Keeping quail and ducks together-also peacocks, partridge, pheasants, and grouse?

mtgrl said:

OK, so I know that this question has been asked and answered lots of times before, and I have read those topics. But I need some more information before I can come to a conclusion.

Now, I have a large backyard area. It is an open field. Within the open field, there is a small fenced in area, and within that fenced in area, there are two separate fenced in areas. There is also a coop, also split into two. It was designed for raising turkeys and chickens separately, and for a garden. Now, my idea was to use each of these separate fenced in areas for different kinds of poultry. Originally, I had intended to keep them all separate, and use each fenced in area for a different species. Currently, I have 4 bobwhite quail living in my bedroom, and many more due to hatch within the month, so I am getting ready to move them outdoors soon.

I had a few different ideas for what I was going to raise. The quail will be the first to be established, later I would like to expand and have some pheasants, some peacocks, and maybe some other game birds. No chickens. Again, these would all be raised separately, but side by side in their own fenced in areas to protect them from each other.

No problem with that.

Today I started to lay out a design for how I wanted it to look. I would leave half of the field as it is (tall grass, perfect gamebird habitat) and plant corn and sunflowers in the other half, for cover and food for the quail. Then I began to think about planting a small pond in the center of the corn to provide water. And since I would have a pond, I started considering getting a pair of ducks as well.

They'll love this type of setup. The only concern you may have is the wet soil around the pond mold can incubate in wet soil leading to encephalitis and coccidosis and ulcerative enteritis occur more frequently in wet soil as well.

Now I have read that ducks can transmit disease to quail, or at least chickens can. I have read that this is because they are domestic and quail are wild, and not resistant to the diseases in domestic poultry. There are some people who absolutely insist that your entire flock will die if you mix them, and there are others who say they have done it successfully without any problem. Obviously, some have done it and others haven't been so lucky.

The thing here is that chickens tend to be carriers several diseases that they are resistant to but quail and most other species are not. Blackhead, coryza, and MG are a few that come to mind, among a sea of them. Many of these type of diseases cannot be accurately tested for. These same diseases can be contracted by eating earth worms, snails, slugs, house flies, ants, moths, and other insects. There are also cases where disease can incubate in wet soil or feces. You will never know if your chickens are infected with most of these things and if they weren't yesterday, they can be tomorrow.

This is a good PDF article on gamebird diseases

Here is a good article on bio-security practices, which will help prevent the spread of disease.

Wild bird populations should be safe in the case any infected birds escape since bobwhite quail are not native to Montana. However I am very protective of my quail. I want to make sure they will be safe. I do not want to risk the health of my flock. But I would like to ask a few questions before I make up my mind, since really not a whole lot of information has been given, just a simple stubborn "No, they will all die" from most people, or a "it's fine, I've done it before" answer. Neither of them are really a substantial explanation.

Incubated and brooded birds lack too many wild instincts to survive for long. This is why restocking has such a dismal success percentage. Still take care that no infected birds contact wild birds. Wild populations are sensitive and can't be replaced.

What are these said diseases and where do they come from? Do ducks get them? Do all ducks have them? How do they get them? Is there any way to prevent them? Do wild ducks get them, or only domestic fowl? If wild ducks get them, why don't wild quail get them? Wouldn't they both be exposed?

Eating bugs, bacteria that incubates due to environmental factors, contact with infected birds, heredity, and more. Not all birds are infected, in any species, but again infection can arise any day of the week.

There are WAY too many diseases to list but here is a solid source of disease info, by name. Most of them are fairly uncommon.

What if the ducks were raised from eggs and kept completely separate from other ducks from birth? Would they still have a chance of getting this disease? And why? Wouldn't raising them in a sterile environment eliminate any exposure to infection?

Infection can easily pass hen to egg in most species.

How far can this disease spread? Could being kept in pens side-by-side expose the quail, or will they be fine as long as they are not together?

Side by side is probably enough to expose them since most exposures I see come from unwashed hands between handling different species. There are no real concrete numbers on spread since insects are often involved.

What are any other complications of raising ducks and quail together? What about other birds-peacocks, pheasants, partridges, grouse? What birds do well together, and which not so much? I would assume partridges, grouse, and quail would be okay together, being that they share habitat in the wild and are roughly the same size.

Space and stocking density dictate what gamebirds you can keep together. Bobwhites tend to be aggressive to pheasants and peafowl. Partridges can be pretty ornery as can pheasants so you'll have to see what works for your case. In the pheasant/Partridge section a lot of people keep ornamental pheasants with other species, you should ask over there for more specific combos.

They key to harmony with gamebirds is adequate space. Give everyone plenty of room and you will have healthy happy birds.

Would it be better to keep ducks with peacocks or pheasants rather than quail?

I would say yes, but it's kind of six of one a half dozen of the other. It goes back to quail and partridges being from mostly arid regions with dry well draining soil. Disease risk increase when keeping quail over wet soil that doesn't drain well.

Another thing to consider is that ducks will excrete in their ponds and the other birds will consume this water.

I know that it can be done, but would it-or could it-be safe in any case? Can ducks be tested for disease before introducing them to the flock?

I've mostly covered this above. Testing in many cases can be done but it goes back to the fact they can still get infections or worms in other ways than bird to bird direct contact. In other cases the tests aren't accurate enough to be trusted. Honestly wash your hands between cages, keep every thing clean and just generally practice bio-security and you'll likely never have any large problems. Keeping gamebirds together presents no disease problems if you keep a good coop, but involving poultry and waterfowl is a different story. It would be a good idea to find out where you can find poultry vaccines and wormers in your area or if any are even available. Quick treatment can often contain outbreaks without much mortality or none at all.

What are my best options?

So here it is, I want the full scoop on all this, and the disease, and how they are spread and what species have them and what to do to prevent it. As much information as possible would be great. Thank you.

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mtgrl said:

Wow. So does that mean that I should cook these bugs before feeding them to my quail? What about grit?

You can't stop their insect consumption, you just have to be prepared for the day they eat a bad one. Try to ensure there aren't colony bugs like termites, ground flies, or ants living out of your pens.


What if the eggs are washed in sanitizer before incubation? Would that kill the bacteria, or does the infection occur prior to hatching?

No. If that worked then we wouldn't be worried about getting Salmonella from chicken eggs. The Salmonella virus is the best example of passing a disease hen to egg.

Eggs are covered with a thin coating called the bloom, it is the birds own version of an antibacterial. By washing eggs you actually increase the potential for bacteria intrusion, because you wash off the bloom. In most of the European Union it is illegal to wash eggs being sold for human consumption. You should wash just before you use them for cooking. Extremely dirty hatching eggs can be lightly scraped clean.


Yes, I live in a very arid region with dry well draining soil. That's why gamebirds such as partridges are abundant here, I often encounter them in my backyard. I don't think wet soil will be a problem. The soil here is very, very dry. It doesn't hold any moisture. Part of the reason I thought the pond would be a good idea. Without a pond, the soil in this area is just too dry to grow anything, and you need a sprinkler running 24 hours a day or else it all dies. I can't see excessive water becoming a problem, if anything, keeping everything from drying out in the hot sun will be my biggest challenge.

You should be fine then.

On another note, I've seen a male duck knock a chicken in the water and drown it purposely, so beware if you have aggressive water fowl.

So what I'm getting here from this, is that ducks don't necessarily have more disease, just that they could pass diseases to quail that would be more detrimental to the quail. And so, if I were to get a pair of ducks and put them in with the quail, everything would be fine as long as the ducks weren't already carrying a disease and introduced it to the quail? Is there any way to know if the duck is infected or not? How long would it take for symptoms to appear in an infected bird?

Ducks just like all the others can get disease from environmental factors, so even a healthy duck could one day infect your quail. Just as todays healthy quail could one day infect a duck if it was exposed to disease.

Most of the testing for the diseases we have problems with aren't accurate enough to trust them. The cost becomes exorbitant too.
Thank you for the informative and timely response. It was very helpful.

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GesWutChikenBut said:

I didn't see an answer, can ducks and Bobwhites cohabitate safely?

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GesWutChikenBut said:

I have a raised quail pen-3 feet off ground, can I enclose the ducks underneath it. The quail pen is 8W×8W×10H feet. Can they live in that close proximity?

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