California - Northern

[debs_flock]

Oh my gosh, those quail babies are soo cute!

The run attached to the coop has been built. This officially makes me a dog abuser. As you can see, my personal dog is now unable to properly herd "her" chickens. How DARE I put her through this?

What a familiar sight, with three BC at my house. Someone is always crouched in front of the pens they can get close to. Of course, their are only five pens on "their" side of the fence. The rest of the pens are on the chicken compound side of the cross fence. And yes Kelly, herding is exactly like stalking, a controlled prey drive. That's why I don't trust my dogs with the chickens, ever. Well, they frequently stand with their heads hanging over the chick bins in the house when I'm tending chicks. They stare from very close, but so far no one has grabbed!

They closed the summit going out of south shore. Lots of bummin vacationers , trying to figure out what to do , lined up for miles. How is everyone doing with this new fire?

The fire was all the way up by Kyburz, but Hwy 50 was closed top to bottom. No smoke down here, I'll have to ask my son in Camino how it was at his house.

Quail owners... ( not much info on the web) do your quail come back into the coop at dusk or do they lolly gag in the run? And the info for nest boxes for them and nutritional guidelines is not consistent at best. Sounds similar to chickens but skip the meat scraps? Oyster shells? Small ground level nest box? Is it rough (like with chickens) to integrate them with new youngsters?

Deb- your od are sadly out of a pen for now but did you say you have sets of quail?!?

Personal note- the baby shower was a wonderful success. Now to sit back and wait for the baby! IM not the one going into labor but I get the prize grand baby! Yay;-)

I have lots of coturnix at the moment. In fact, I'm hoping to do a final sort this week and process the rest.

 

[PetRock]

WHOO HOO!!!!! I just saw on FB that Concord Feed is going to be carrying King Feed!!!!

King Feeds
The wait is finally over for all you folks in San Francisco's East Bay. Concord Feed is now part of the King Feed Dealer network. Initially they are starting with a few sku's but just talk with the manager's and let them know what you want. Dwight (Pleasant Hill), Linda (Concord) and D (Dublin) will be happy to help. Livermore Feed is now part of the Concord Feed family and will continue to carry all of their King brand line.

 

[PetRock]

I just went to Concord Feed's website to thank them for carrying King Feed! I also put in a request that they carry the Freedom layer pellets and Freedom starter! I encourage those of you in the East Bay to do the same thing! Drop them a line or give them a call to let them know you are happy that they are carrying King Feed now and to tell them which of the King products you are interested in.

https://www.concordfeed.com/crm.asp?action=contactus

 

[MossyoakLane]

So after all this quail talk. I ask my husband over the weekend, if we could raise quail.......I think he thinks I have gone bonkers. It was a very firm "No" I actually think it was more "oh he** no" but you get the idea. I think I can get him turned around.

I need to find someone local to process, as I absolutely cannot do it. I wish I could.

I think I would go with the Texas A&M Coturnix. Has anyone tried these?

Are selling their eggs profitable?

 

[PetRock]

Holy buckets of quail babies!!!! You want videos? Pics? I got it!!! Out of 109 to start 87 hatched & are super strong little ants running around!!! LOL!!! They took forever! They started at 8:30 am on Saturday & didn't stop until around 5pm last night. 87!!!! I cannot believe it!!! Only one has an issue with her legs. She can get up on her feet by herself. Cute little Tuxedo I think I may need to cull her. 1/87 ain't bad!!!

Wow!!! Congratulations! I thought that the 19 that I hatched was a lot! You sure are going to need lots of room for that many!!! They are adorable!

 

[lawatt]

So after all this quail talk. I ask my husband over the weekend, if we could raise quail.......I think he thinks I have gone bonkers. It was a very firm "No" I actually think it was more "oh he** no" but you get the idea. I think I can get him turned around.

I need to find someone local to process, as I absolutely cannot do it. I wish I could.

I think I would go with the Texas A&M Coturnix. Has anyone tried these?

Are selling their eggs profitable?

let me know if you find a local processor! i've been psyching myself up for processing chickens, but would like to at least like to learn with someone who's done it before first...

 

[PetRock]

So after all this quail talk. I ask my husband over the weekend, if we could raise quail.......I think he thinks I have gone bonkers. It was a very firm "No" I actually think it was more "oh he** no" but you get the idea. I think I can get him turned around.

I need to find someone local to process, as I absolutely cannot do it. I wish I could.

I think I would go with the Texas A&M Coturnix. Has anyone tried these?

Are selling their eggs profitable?

I talked my DH into making a multi-level quail pen for my 19 Bobwhites. It is big (4 ft x 8 ft) and cost some money to build. We had just finished it when I learned that the recommended space for Bobwhites is 4 sq ft per bird.

So now, we are planning on processing most of them. It looks like the majority of them are boys anyway. I only have 6-8 females. If I don't end up keeping them, at least I now have a nice multi-level breeder pen for baby chooks!

 

[chiqita]

My quail pens were old pidgin pens I modified. They are all wire except for the back.

I use a tidy cat cat litter box for the dusting box. That is 3d and gives hiding spaces in the back , a place to jump up on , and makes a nice obstical course for when a head quail wants to chase. Wash you sand or use play sand if you use a top so they dont colletct dust . dont want them breathing dust.

There is a nice old redwood box on the other side worn smooth from being used since 1970 or so on the other side also sideways for them to sit in and climb on.

I find with that much 2 level space i can fit a few more birds then recomended and they are happy. My quail seem happier in 10-12 sets rather then 4-5 sets. As long as the roos can get away from each other.

The other type i have is a 2 tier with boxes on top and equine pellet bedding on the bottom. I have a pladtic 8.5x 11 in box type thing on the bottom to act as a box. It gets the same bedding in it prety quickly but they still prefer to sit and dust bathe in that.

The top level is wood where the ramp goes up and wire elsewhere. There are 2 boxes one covererd one uncovered and a ramp up to the boxes.

The ramps are a big hit. That one was originally made by mario as a broodies cage but the quail ninjaed it.

All cages have roofs so the quail are not exposed to chicken poo

The cages make the birds happy but are not that eye pleasing due to the boxes being a bit weird.

 

[Country Chick at Heart]

Sorry for the double post...but I need advice. The fuzzies on the Bay Area thread perked me up and so have the quail babies! Love them! But we returned home from vacation yesterday to receive bad news. My favorite little blue silkie hen passed away while we were gone. We don't know what from. My neighbor tells me she just found her, no marks, so could have been the heat although she had lots of shade and water in the yard. She was more like a dog than a chicken. Followed us everywhere and talked to us while we did yard work/BBQd/relaxed....... always dust bathing nearby. She will be missed.... my concern now is for my remaining silkie - her hatch mate. She is now all alone as she and her sister are separated from the 3 big girls due to bullying. She is about 2 years old now so I don't know what to do.... will she be okay on her own? Or should I try to find another Silkie to keep her company? Any thoughts, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[PetRock]

let me know if you find a local processor! i've been psyching myself up for processing chickens, but would like to at least like to learn with someone who's done it before first...

My friend who has a 10 acre farm in Brentwood processes chickens at least twice a year. We participated last fall and helped process 42 chickens and a turkey. She has scheduled a processing day at the end of August and another one at the end of September. Is anyone interested in participating in a workshop and learning how to process chickens? She talked to me about charging $25 and you would go home with one cleaned & freezer bagged chicken. We also talked about letting the participants bring up to 2 of their own chickens to process. The workshop fee would then be less. )I'm guessing around $15) You would go home with your own bagged chickens and not one of the farm raised ones. This is a hands on workshop where you would learn every step of the process. (But if you don't want to do the killing, Jenny's husband will do it.) They do have a plucker machine which is so nice! Space will be limited so send me a PM if you want to be on the list.