Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[MrsDeb]

Well it looks like I'm losing my quail. Some of you have seen their set up where they can go in and out as they please. The batch that we
had last year would go outside during the day and come in at night as long as the coop was not dark. So I would leave the light on so that they
would come in. Not this batch! These guys stay outside most the time except to eat and drink....most all of them now have frost bitten legs. Jim is butchering them
all when he gets home.

So it looks like we'll be in the market for eggs in the spring......

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
Coturnix? Bobwhites? That's weird! My bobwhites are outside, but off the ground, and are fine. My coturnix are in the breeder coop on shavings, so I don't expect much trouble with them, but they've never had frostbitten legs. What happened?

 

[PandoraTaylor]

Sorry about that Mrs.Deb

They can be quite strange in their behaviors at times......

 

[MrsDeb]

Tori I'm not sure? They have a flight cage out the back of the coop which is elevated about 5 feet off the ground. It's just a wire cage, no housing or anything but they have a "tube" in the wall they walk through into
the warm coop and have a cage in there as well that has a hard floor and is all separated from the chickens. (its like your breeder coop, just with a cage out the back for access to the outside) They walk back and forth to get food and water. They lay their eggs in the coop....so Im not sure why they have decided that
camping outside at night in the unprotected cage is a cool thing to do. My Bobwhites last year weren't this dumb!

 

[Eveil]

Oh no MrsDeb im so sorry. That sucks.

When you are ready in the spring my guys will be laying eggs you can get some from me. Though they are not bob white there coturnix Jumbo brown. I all so have the Golden coturnix.

 

[MrsDeb]

Nooo we wont want BW's again we'll be looking at larger breeds. I love the bobwhite and their calls, but this batch just doesn't seem to be as hardy as
the ones I had last year. In the mean time I'll have to figure out how to catch them and doctor up their legs a bit. It's strange. They are really bloody and scabbed over just on the front of their legs.....

I just closed up their hole so they can't go outside now....they aren't happy

 

[incubatingisfun]

Quote:
sorry to hear that MrsDeb.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Deb, we'll get you some eggs in the spring.

I plan on separating out the colors, too, so you'll have a choice of browns, tibetans, tuxedos, goldens or A&Ms. I'm hoping that I have a pair of Reds in there, too, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm sorry... I'm at a loss as to why it would have happened.

 

[EHaus]

I'm sorry to hear about the quail. I don't know much about them, but they seem like funny little birds. Yours seem a little funny in the head, though, for standing out in the cold...

 

[Leslie In North Pole]

Wow! It is great to see so many other chicken-poultry lovers in AK. Hopefully, in the future, I will start to interact more in this upcoming year. Right now, all I seem to have is pet birds who eat alot, lol.