Anyone raise quail and chickens together?

[Missespenaloza]

Hello! I'm new to chickens and quail. I have an 11 week old chicken (silver laced wyandotte) who had some bad diarrhea for a few days, so I separated her from the rest of the flock. I think she was at the bottom of the pecking order to begin with and she's been bullied so badly by the other chickens since I tried to reintroduce her. She looked so depressed. She put her head in a corner and her tail was down. I put her in with a younger group of chickens (8 weeks) and they're still being jerks because there's 6 of them and one of her. She looked so miserable, I let her in with my quail and she seems happy again. Her tail is up and she's scratching around. Anyone have any experience with this? Thoughts on the difference in feed? Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Hopefully she does not have an illness that she will introduce to your quail.

 

[Missespenaloza]

Hopefully she does not have an illness that she will introduce to your quail.

She has been free of diarrhea for over a week now. She just hasn't seemed right, I think, due to the bullying.

 

[muddy75]

what breed is she?? how do you keep your quail (ie cages, aviary, square footage etc). as far as food, the chicken can eat the quail food and adult quail hens can eat layer crumbles. it can be done, but there are risks to mixing birds.

 

[Missespenaloza]

what breed is she?? how do you keep your quail (ie cages, aviary, square footage etc). as far as food, the chicken can eat the quail food and adult quail hens can eat layer crumbles. it can be done, but there are risks to mixing birds.

Honestly, right now, they’re in a Home made brooder box. It’s probably 4x4ish and there’s 9 coturnix quail (7 weeks) and the one silver laced Wyandotte. My husband was supposed to have built a cage weeks ago, but hasn’t yet. I’m wondering if I can just put her in a cage with a couple quail. Hoping, though, that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel and someone has already gone through this, lol.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Chickens can transmit diseases to quail. If what’s making her have diarrhea is contagious, it might kill the quail since they have weaker immune systems than more domesticated birds. Aside from that, chickens are quite a bit more aggressive than quail and might attack them. It seems that she likes them though.
I still would advise you against this. Even a healthy chicken might be carrying something that could wipe out all of your quail.

 

[Aapomp831]

Big birds are not nice to little birds.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Not to mention, they have different diets.

 

[muddy75]

Honestly, right now, they’re in a Home made brooder box. It’s probably 4x4ish and there’s 9 coturnix quail (7 weeks) and the one silver laced Wyandotte. My husband was supposed to have built a cage weeks ago, but hasn’t yet. I’m wondering if I can just put her in a cage with a couple quail. Hoping, though, that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel and someone has already gone through this, lol.

A cage will not be a good idea for a standard breed chicken that needs at least 4 sq feet of roost/coop space and 10+ sq ft of run space.

 

[CHlCKEN]

I would be concerned that she would would then try to show her dominance with the quail, by a pecking order. These quail are still very small and big chickens are not gentle with little birds. Even if she is the same size as them now, she will be growing.