New Member Raising Bobwhite

MJSpangler said:

Hello all.

this is my second thread here. I posted in the new member section a day or two ago. I grew up on a small family farm. We always had chickens and from time to time, ducks, geese and turkeys. So i'm familiar with the basics and want to take the next step. I plan on incubating some of the buff orpington eggs we have on the farm before I incubate any quail.

Now for some question pertaining to my quail raising

My Pen.
I am building a pen 3' wide 3' tall and 4' long.
I had plans to put a box off of one end roughly 18" tall 3' wide and 2' deep and elevated off the ground.
One friend told me that this would be good for them to fly into for their food and shelter and keep them strong for bird dog training.
Another friend said they will smash their heads open if given the room to fly.
Any suggestions? if i put a roof on it, to keep from giving them the illusion that they can fly out, will they be ok?

They don't care if you put a flashing neon sign that says don't hit your head, they'll still shoot straight up at full throttle when they get scared. They don't think it through they just flee.



Three feet is either too short or too tall depending on how you want to look at it. Three feet gives a bob (which are a explosive flushing birds like all quail) plenty of room to generate enough energy to break its own neck. Try to keep ceilings either less than 16" or over 4 ft to avoid them short bussing themselves.

Given those dimensions, how many quail could I comfortably fit in that pen?

Use 4 sq ft per bird as a rule of thumb. A cage that size is not wise to house two bob roos through the breeding season, the offseason you might be ok but space is key to game birds being happy.

I do plan on getting a little giant incubator and egg turner in the next couple of weeks. I figured that i could hatch some and cull as needed to keep the flock size down and have a little meal now and then.

Keep in mind they take 18-22 weeks to grow out for meat, they're worth every bit of it but a lot of people aren't trying to feed a meal that much money or just don't have the time.

I have downloaded about 10 samples of quail raising books from amazon and plan on figuring out which ones i want to download the full copies of. Any suggestions for a good read would be appreciated

There is a wealth of info on most college websites that have a solid ag dept. UC davis and MSU have a lot of good game bird info if you just learn how to access it in their archives.

I have 2 roosters and 4 hens right now. From what I've read this seems to be an OK ratio. Though I've heard of only keeping bobwhites in pairs and other sources saying that one rooster to several hens is ok.
Any clarification would be awesome. They seem to be doing well in the cage 4/2 right now. I did get 2 eggs a couple days ago and another egg yesterday. I'll post later today as to how many they laid this morning.

When bobs are breeding they are extremely territorial and aggressive, this is why they should always be kept in pairs or trios. You may see people who keep them in colonies but you'll notice those people keep their birds in flight pens that are usually 500-1000 sq ft. Space is the only way to keep more than one bob roo in the same enclosure. You'll know if they don't have enough space, they'll kill each other.

Thanks in advance for all of the help. I can't wait to learn more.

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MJSpangler said:

thank you for the info.

I'm working on acquiring a decent sized kennel right now. it's about 10X14 or so with a nice small shed attached to it. i figure if i got some decent netting that could hold them better and give them 6' height to play with.

They'll love it and during the off season you can band your pairs and release them all into the larger cage.

so should I take one roo and one hen and leave it in my other cage? it's probably 3'X2' and 12" tall. maybe that could help the situation for the time being?

Even 10x14 might not give two roos enough space to get along during breeding season so at least be prepared to keep the pairs/trios separate.

the other issue is my bird do for which i got the birds goes nutty around the quail. Thats a good thing. The problem is I don't really have a place to keep them where she can't see or smell them when I'm down on the farm.

Thats a tough one. I have a Chessie/shepherd mix who never got trained and it took her most a year to chill out on the birds. Still if one gets out, she's on it. Just having no jaw discipline they're usually only fit for the bbq (if even) after she retrieves them. I couldn't imagine having to deal with her if she was a working dog lol. Good luck there.

Do any of you keep quail for your bird dog training? any suggestions on not having the birds and the dogs have a heart attack? thanks again!
i'll look into some of the college websites.

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