Hi all, having been inspired by the wonderful posters here at BYC, I recently started rearing coturnix quails. I know this is going to sound silly but I have been rearing my 7 bobwhite chicks alongside a coturnix quail chick in the same brooder box.
That coturnix chick came from the only viable egg out of 4 and these eggs came from my own 10-week old flock. As luck would have it, the bobwhite eggs (a gift) were incubated with and hatched at the same time as my coturnix egg, which was put into the incubator about 5 days later than the bobwhites. Knowing that solo quail chicks do not do well on their own, I raised both that coturnix chick together with the bobwhite chicks.
Now that the chicks are nearly 4 weeks old, I have observed a few things:
1. The coturnix chick thinks it's a bobwhite! It darts & jumps everywhere. It will find the slightest reason to fly onto small platforms in the brooder box, just like its bobwhite nest mates & is also as somewhat skittish.
2. The bobwhite chick flock seems to have accepted the coturnix chick as part of their covey - they will call incessantly if the coturnix chick was ever removed from their brooder box or was out of their collective sights for some time.
3. The bobwhites & the coturnix chick seem to do everything together from eating/drinking, foraging to roosting. When the missus & I woke up this morning, we found that these chicks had escaped their brooder box together as a covey (someone left the lid slightly opened) & were wandering around together. Thankfully, they were kept indoors & after much running around, we managed to scoop up & return these skittish chicks back to their brooder box. As you can see, the coturnix chick is slightly larger than its bobwhite buddies. How it managed to fly out of the box through the narrow opening is beyond me. None of the chicks from my previous batches behaved anything like this.
My question is:
1. Should I try to reintroduce this chick with the adults of its kind soon? Will it acclimatise & start behaving more like a coturnix? I can just imagine the din we will be enduring from the bobwhite covey & the chick if we attempted the separation again.
2. Can bobwhites ever be as tame as coturnix quails? Some of these bobwhite chicks will eat out of our hands but they are still much more skittish than any coturnix we have reared (except for their coturnix nest mate with the identity crisis). How do you even train them?
3. Do bobwhite coveys accept members of other quail species or is this an unusual phenomenon? The differences in coloration and appearance should be quite obvious.
Any input would be appreciated.
That coturnix chick came from the only viable egg out of 4 and these eggs came from my own 10-week old flock. As luck would have it, the bobwhite eggs (a gift) were incubated with and hatched at the same time as my coturnix egg, which was put into the incubator about 5 days later than the bobwhites. Knowing that solo quail chicks do not do well on their own, I raised both that coturnix chick together with the bobwhite chicks.
Now that the chicks are nearly 4 weeks old, I have observed a few things:
1. The coturnix chick thinks it's a bobwhite! It darts & jumps everywhere. It will find the slightest reason to fly onto small platforms in the brooder box, just like its bobwhite nest mates & is also as somewhat skittish.
2. The bobwhite chick flock seems to have accepted the coturnix chick as part of their covey - they will call incessantly if the coturnix chick was ever removed from their brooder box or was out of their collective sights for some time.
3. The bobwhites & the coturnix chick seem to do everything together from eating/drinking, foraging to roosting. When the missus & I woke up this morning, we found that these chicks had escaped their brooder box together as a covey (someone left the lid slightly opened) & were wandering around together. Thankfully, they were kept indoors & after much running around, we managed to scoop up & return these skittish chicks back to their brooder box. As you can see, the coturnix chick is slightly larger than its bobwhite buddies. How it managed to fly out of the box through the narrow opening is beyond me. None of the chicks from my previous batches behaved anything like this.
My question is:
1. Should I try to reintroduce this chick with the adults of its kind soon? Will it acclimatise & start behaving more like a coturnix? I can just imagine the din we will be enduring from the bobwhite covey & the chick if we attempted the separation again.
2. Can bobwhites ever be as tame as coturnix quails? Some of these bobwhite chicks will eat out of our hands but they are still much more skittish than any coturnix we have reared (except for their coturnix nest mate with the identity crisis). How do you even train them?
3. Do bobwhite coveys accept members of other quail species or is this an unusual phenomenon? The differences in coloration and appearance should be quite obvious.
Any input would be appreciated.
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