my quail won't go in at night

[hester]

I have seven quail which we keep in a house with an inside and an outside section. During the day, the quail happily go in and out from the hutch into their run, but come night time, they all choose to roost outside - just settle down on the grass. I have to go round and pick them all up to put them inside so the foxes don't get them. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why they do this, or how to get them to go inside?

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Quail much prefer to sleep outside even in the worst weather. I used to use aviaries for my quail and as your do, they would frequently go in and out of their hutches during the day, but there they were at night, sleeping outside even if a raging snow storm was going on!

I found that I had to train my birds if I wanted them to go inside at night. Sometimes YOU know whats best for them and it's also nice to be able to get them inside should there be an emergency.

I trained them with a dog clicker. I would click the clicker and say, "into the coop". I put some goodies in there too so that they got a reward for listening to the clicker. I also used a quail net on the stubborn ones that didn't want to listen to me. LOL

But if you work with them, how ever your set up is, you can train them to go in on command. And on those cold nights, you can run them in manually. Quail are very smart and learn fast if you give them time to learn. For some reason, quail do prefer to sleep outside at nights and in most cases, they can survive brutal environment temps and such. But for peace of mind, sometimes you do want them inside.

Good luck!

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh and yes, predators will find them eventually, so it is best to get them inside at night.

 

[hester]

Hi, Two Crows, and thank you for answering my question - at least now I know they aren't the only quail to do this. I will start having a go at training them - they like mealworms, so I will try using these.
Hester.

 

[Q QUAIL S]

Maybe try to lock them in for the whole day and night. That might work!!!!

 

[jojackc]

Are you saying your quail free range during the day? Mine would be long gone if I tried that.

 

[TwoCrows]

Are you saying your quail free range during the day? Mine would be long gone if I tried that.

Mine too!

 

[hester]

sorry for the delay in the reply - christmas, etc! no, they don't free range. They have an inside part and an outside part. Although the outside part is ok during the day, it's not secure enough to leave them out there all night - when night time predators are much more confident. My problem is just having to get inside and pick them up one by one to put them into the more secure part every night. Really, I think we might just make them a more secure 'outside' part - that way they could do what they like.

 

[Dani xxx]

Mine wouldn't go in their house for the first few days so I put their feed in the house to encourage them in and worked but I leave the door open as the run is secure ! X in the morning when I look out my window to check on them they are usually all in their house now ! X

 

[jojackc]

sorry for the delay in the reply - christmas, etc! no, they don't free range. They have an inside part and an outside part. Although the outside part is ok during the day, it's not secure enough to leave them out there all night - when night time predators are much more confident. My problem is just having to get inside and pick them up one by one to put them into the more secure part every night. Really, I think we might just make them a more secure 'outside' part - that way they could do what they like.

I agree just fix the outside part and now you have no problems. I had a very large barn owl visit us in the early morning once. I just happen to have to be at work that morning at 3am so I was up and could hear my quail making noise outside. I thought it was strange so I took a look out the window to find a barn owl pacing up and down their cages. I used 1/2 hardware cloth so he couldn't peck at them. I went out the back door of my house so the owl wouldn't hear me. After getting hit with a handful of rocks he hasn't been back lol. If I could get the neighbors cats to learn so easily. I have never hit an animal with so many rocks just to have them still come back lol.