Button Quail, raising them....

[Shared Acres]

I've got Button Quail that are supposed to hatch today.

I have a huge bin to put them in when they hatch.

My questions:

1-How high do they jump?
2-When full grown, how large are they?
3-As adults can they live in the coop with the chickens?
4-Do they fly at all, besides the jumping?
5-If you don't have game food, what do you feed them?

Anything else you can think of would be great.

 

[Bettacreek]

I am by far not an expert, but I'll try to answer your questions.

1- Pretty high, they use their wings when they jump, so I don't even call it a "jump", but just call it the "boink".
2- Think about the size of a standard lightbulb.
3- I would say probably not. Maybe though, depending on the coop and run.
4- Boy do they! They prefer to run, but they can most definately fly, and seem to do a good job with it.
5- I personally use chick starter 24%, then they get mealworms, and some people feed boiled mashed eggs (shell and all), which I need to start picking up on myself.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Clip their wings it will safe you alot of heartaches...they can mate without their wings being clipped i saw someone say that they cannot but if that's the case I wouldnt have hatched out any buttons what so ever lol. Make sure their enclosures are toped off with something soft so they dont break their necks or bust open their heads. They are skiddish and are watch and look at birds not handle birds. They can slipp their feathers, if you grab them and they arent expecting it...the bird will get away and leave you with a handful of feathers.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. I wasn't thinking with the chickens. I have mine all tossed into the same brooder, and these are my first chicken chicks (bantams, no less). As babies in a brooder, I guess it depends on sizes really. My cochin chick, when it sees something across the brooder that it thinks is food, NOTHING stands in its way. The buttons will literally either run for their dear lives, or lay down and wait to get trampled (actually, it's kind of funny in a not-so-funny kind of way). The cochin is a freaking monster though, he'll trample the silkie chick as well, but if food isn't involved, the little tiny button quail chick (about a week and a half old now) will sleep snuggled in between the two chicken chicks. But, I have no experience with adult chickens, so, yeah, listen to Monarc, not me, lol.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
LMAO! about your cochin chick!!!! LOL! Yeah i have coturnix and chicken chicks together and have no problems. Some stepping goes on but no one gets hurt. I only need to step in when theres newly hatched chicks of chicken chicks or quail chicks because everyone of the older chciks is always facinated byt eh new chicks feet but once hte new chick is up and walking everyones back to normal so after that period i dont have to watch like hawk anymore

.

I could honestly see standard adult chickens ripping buttons to shreads and eating them if they caught teh lil zippers!! LOL okay that's NOT funny but im just sayin LOL! if they can eat an adult frog, i'd say buttons are fair game lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. Aren't chickens supposed to be docile animals? On the bottom of the food chain...? Lol. To be honest, I could probably see a full-size chicken devouring a button too, with how delicate and tiny the buttons are, and how much of rampaging food-a-holics chickens are...

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
oooh chickens can be savages when it comes to food...sounds like your cochin chick may show you that once it's an adult and snatches a mouse or a frog for ya LMAO!!!! OH you breed rats...throw thema baby rat (perferably culled already lol) someday and watch....(when the birds are adults) you'll be shocked LOL they can be as bad as reptiles lol

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. I'm getting rid of the rats. Hubby has been on my case, and, err, well, one escaped last week and in the process of trying to catch it, I accidentally killed the poor thing. This was one of the feeder rodents, so it wasn't very friendly, but it made me sick. Stupid cat though, she'll eat my button chicks, but she just sat there and watched the baby rat, didn't even make a move to try to help me catch it. Dumb cat. I think I might have been slightly less traumatized to have her catch it than accidentally killing it myself.

Anyways... lol.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
awhhh things happen hun

i know how that is theres a differnence between intentionally culling something and completley accidentally killing something. I've had my fair share of those sorts

lol

 

[Shared Acres]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll try and clip the wings if any hatch. I was expecting them to hatch today and nothing yet.

I too have a Cochin that will run for food and go crazy for antyhing.