I'm buying 100 baby Bobwhites and 15 adults this weekend (first time raising quail, though I've seen it done by the people I work for) and wanted to check in before I get too carried away with setup. I've read that it's not adviseable to keep quail in the same pen with chickens, and I've got plenty of room to work with. I have an entirely seperate brooding building/pen an acre away from where my chickens are, where I can put my quail if need be. However, the chicken pen is HUGE, and is divided into 3 entirely seperate sections. It used to be a growout pen for a small commercial pheasant hatchery. There are big heavy metal doors with solid bottom panels dividing each section....totally secure from floor to ceiling, nothing can fly over or crawl under. I have reserved one section in hopes of using it for the quail. No chicken has ever nor will ever set foot in that part of the pen, no quail could ever make it to the chicken pen. The ONLY thing the chickens and quail would be sharing is AIR....and the pen is fairly well ventilated so even that won't be too thick and stinky . There is even a seperate exit into a seperate outdoor flight pen area that the quail will have to themselves. And it's set up perfectly for me to put a catch pen outside so the quail will recall if I release any for dog training. It's located adjacent to the field I'll be using primarily with my dogs. That, and pure convenience, are my main reasons for wanting to use this pen rather than the other brooding house an acre away. Anyway....BEFORE I jump in head first and do this, I wanted to make sure there were not any commonplace AIRBORNE diseases that the quail could get from sharing air space with the chickens. Everyone I've asked & everything I've read thus far only speaks of diseases they can get from "sharing quarters"....nothing airborne....but I want to make sure, being that I'm spending a decent bit of money to buy these birds!! Thanks in advance for any advice!
this one is pretty through in how they describe the disease and how it is transmitted and so forth HTH http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
One thing they could get that is airborne is MG or CRD. Pretty much any bird is susceptible to this. I'd put them in the other building just to be safe.
Forget about disease for a minute....you're starting out your quail raising experience with 100 bobwhite chicks???? From what I have been reading, that's like trying to graduate medical school without going through kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school. I hope it works out. Let us know. UGCM
Thanks for the advice! I'll go ahead and put them in the other building then. As for having a lot of quail for my first time....LOL, you may be right! They're here now, too late to turn back....we shall see how it works out.....I wanted to start out with 50 but the breeder actually reccomended I buy 100, even though he knew it was my first time raising babies. Maybe he was thinking a little about his own pockets, I can't blame him I suppose- but he seems like a good guy, lots of advice & help. His thinking was if I had a higher than usual mortality percentage, I'd still have plenty of birds left when they grew up. I've got fairly knowledgeable gamebird people for neighbors....hopefully if I need advice quickly, they'll be able to help too. I was able to get a ridiculously HUGE stock tank to use (about 3x the length of what they use at feed stores for birds)....for now, I partitioned off one end with a curved piece of aluminum....I can expand the space as needed as the birds grow and should be able to transition them from tank to brooding house in a few weeks?
