five of them weigh what one chicken egg does — how to crack, cook and use a half dozen.

Read the guide→

Questions

Where can I buy quail eggs in San Diego?: At the Corner Harvest stand, 1264 Lincoln Ave in University Heights — half dozen $5, dozen $10. You can also order at cornerharvest.farm/order for yard pickup, or have them shipped anywhere in the USA from cornerharvest.farm/ship.
How big is a Coturnix quail?: A dressed bird is about four to five ounces — jumbo lines reach six to eight. Figure one to two birds a person as a main course, or one each as a first course.
How many eggs does one quail lay?: A healthy Coturnix hen lays roughly 250 to 300 eggs a year and starts at about eight weeks old, which is younger than almost any other bird you can keep.
Do quail eggs taste different from chicken eggs?: Richer, because the yolk is a bigger share of the egg. The white is a little firmer. Most people describe them as a more concentrated version of the same thing, not a different flavour.
Can I buy whole quail in San Diego?: Yes — Corner Harvest sells whole Coturnix quail at the stand in University Heights: full plumage (feathers and entrails intact, the way chefs dry-age them) for $10, or New York dressed (plucked, head and feet on, entrails in) for $12. Chef packs of five are $45. Order at cornerharvest.farm/order; quantities are small, so chefs on the flock list get first call.

Who raised this bird

Brandon Mills · Corner Harvest

The flock lives at 1264 Lincoln Ave, University Heights, San Diego, CA 92103 — the same corner lot the stand sits on. Every bird and every egg on this page is hatched, fed and gathered here. Nothing is bought in and resold.

Licensing: CDFW Domesticated Game Breeder’s License — application in progress.
Find us: 1264 Lincoln Ave, San Diego, CA 92103 · (619) 384-7039 · hello@cornerharvest.farm

Also in the Bird House

Chukar Partridge

Alectoris chukar

Priced at first hatch · flock list.

Melanistic Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

Priced at first hatch · flock list.

Raised 40 feet from where you’re standing

1264 Lincoln Ave, University Heights.

See what’s ready today