Quail Breeders Australia?

Hello all
I've recently caught a severe case of Poultryitis, and so have gone on a bender towards all things poultry. And one of the species I'm having trouble tracking is Quail... Any suggestions? I live near-ish Canberra.

Poultryitis is indeed very infectious...

I had extreme difficulty tracking down my first quail. I ended up doing a 5 hour round trip to get my first 8. Unfortunately they can be hard to get a hold of and get a hold of good quality/healthy birds, if you were in Queensland I would definitely be able to provide more help as there are a few good breeders here once you are able to locate them.

I would recommend goggling poultry farms nearby and enquiry to see whether they deal with quail. Also try gumtree. Do be careful with who you buy from though, do some research before you dive in.

My second group of quail I bought was from a lovely lady who just did it for fun as such and had much more enthusiasm for chooks. All 5 were "sexed" as hens. One has ended up being a male which is about to head to the chopping block and one I bought was extremely weak and had most of her back feathers pulled. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get her back to health and she passed away a week later. I then had to quarantine the birds due to concern that she died from Coccidiosis as the quail were mixed in with chooks. I guess I am trying to say don't be too impulsive (as I did when I started) and buy anything you can get your hands on.

Do you have an incubator? If I went back and did it again I would buy fertile eggs and start from hatching my own.

Thanks for the help!

I do have an incubator... but I'm not sure just how reliable it is... as it was pulled out of my father's shed (one of many) recently. And hasn't been used.
So before I try and hatch anything semi-exotic, I'll probably pick up some fertile chicken eggs from a neighbor (or wait until my polish is all grown up) and see if they hatch.

Good idea!

Definitely recommend doing some research on quail chicks if you are going to go down that path. Many people seem to have trouble with them once hatched but others do very well with no issues.

If you don't have a local source for fertile quail eggs there are a few farms in Australia that will post and are very reputable. I have Imperial Gamebirds on my Christmas list this year to get some eggs. They do have a backlog though so need to order in advance if you want them on a certain date.

Where are these said QLD quail breeders? I am on the hunt for 100 jap quail hens.

If you have facebook join the "everything quail Australia" group, there's sales on there quite often

Hi guys right now I am very upset . Today i noticed my quail couldn't stand up and walk and she has a big bump under her foot "bumblefoot" She can eat and move a little but couldn't stand or walk I desperately want to help her recover. What should i do to treat her foot? Thanks!

Dick

Rainbowflakes said:

Hi guys right now I am very upset . Today i noticed my quail couldn't stand up and walk and she has a big bump under her foot "bumblefoot" She can eat and move a little but couldn't stand or walk I desperately want to help her recover. What should i do to treat her foot? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Oh no!
You will need to perform a surgery to remove the infection (or get someone else. I.e. a vet). If you go to Learning Center > Maintaning a Healthy Flock > Chicken Injuries and Diseases > Bumblefoor Surgery you can a detailed report on how to fix it.

Oh, I hear ya on your troubles finding quail. My daughter, with my help has decided she wants to breed them to make pocket money after we realised they are hard to get yet highly sought after. She was introduced to them 2 years ago when her grandfather bought several to control the bugs in his vegie patch only to have several die fairly soon after buying them, (fox trouble on the farm and other predators, not disease), so he bought some eggs in for my daughter to incubate. Only had 5 eggs and all but one hatched with that one not being fertile! Anyway, to cut a long story short she was hooked! (And maybe me a little bit too .) So the journey began and then last year we had a few too many, only a few, so advertised them for sale on gumtree without stating how many we had for sale. Within a day or so a guy rang up wanting to buy 50!!! We only had 5 for sale. LOL.

Anyway, to try and keep the story short we needed new bloodline to continue breeding, and have found it quite difficult to find fertile quail eggs, especially in Victoria. Not much help but just wanted to share.

We have had this happen a couple of times and until just very recently I didn't even know what it was. Anyway, all of ours that have it recovered spontaneously but it seems that it should be treated. Hope you can help the little bird.