At 10 weeks old (mid August 2019), I started taking my boys outside. I thought they would take off and I would never see them again, but they just stayed with me. So I showed them around and encouraged them to explore outside. For the next few months, we let them out in the morning and they would come back at night to eat and sleep on the screened in patio. If we called them they would run to us. Eventually they started sleeping outside and just came by to visit and eat everyday. When fall came, they joined the neighborhood covey and still came through the yard with the group. One even started bringing his girlfriend to the house with him! We knew ours bc they would run to see us. Gradually they became less and less interested in visiting us. Now it's hard to tell which boys are ours, but I know they come through every morning and every evening, now all with mates.
I only had one female. I had to keep her separate from the others since birth bc they hurt her anytime she was with them. She is still living on the patio. We take her outside, but she shows no interest in leaving us. She stays very close and runs back into the patio after only a few minutes. She did recently bring home a mate who now comes in and out of the patio with her for the past few days. She won't let him sleep too close to her, but she has laid a couple eggs. We're not too sure what to do about that, yet....
The wild ones don't have any humidity here, so they must not need it. If you want to set them free successfully, it will probably need to be a gradual process. They need to learn how to find food and water, get along with other birds, fly stronger, etc. before they will be ok out on their own. They also probably consider you part of their flock, so they won't want to leave you right away. The neighborhood where I released mine is a retirement community with no walls around the yards, so the quail are able to run through all the yards with no dogs or cats. A lot of people put seeds out for them and there are many fruit trees with water puddles. There are coyote, bobcats, hawks, but that is unavoidable in the wild. Do you have a place where you can safely and gradually introduce them to the wild? Are there a lot of other quail around?
What heat source are you planning for the babies? I think mine were so loud bc all I had was the lamp. With the light on they scream day and night. They were only quiet when I held them or if I was sitting at the table with them. They didn't like being alone. Since then I've seen this great info on a heating pad they can crawl under. If I had it to do all over again, I would make something like this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/
Hope this helps! I had zero experience with animals or babies, so I learned a lot and never knew what to expect. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do if Pedro hatches me some grand-birdies on the patio...
