California - Northern

[lawatt]

Just let me know... I have almost everything...LOL

thanks -- i wish i was closer distance-wise! torn between the time driving (and my to-do list this weekend) and the gorgeousness of all your kinds of chicklets!

 

[PetRock]

Quail are so adorable! I'm a bantam girl with chickens, but in Davis we can't keep roosters and bantams are usually only available straight run (plus you can only have 6 pullets). Maybe quail would solve all my problems...
Do they tame down at all? I'm a big fan of avian cuddling.

These are the first ones we've had so I don't know. I have read that bobwhites are wild. My 25 yr old daughter thinks that she is going to keep some of them for pets. She doesn't want them for the eggs or the meat just for pets. She won't come anywhere near my chickens but now she wants quail. She cracks me up!

 

[SilkieRose]

I have heard Silkies love the glamor life, bath and a blow dry and nails trimmed and dolled up. I guess that's why people say they aint chickens..

Yours look young, and it looks like you have a few very different ones in there. Is one a Frizzle? One a smooth coat? I see the Buff is a non-bearded, I love their intelligent faces.

Sherri in Lincoln at http://www.californiacountryranch.com/ sold me these kids in January when they were about 2 weeks old. I believe I have a Buff & a Splash Silkie & a Smooth & Frizzled Sizzles. 3 months old now. Just starting to show me who they are!! So cute The smooth is a boy, I think. He's the runt, but starting to make pathetic attempts at crowing here & there Hope was the name, but I'm probably changing it to Rico Suave!!! LOL Such an attitude like a chihuahua!! Cracks me up Nobody else is talking much, except the frizzled Sizzle, Benina, she's starting to cluck a bit!! Yay!!!

 

[SilkieRose]

These are the first ones we've had so I don't know. I have read that bobwhites are wild. My 25 yr old daughter thinks that she is going to keep some of them for pets. She doesn't want them for the eggs or the meat just for pets. She won't come anywhere near my chickens but now she wants quail. She cracks me up!

I just started with 9 Coturnix quail! I love them!! They don't want to be handled much... at least that's what I see. I'm in the same predicament... The quail ARE solving all of the problems!! LOL

 

[Deerling]

Love all the pictures! Pretty chicks, Silkies and Naked Necks!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Quail are so adorable! I'm a bantam girl with chickens, but in Davis we can't keep roosters and bantams are usually only available straight run (plus you can only have 6 pullets). Maybe quail would solve all my problems...
Do they tame down at all? I'm a big fan of avian cuddling.

Many breeds start to show them selves before they crow. Anything Cuckoo. you can try and get some Cuckoo D'anver from Boggy Bottom Bantams or Cuckoo Marans bantams. someone can hatch them.
males are lighter with a bigger head spot generally females darker with a smaller head spot. That way you can send off the roosters before they crow

 

[Miss Molly]

Love the quail <3 they are so fun to have...

Congrats AmyBeth... When I first got chickens the naked neck freaked me out. They are growing on me...

 

[debs_flock]

Quail are so adorable! I'm a bantam girl with chickens, but in Davis we can't keep roosters and bantams are usually only available straight run (plus you can only have 6 pullets). Maybe quail would solve all my problems...
Do they tame down at all? I'm a big fan of avian cuddling.

I have both Bobwhite and Coturnix. The Cots you have to push aside with your hand when you reach in their cage, so I'm sure they could be tamed quite easily. I find my Bobwhites to be NUTS. I've had them for ages and they still go into a panic when you come near them.

Cots - incubate in 15-16 days, Bobs - incubate in 24-25 days
Cots - lay/mature at 6 weeks, Bobs - lay/mature at 5 mos
Cots - make a screeching sound, Bobs - lovely "bobwhite" call
Cots - lots of colors, Bobs - beautiful black/white/brown pattern
Cots - beautiful speckled eggs, Bobs - tiny white eggs

I keep several trios of bobwhites because I like their looks, call and tiny white eggs. But the rest of my quail rack is full of coturnix for their many redeeming qualities. I just set 107 coturnix eggs on Thursday.................in two weeks, I should have quail available, LOL

 

[tommysgirl]

Great pictures! Mis Molly I felt the same way about Naked Necks. I think it helps that zooemama's photo of them is so good.

So people get quail for the eggs and the meat? Do you ever just free a bunch? and how to you pronounce Coturnix?

Chickens are annoyed with me today because I am worming them and they are not going to be allowed to free range. I have a Ray story.

While the girls are roaming freely he has to be confined right now to a 400 square foot pen and can't range because he battles with the feral peacock who thinks that the area behind our house is his territory. My FIL frequently brings over little treats for my flock and yesterday he gave Ray his in the pen and then put some more of it (bisquit maybe) out for the girls who were not penned with Ray. He had a FIT! He picked up a little chunk of it and started his "come get the treat ladies" noise and they came running. He wouldn't eat his but paced back and forth with it in his mouth buck buck buck buck buck buck while the girls paced back and forth up and down the fence, obediently trying to eat what he was saving for them.

Poor guy didn't understand and was in a frenzy so I got a little scratch and took it around the corner to give to the girls, getting them out of his sight. Then he calmed down and was able to enjoy his snack.

Pretty cute,though, the sun came out and he was sunning himself right next to the fence and two of his girls were lying out with him on the other side of it.

He is such a good boy and we have no squabbles with the girls. A dog we don't know came on the property the other day and he raced into action. The girls all took cover and he stood between them and the perceived predator. I didn't want a roo at all until we got him but he is the best boy. How long do they live? He is over 10 but was rehomed to my uncle before he was rehomed to us and his age is as fuzzy as his pedigree.

In hatch news...The incubator is up to temp and has been maintaining it. I calibrated a couple of aquarium therms to put in there and I am so glad I did because the hygrometer/thermometer I ordered from incubator warehouse looses it's ability to display when its in the bator. I take it out and it sits while and is fine but I put it in and the display get illegible. grrrr.

Last night my H and I had this conversation:

H: How many eggs are in there?
Me: 35
H: And how many chicks are you getting later this month
Me: Well I am only keeping like 8-10 of those
H: I know but how many are coming here?
Me: 25
H: Have you done the Math?
Me: Yes but ... I was hoping you wouldn't
H: laughs,

I didn't bother to explain chicken math to him but I'm pretty sure he understands the general concept.

 

[liz9910]

Hello and

I love chickens, and I am glad you put up the coop before the chickens. Once chicken math strikes you might be scrambling to make coops just ahead of the chicks coming out of the brooders...

I feel I should warn you - do NOT look up ANY of the breeds being talked about on this thread, do NOT buy an incubator, and do NOT allow ANYBODY to show you chick pictures ... they are very addicting and you might end up with millions of chickens, like the rest of us!

and so so true