SALEM, Ohio — In less than a year, Ava Burrows has formed an LLC, achieved National Poultry Improvement Plan/Avian Influenza monitored status through the Ohio Poultry Association and was the American Coturnix Breeders Association’s January 2025 Junior Member of the Month.
All that from a 13-year-old North Royalton Middle School seventh-grader who wanted to raise quail for a 4-H project.
North Royalton is a suburb of Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County, the most densely populated county in Ohio. So, the quail project took some thought and planning by Ava.
“We live in a city. We don’t have that much land,” Ava said. “I had chickens for a couple of years before this, and I wanted to get into more poultry, but we were already at our limit, so I found out about quail, which don’t require as much space. Cuyahoga County only allows four chickens per property.”
Ava’s community allows her to raise quail with a propagating license. “They’re much easier to have in a city,” she said. “So I decided to get some and absolutely fell in love with them.”
Things quickly grew from there. Several months later, Ava established Cluckity Homestead LLC, a licensed quail enterprise. She wanted to start selling eggs in stores, and she found that forming an LLC would be the best way to do that, she said.
Currently, Ava has 50 quail, mostly hens, and gathers 40-45 eggs daily. Her quail eggs are available at two local stores, but she wants to grow her operation.
“I want my business to expand so we can get people buying more hatching eggs,” she said. “And I want to be able to sell in more stores, honestly.”
Through her NPIP/AI-monitored status, Ava can sell hatching eggs and birds across state lines; however, she hasn’t taken advantage of that opportunity yet. She’s only sold birds locally.
Beginning
The infatuation with quail began last summer after she attended Quail Con at Myshire Farm in Miamisburg, Ohio, said Sarah Michael, Ava’s mother. She heard about Quail Con from another 4-H family that raised quail.
Michael, Ava, and her sister, Emma, spent two days attending presentations on quail breeding, culling and cage designs at Quail Con. In addition, Ava won a start-up incubator, eggs, a start-up cage and a brooder in the kids’ drawing.
Ava returned from Quail Con with a breeding pair of quail she purchased from Qwazy Quail Farm, which happened to be only about 30 minutes from her home. She also met and established a relationship with Aaron Guidroz from Guidroz Family Farm in Louisiana, with whom she frequently talks about raising quail. “He’s been Ava’s biggest influence,” Michael said.
As a junior member of the American Coturnix Breeders Association, Ava connected with other prominent breeders like Lea Kulas from Southern Biophilliac Farms in Florida and Rebecca Lynch from Theiving Otter Farms in Tennessee.
Ava frequently watches all these people on YouTube channels and communicates through Facebook.
Michael pays close attention to Ava’s involvement in the quail community, and she’s impressed at how her daughter is being supported in her endeavor.
“I found as a mom, the quail community has been wonderful, kind, inviting and shared all the knowledge and always lending a hand,” Michael said. “Even though these homesteads are far away, we feel like their friends as they’ve included Ava in some of the YouTube videos, chats, and Facebook business pages.”
4-H
This is Ava’s third year in 4-H and her first with market quail. Michael said her daughters both became interested in 4-H after visiting the Cuyahoga County Fair and talking to other 4-H members about their projects.
“They had animal meet and greets and overall were wonderful to talk to,” Michael said.
Cuyahoga County isn’t known for agriculture; in fact, it’s Ohio’s second most populous county with 1.2 million residents. It’s just below Franklin County, which is home to Columbus, with 1.3 million residents.
But that hasn’t put a damper on 4-H clubs. The county has about 15 traditional 4-H clubs with four new clubs in the works, focused on community gardens and some small farms.
“We have that strong traditional base, but we do a lot of in-school and out-of-school programming as well,” said Robin Stone, a 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator for Cuyahoga County. “We bring 4-H to the masses— last year we served over 16,000 youth in Cuyahoga County in those non-traditional and non-traditional programs.”
Stone and Kathy Augustus, the Olmstead Hayburners 4-H club advisor, also supported Ava’s undertaking.
“When she decided that she wanted to take on quail, we supported her, making sure she was going down the right path and that she had the resources she needed,” Stone said. “She’s a very driven young lady, and she just seemed to really be taken by the project.”
Being involved with 4-H for over 30 years, Augustus has seen a lot of projects, but she says Ava’s effort is unique.
“It’s rare when you run across a kid that’s going to take it this far,” Augustus said. “It’s unusual that someone is inspired to do all of this.”
Stone explains that quail was a newer 4-H project in Cuyahoga County, but it seems to be gaining in popularity. ”Now there are more kids taking quail than before. In the last year, it’s grown substantially, especially in our county,” she said.
