raising quail?

I am considering raising quail seperately from the chicken flock. I do not have the experience but was told they are very difficult to raise?

I do have a large enclosed pen that they could use as a flight pen as well.

Pros and cons?

Thanks.

Difficult to raise? Hmmmm.......doesn't ring a bell to me!

Which kind of quail are you thinking of raising? Different quail have different requirements ie. how many should be kept together, temperature tolerance.....

For a starter flock, preferably something hardy and gentle enough! I know I need to stay away from aggressive breeds. I really liked several.

Isnt it required that all quail be kept over 50 degrees?

I figure I could keep 50 in the run (it wiill have cover in the spring, it doesnt right now because of winter and I am currently using it for some chickens), and can keep quads or trios in individual pens.

My understanding is:

Button quail are not cold hardy. They need to be over 50 degrees F and most folks keep them indoors, in pairs.

Coturnix quail are laid back, like 4-5 females per male and are fine outside as long as they have protection from drafts. I believe that this pertains to a couple of other species as well, but am not positive, so will not guess. Cots will do an "imitation take-off flight" when startled or scared, but do not actually fly much. They do not need the flight provided by an aviary. If you are currently using this space for chickens, you will need to disinfect (read sterilize) to the nth degree to be safe as it is possible for chickens to carry disease that would be dire for quail. Average pen size for Cots calls for 1 square foot per bird - of course, individual situations may vary. Coturnix quail are NOT known for brooding and hatching, so most folks incubate and hatch quail eggs themselves. { Well, not themselves but with their incubators! }

The sticky I mentioned before gets into specifics as far as housing and general care go.....

i think most quail folks on here would recommend Coturnix ..for a starter quail at least. They are definitely NOT difficult to raise and are relatively friendly/gentle.
Although not everyone agrees with it,quail and chickens DO NOT go well together due to disease issues b/c chickens are frequent carriers of some that quail /gamebirds have no immunity to.
Here in maryland it gets as cold as -10 though usually the coldest runs in the area of single digits and so far i haven't lost any birds to the cold.They have lots of hay to burrow into and their cages are wrapped in heavy plastic.
Rule of thumb for space /adult bird is 1 sq.ft. but it can be more required or less. you just need to move everyone around until everyone's getting along. There's a fairly new post here that addresses the topic .
Quail fly so a solid roof is a necessity. 1/2 " hardware cloth is also necessary to protect them from predators of all kinds. Any larger hole/wire spacing and you'll be feeding them to the local wildlife.
hope this helps

Many types of quail are easy to raise if you know how to manage and care for them properly. You might get started by picking a particular species you're interested in and do a search here at the message board. There's lots of good info on raising quail here

Definitely recommend Coturnix, good for food, eggs, and they are not as flighty as some other quail species. I can easily put my hand right in the cage to gather eggs and my coturnix not only let me do it without freaking out, sometimes they will let me pet them

Thanks everyone! I have been doing quite abit of reading on the corturnix! Looks like they can be very pretty birds! especially that they can be housed as a colony. Do hunters prefer bobwhites over anything else?

Is there a standard in quail that quality breeders go by?

Thanks!

Quote:
Bobwhites for hunting.
Coturnix aren't great flyers etc. I'm told they're not particularly good for training dogs And they don't survive long at all if raised and released. My son had a couple escape his cage and they just hung around .His cat stalked them and tried to chase them a few times but the silly things completely ignored the cat .She could walk right up to them and swat them and they pretty much still ignored her...They just don't have very good survival skills
Nope,no "standard" like with other poultry.

I've had coturnix get out of their pen & laughed so hard I thought I'd busted a gut. Dang bird flew pretty darn good & had good distance but his landing gear suxed. He hit the ground rolling. I new the bird would be no problem to catch he had never flown that far & was flat wore out. I just walked over & picked him up. Now, Bob's forget it their gone.