Chickens and Japanese Quail living together

[evanbb]

We've got a little flock of chooks; 2 Chinese Silkies and a Rhode-Island Red X ISA Brown. They're all quite placid birds and just started laying, so they're not very big.

I saw advertised in the paper today 4 Japanese Quail, free to a good home. I'd love to take them in and run them in the same large orchard/run as the chooks, but I've heard they won't get on well. I thought I could give them a better chance by building a house just for them, with quail sized hole for entry and exit. How does that sound? Or should I segregate them all together?

Evan
Canberra, Australia

 

[worldling]

Quote:
They need their own pen space. A 2'x2'x12" wire floor cage/pen is plenty of room for 4 coturnix/Japanese quail. You can buy one of those rabbit pens from TSC, or build your own for around $20. Coturnix don't need things that chickens need. No run, keep them off the ground, no perches, no next boxes, though you should give them a dust box which the hens will most likely drop their eggs in.

 

[JJMR794]

coturnix (jap quail) + chickens=== very bad mojo / lotsa ugly things physically and biologically


basic game bird algebra...

 

[jenjscott]

Interpretation of previous post: Chickens can carry diseases that can devastate quail.

 

[evanbb]

Ahhhh, that all makes sense. Thanks all for the advice.

I'll have to wait a while then I guess. Such nice little birds though .


EB

 

[darkfur]

you can't keep them together BUT if you are experienced at keeping chooks you should find keeping coturnix quite easy

key differences are:

you can't really free-range coturnix because they are too delicious to predators and too tame to run away - I had some get loose once and a cat was eating one while the others calmly watched when I found them

coturnix do better off the ground in many cases - damp is not good for them

if you keep male coturnix together they will most likely fight to the death unless they were brought up as brothers

coturnix will jump if startled and bang their poor silly heads - so the best cage heights for them are either very low (<60cm) so they can't jump too high, or so high (>120cm) that they can't bang their heads

coturnix females rarely if ever go broody - but they are awesome layers if they get >16 hours of light a day