We plan on eating the eggs for now, then hatch a bunch of birds and cull old, small, and extra male birds for meat.

From what I know, 4 or 5 quail eggs equal one chicken egg. And they are supposed to taste the same. What's awesome is the volume of eggs. 1 egg per bird per day on average. I have 17 hens, so figure 15 eggs a day. That's 450 eggs a month! Or 90 to 112 chicken eggs. And the feed to egg/meat ratio is smaller for quail.

The real reason I looked into quail is the small startup cost and minimal effort needed to raise them compared to chickens and ducks. Chickens and ducks make noise too. Quail are almost silent. You could raise them in the city in your garage and your neighbor would never know.