Beginner at quail.... advice/tips would be much appreciated

[bantamboy93]

Quote:
I'm going to be getting adults at first. And I haven't decided yet if i want to go ahead and try and hatch some. I'll have to take it day by day to see if mine are getting along fine and if i want to raise some more. I'll be putting them in my old rabbit cages. Which are very nice cages that work perfectly for brooding chicks in. It's up off the ground where nothing can get to them. I have one cage that is actually my 'chick' pen. I use the rabbit cages for the older birds that are feathering out. But when they first hatch, i use the chick brooder because the wire is a very tiny gage. I guess it's hardware cloth or something. Anyways, there's no way of my bantam chicks escaping. So i plan on using that for if i do start hatching quail to put the babies in there until they are big enough to move into the rabbit cages. I have 4 rabbit cages... it's one big row/set. I want to get some of the normal colored coturnix and some of the tuxedo coturnix that the man has. So i think i'm going to put one color in each cage and then i'll have 2 cages left over for if i ever hatch out any so i can still separate the offspring.

 

[gamebirdboy]

You'll need to sanitize the cages before you put the quail in them.

 

[bantamboy93]

definitely.. i'm spraying them down with bleach now. and cleaning all the waterers. so how do you do the pvc feeders???

 

[3goodeggs]

about food waste. I found that once I gave them a sand box to dust in, the stopped wasting food. I think they were trying to dust in their food.
And for their size, they do eat a lot, but they lay a mighty big egg daily for their size.
I am awed at these quail, so much easier than chickens.
Now, newbie question number... whatever it is by now,:
what does one do with quail eggs? other than hatch them or run around showing people

... they make an awfully small deviled egg.

 

[bantamboy93]

around here, people pickle them.. or i've even heard of people scrambling them like a chicken egg.

 

[3goodeggs]

I made fried rice with them last night. lots of cracking, but fun.

 

[makarim]

Hello

Just reading through your post and noticed you are new to quail like me. I have had 8 quails for about three weeks now and they are I belive about 7-8 weeks old. I had the following problems which I have overcome by

1 - Feeders - I just had a 1kg plastic chicken feeders which I paid about £5 for. At first they ate and wasted a lot so now I just put enough for them to eat in a day. After putting a sand box I noticed that some feed remained and there was less over the floor

2 - water - I had a 1 litre plastic water dispenser. They pooped in it so much it was unbelieveable and drank from it as well. A week or so later I put the water dispenser on top a brick and now they dont poop in it any more as they cant climb on top of it

3 - flooring. If you are not using wire flooring and the coop is in your garden concrete make sure you put a plastic sheet underneat for easy cleaning. I had them on concrete for a week and the amount of poo pileup took me a day to clean. I was on my hands and knees with a scraper

Thats all I have learnt so far. Hope it helps

Some people say quails eat about 20 grams a day. Mine must poop it out as they eat

 

[gamebirdboy]

I like these a lot, I made a little system for my chickens. After I buy some more cups I'll make one fro the quail.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=524545

This is the PVC feeders, I made one similar to them. I cut holes in a 3'' pipe and capped both ends. Cutting it in half and puttign chicken wire over the top worked okay. https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=70523

 

[bantamboy93]

I wonder if my dad could make me some of those pvc feeders???? possibly...

 

[the outdoorsman44]

coturnix are easier to raise