At what age??

[hobbychick]

This is my first batch of Bobwhite Quail. At what age can they be removed from the brooder and to an outside enclosure? I live in mid eastern Illinois. I have read that they can fly at 2 weeks old, is this about the time you can move them out?

Any help would be great!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Depending on what your temps are, you could move them now. I would wait till they are almost fully feathered though, about 3-4 weeks.

 

[hobbychick]

They are only 2 days old right now and it is running at least 80 in the day and around the 60's at night. I just don't want them flying around my basement at 2 weeks of age!! I have them in a brooder and I have a wire top for it, but there are 46 of them and it will be hard to keep the brooder clean by then with so many.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I have some in the spare bedroom right now that are about a month old. I haven't had any escapees yet, and their brooder is not covered. Granted, there are only 3 of them, so that might make a difference! Plus they have been with chicks and keets the whole time, so maybe they figure the keets are spazzy enough for them all??

I would wait until they have a good amount of feathers, unless there is someway that you can put a heat light on them outside.

Oh, and I didn't realize they were so little, obviously I wouldn't move them now!

I mix pine pellets and shavings together for my birds' bedding, and this helps a lot with cleaning. I have 25 coturnix chicks, 6 keets, and a chicken chick in a brooder together. I cleaned their box out today for the first time, and they are over a week old. Come to find out, it was the baby goose's box that was stinky, the quails' could have went another week probably

 

[kikescove.com]

I usually wait until about 4 weeks at least. It would certainly depend on your temps, your pen layout etc. but you'll have fewer losses if you wait until they are feathering up.

 

[Horse&Chicken Lover]

At 5 weeks is when you should put them in a coop