Tips and tricks for a newbie?

[pennysticks]

Hey, everyone. We are currently in the planning stages of Quail-parenthood over at my house, so exciting!

I've been reading up on everything that I can get my paws on, and I was hoping to get some insider's advice from people who have been doing it for a while. We are looking into getting some Coturnix Quail to raise for eggs, for now.

Originally, we wanted to start with hatchlings and not eggs, but since it's so late in the summer season, we are having hard time finding them? I don't want to buy them from eBay and there aren't very many people around where I live selling them. I've read on the forum and the website about incubating, but I'm worried about it, haha. I don't know, what advice do you guys have for a new-quail parent?

(Additionally, If this is in the wrong forum or is a repeat topic, I'm very sorry.)

 

[quail raiser]

Incubating quail eggs isn't really as hard as some folks make it out to be. The hardest part of raising quail in my opinion is brooding chicks. I like incubating eggs, got some in the incubator now that are sposed to hatch next week and i haven't a clue what I'm gonna do with them. If you were from around here i would fix you up with some chicks. Any thing in particular you wanted to kno about incubating quail?

 

[quail raiser]

Word of advice tho, incubating quail is addicting. My wife hates my incubator lol

 

[cmobley]

Double the size of everything because youll end up needing the extra space. I use lime under my pens juat started using sweet pdz it works good at combating odor. Put them a sand box in their pen they will love you for it i use play sand in that works great and soaks up moisture

 

[pennysticks]

That's fair. I've been reading about both incubating and brooding the past few days. I didn't want to buy an incubator outright, initially, but it's looking like it might be a worthwhile investment, really.I was hoping to just start with a few chicks to get my feet wet and go from there, but the best laid plans of mice and men, I suppose. ^_^

Bummer that you're so far or I would totally do your wife a favor and take some chicks off your hands! haha. What do you recommend housing-wise? I've noticed that pretty much everyone does it really differently and we are planning our housing tonight so we can get the right materials later this week. We have some ideas, but it's always nice to hear from other people.

 

[pennysticks]

Thank you, cmobley! I was looking into using a mix of sand and diatomaceous earth for their dust bath. The sweet pdz is something i've heard mention of a few times, but I don't yet know much about it. We definitely plan on making a bigger space than we need; both my fiancé and I tend to "over-prepare" for everything! haha.

 

[quail raiser]

My pen is 10ft by 10ft 7ft tall with pine mulch for bedding. i used to use blasting sand for bedding but the place i was getting it stopped blasting and painting so i had to go out of pocket for the mulch. its actually cleaner. My coturnix are more runners than flyers so no head boinking for them, but my bobwhites are strong flyers but they don't fly into the wire or tin roof so they are ok.

 

[kingmt]

The boinking is from then getting scared. 7'should be enough room to keep then from breaking their neck but of your going under 5'tall I'd suggest staying under 8" tall. That way they can't get up the speed to break their neck when they flush. Mine wasn't bad about it but they still did it on the rare occasion.