Personally (i Know I'm Gonna Take Heat For This...) I Do Not Intermix Types Of Fowl--- It Is Usually A Recipe For Bad Things. Many Gamebird Speces Will Readily Succumb To Chicken Illnesses And Have No Immunity For Them, While The Chickens Never Get Ill. I Have Had Bad Situations In The Past And Learned This The Hard Way, And You Can Simply Read Post After Post On Here As Well--- " My Babies Are Sick, Whats Wrong..." Etc...
As A Hard And Fast Rule I Dont Mix Types Of Birds, Example= I Dont Mix Ducks With Chickens, Or Chickens With Gamebirds, Or Gamebirds With Waterfowl--- And So On. The Illnesses Are But A Small Part Of The Reasoning, Albeit An Important Part! Also The Different Types Of Birds Require Differing Nutrition And Conditions To Flourish.
Gamebirds Need Dry Pens (not Gonna Happen If There's Waterfowl In There...) And No Predatory Pressure, As Well As Usually Do Better With More Space And Even Landscaped "structure" In Their Pens. Duck Are Happy Anywhere So Long As They Have Water-- And They Will Make Quite The Mess With It And Thereby Soak The Pens. Many Chickens And Turkey Do Well Almost Anywhere And Require Alot Less Protien In Their Feed To Flourish. Not Quail-they Need Totally Enclosed Pens That Are Big, Dry And Strong, Preferrably With Shelter Or Hides.
The Size Difference Sets The Gamebirds Up To Be A Looser If They Are Kept With Chickens--- The Chicken Has A Lot More Mass On Its Side In A Fair Fight. Also Most Speces Of Quail Have Napolean Syndrome--- Remember Him? Lil French Guy Dead Set On World Domination?--- Bob Whites Are Like That And They Can Be "junkyard Dog Mean" To Other Inmates In The Same Pen--- Coturnix Not So Much. More Likely To Be Lil Rag Dolls The Chickens Kick Around And Pick On When They Are Bored.
For Best Care Quail Need Gamebird Feed Which Has Higher Protien Ratios And A Slightly Different Makeup Than Chicken Crumbles, Turkeys Do Well With Higher Protiens Too, But These High Protien Feeds Are Usually More Expensive Pound For Pound( Or Kilo For Kilo) Than Regular Layer Feeds Which Chickens And Duck Do Quite Well On...
And While We're On Feed Differences Theres The Birds Size To Consider--- Chickens, Ducks, Even Turkeys Can Consume Whole Grains And Larger Pieces Of Grit, Oyster Shell, Etc... While These Can Be Just Big Enough To Choke A Full Sized Quail To Death Because If They're Hungry And Its Available--- They're Gonna Try!
Have You Thought Of Building A Smaller Community Pen For Quail? Coturnix Especially Can Be Well Managed In This Sort Of Set Up. They Are By Far More Docile, Handleable, And Illness Resistant Than Most Other Speces. And Lets Face It--- They Are The Roaches Of The Quail World! I Mean That In A Good Way--- Very Few Birds Are Grown And Laying Their Own Eggs In As Little As 6-8 Weeks After Hatching, They Have Great Hatch And Chick Survival Rates, The Heal With Amazing Ease, And They Can Be Made To Lay Year Round--- Think About It, After Starting With 1 Batch Of Eggs In A Year You Can Be Hatching Your 5th Or 6th Generation From Those Original Eggs---- Thats Pretty Handy
