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Teen turns quail raising hobby into full-time job
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP)--Nick Hoskinson says it was partly his dad's idea, who told him about his teenage hobby of raising a few quail at his family's farm.
Not that Marty Hoskinson ever imaged his Haven home would be swarming with newborn chicks from April to August, either.
By summer's end, the Haven High School sophomore will have hatched more than 6,000 quail at his Covey Rise Quail Farm, turning what started as a hobby a few years ago into a full-fledged business.
Now the 16-year-old carries a cell phone, has an Internet site and advertises his business on the side of the Dodge Ram truck he drives to school and uses to haul the upland game birds to customers.
"I decided I wanted a little bigger project, and it's turned into a full-time job," Nick said while watching 865 week-old chicks scurry in a pen.
It is his first hatch of the season, and his excitement for the business is just getting started.
The growing number of hunters wanting to train dogs and stock pastures and game bird farms has aided in this teen's success. He now plans to keep the business going as an adult, saving his profits so he can someday buy land to grow and expand his enterprise.
He doesn't have time for sports, hurrying home to scour his breeding pens for newly laid eggs--around 100 a day.
Not that he minds, he said. He has plenty to keep him busy between his daily chores of feeding and aiding in the delivery of several thousand bobwhites, mowing 12 local lawns and finding time to golf and hunt in between.
The quail eggs eventually go into an incubator, then to a hatchery, where baby quail peck out of their shells.
The process continues all summer long, which also includes hauling quail to buyers.
Part of his Haven High School's FFA chapter, Nick uses the quail farm as his supervised agriculture experience project--with hopes of winning state and national awards for his efforts his senior year.
"Before I graduate, I want to get up to 10,000 birds," he said, adding that he would increase it by more if he had the space.
Now, his father's friend is allowing him to use some of his land to keep the birds.
His parents, Marty and Nancy Hoskinson, didn't dream that part of their garage would be alive with quail, but they are glad their son has learned lessons from the experience, including responsibility.
And Nancy Hoskinson says she enjoys making trips to the quail farm, listening to the birds' bobwhite calling.
"He is doing a good job," Marty Hoskinson said. "He might as well do something that he likes to do."
He does enjoy it, Nick said, adding that it's nice when the season is almost over.
"You celebrate when you have the first hatch," he said. "You celebrate when you have the last one."
Date: 6/24/04
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