Brand new quail mumma!

lifeonthehill

In the Brooder
Aug 30, 2015
21
0
24
Queensland, Australia
Before I tell you my adventure so far I just want to say thank you to everyone who has posted experiences, suggestions, photos and their own adventures on here, as well as the creators of this website, with out it I probably wouldn't have quail right now.

So here's my story so far. After moving back to my families produce farm and being given a house on the property my mind started running wild with all the wonderful things I could do with this unused land surrounding the house. Chickens, ducks, a pig! And then I found this website. I started reading through threads about keeping chickens, then checking out all the different forums and came across the quails (and turkeys). I started researching and drawing plans for keeping chickens, ducks, quail and turkey, and of course leaving room for the pig...and maybe some goats. But with so much work to do to remove the old chicken coop, plus needing help with it, and changing the yard to what we wanted it didn't look l was getting chickens soon.

So I stepped up my quail research and drew plans for a quail house. Next was getting an incubator, I found one on ebay that seemed popular and matched what I wanted. It's currently evening out temps waiting for some tenants. I found scrap wood around the property, dad also brought my pieces as he found them, and I raided my builder brothers work shed and found some sander thing which dad said to use, turns out it's really fun!

My plan is 1.5m x 1m standing a bit under 1m off the ground and 30cm cage height. I got in touch with the local stockfeed guy who was a tremendous help and he put me in contact with a lady in the next town who has the quail I wanted, the jap/coturnix. I went down yesterday to see her and get some supplies from the hardware store my friend works at so she could help me get the best materials for my plan.

Currently I have 1L of beehive yellow paint, 4 planks of wood ready to cut, 1 sheet of plywood to be marked up for cutting, 3m of 50mm pipe (I don't know what it's called, just plumping stuff from the hardware shop) and as of yesterday 5 beautiful 3 week old quail! Plus the lady gave me 9 quail eggs to incubate, she said there me not be a really high hatch rate as she recently changed the breeding pairs but there are three that should definitely by fertile and they will all be going in today.

So next week I'm buying the mesh, 6.7mm for the sides so the snakes can't get in and 12.7mm for the floor, and hopefully cutting and painting all the timber. I can't upload photos right now but will try again later.

Well I hope at least one person enjoys this and I can add my experiences to the wonderful information already on here.
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Thanks @UberchicRanch and @LeafBlade12345, and good luck with your new quails too! I'm absolutely loving mine so far. They have such personality.

It's definitely keeping me on my toes today; to start with at about 3am (Qld,AUS time) we woke up to an unknown beeping, it took me a minute to realise it was my incubator and then I was up in a second. It's set up in the spare room down the hall from us, next to the bathroom for convenient middle of the night checking; but in the middle of the night when I was up I had decided I was too tired and since the temp and humidity had been stable earlier I figured it'd be fine, well I will now be checking it whenever I get up no matter how tired I feel. The lady I received the eggs from said she runs her incubator the same for quail and chicken eggs and has good hatchlings so that's what I'm doing too, it's set at 37.8c and 55-60% humidity. It does seem to need to be topped up quite regularly, only a small amount but I seem to be doing it about three times a day. Last night it was 44% and dropped to 43% as I filled it up. I've read about putting a damp sponge in to help things, so I'm going to look into that more if this topping up becomes more of an issue.

The quails seem much happier in the big produce bin and I can see their personalities more and finally one has a name! I had been next door at my parents (1.6 kms away) and returned home a few hours later only to open my kitchen door and see two little quail! Funny thing is that one ran to the dinner table and one to the fridge! After a bit of a chase I got them back in only to have the male pop through a cut out hole on the side, I still can't believe he fit through it. He has officially been named Escapee, not the most original name I know but I'm demanding it be said with an accent. There is one yellowish female who I really adore and she is getting friendlier and less scared of me topping up the food and water. Tonight she even let me graze her wing after I filled their food dish, while the others all ran to the opposite corner.

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This is from when they were in the plastic box and these are the eggs I have incubated.
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Escapee looking for a new way out.
The yellow female.
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In their temporary produce bin home, which will be the brooder until I make one.
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I like the white on this one, she doesn't have a name yet but really likes her food! Hopefully she'll get to a nice size.
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Escapee looking for a new way out.
The yellow female.
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In their temporary produce bin home, which will be the brooder until I make one.
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I like the white on this one, she doesn't have a name yet but really likes her food! Hopefully she'll get to a nice size.
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I'd love to buy her
 
What absolutely BEAUTIFUL quail! I soul love some if you ever decide to breed...
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Where did you get them?

Thank you
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I bought them from a lady in the Whitsundays. Where are you located? I'm going to catch ones from them for eating and try up-size from them as well. If I ever sell eggs I'll let you know

I'd love to buy her

Sorry I'm not selling any of these, only just bought them 3 days ago
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Today I got the welded mesh for the outsides of the house, but it's only 90cm wide so I'll have to reduce the size of the house slightly, originally I actually had it at 90cm
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what a coincidence! Also screws, hinges and hooks to keep the lid closed. My friend, that works at the hardware store, is coming up tomorrow and will help me with cutting the wood. I'm so excited to get it done, I'll make sure to get some pics for tomorrow's update.

At about 3am, again, the incubator had dropped to 44% humidity. I'm really puzzled as to why this is happening, it's fine all day and I put a little extra water in around 10pm but it still dropped. I'm wondering if perhaps I should put even more so the humidity is higher for awhile and won't drop by 3am or if there is something else I should be doing. Any suggestions?

On a side note I'm getting some pieces of colour bond roofing from my nan that I will save for the chicken coop and I got some plants for one of those frame style planters and will hang it where I keep the quail house. If anyone has suggestions for a name for the white breasted girl I'd love to hear them.
 

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