Can You Keep Coturnix Quail With Chickens?

[ButtonHoarder]

Hello! I have been thinking about getting these cool quail for a while and wondered if you can keep them with chickens, or button quail? If not can you house them like chickens, like same temperature and stuff? Also what do you feed them? Thanks.

 

[HuffleClaw]

No. They can’t live together. The chickens will kill the quail and in some cases they can swap diseases back and forth through their poop. As far as care goes I agree with the above. Also I feed my Coturnix quail gamebird feed and it keeps them healthy and they lay very well.

 

[Quaicken108]

Chickens and quail (any quail) are not a good mix. Japanese (coturnix) and kings (button) can be housed together but can sometimes be bad because they might attack each other and there could be serious injuries (and possibly death). It also depends on how much space how have because I’ve seen people house coturnix and buttons together but they had a lot of space and hiding places to prevent anything bad to happen. It’s totally your decision though.

 

[KingD]

If you're talking about cortunix quail, you can keep them in rabbit hutch size cages. I personally wouldn't keep with chickens.

 

[FortCluck]

I have free range coturnix quail with my chickens and I have yet to have any issue. They go into their own aviary at night. I’ve had them together for 1 year. I fenced part of my yard to make a free range area and some of the woods and bushes are in there as well so they can hide at night.

The quail really aren’t aggressive and neither are chickens towards them. I also have a Muscovy duck and turkey with them.

I am someone who does not put quail in cages because I’ve seen a huge difference in my quail free ranging them and having them in a large aviary. Quail fight in cages, but not when they have plenty of area from my personal experience.

Ive had a bantam chicken sit on quail eggs and hatch them then care for them. My turkey will let the quail lay with her.

Feed the quail game bird feed. It has enough protein in it for quail to thrive.

I’ve never had issues with diseases being swapped. I breed my own chickens and coturnix quail, I feel like that makes them more resilient to diseases.

We used a rabbit hutch at first and for only 6 quail... they hated it. Bunny hutches aren’t even suitable for rabbits!

 

[Ebony Rose]

This batch of chicken chicks I bought at the store as day old chicks, but the quail were incubated and raised here at home. My fully screened in back patio with deep litter has become their brooding home. My intention is to have the quail long enough to get about one hundred eggs into the incubator then process the adult birds for the freezer. The Cornish cross should be processed a while after I process the quail, while the quail eggs are in the incubator, and then move the young australorpe chickens (egg layers) out into the fully fenced back yard (about a half acre, fully fenced). There is a separate coop awaiting them there as well, but the fencing is what they call 'cyclone' fencing (aka chain link fence) and until these birds are about three months old, they can easy walk right through the links! I could have brooded them separately in their own coop, but having them on the patio means I spend more time with them building trust and asserting ~my~ place in the pecking order. Hahaha!
So... none of them have set foot on actual soil yet; limiting their exposure to disease. The australorpe chicks should be ready for the back yard after the heavy rain ceases for the year. Panama has two seasons; wet and dry. We are currently in wet season, and it's been extra juicy with the downfall from the outer bands of rain from hurricanes Eta and Iota this year. Waiting to put them in the yard reduces the chance for cocci overload, but have amprolium on hand just in case.
After this batch, is off of the porch, I should be okay to sweep the patio litter out the back door and into the garden, disinfect the floor and start another set of cornish cross (meat) with another batch of quail on the patio.
I'm thankful that I raise coturnix quail, they're a hearty bird.

 

[KingD]

If they're for meat, feed them on turkey growers.
If they're for eggs, feed them on a quail layers.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

Ok thank you both

 

[ButtonHoarder]

If they're for meat, feed them on turkey growers.
If they're for eggs, feed them on a quail layers.

They would be for eggs

 

[ButtonHoarder]

If you're talking about cortunix quail, you can keep them in rabbit hutch size cages. I personally wouldn't keep with chickens.

I was actually considering keeping them in the rabbit hutch we have, but what is the limit on the cold they can handle? It gets really cold here in winter