City Quails?

[renge]

I guess everyone here could agree, living in the heart of a busy city sucks. Sadly, the city life meant I had to say bye bye to my girls, since chickens were nearly impossible to keep in a condominium unit, even with a pretty spacious balcony. As much as my heart belongs in the country, I'm still stuck here for maybe a few more months or years... So until I could move to a more rural area, I was hoping to make the best out of my situation and thinking if i should try Quails out.

I'm practically clueless with Quails and hoping to find out if they can survive the city life. Are they noisy enough to bring in complaining neighbors? How do they lay? I'm only familiar with the commercial set up for Quails, so I have no idea if they would be needing a nest box like chickens do. I'll be converting my old rabbit cage for them, and was wondering what I should gear it up with. I'm thinking of adding anywhere from 3 to 5 ladies.

I also haven't decided if I should get my quails as adults or chicks. Any suggestions?

Please do share if you are living with a city quail!

 

[dc3085]

I guess everyone here could agree, living in the heart of a busy city sucks. Sadly, the city life meant I had to say bye bye to my girls, since chickens were nearly impossible to keep in a condominium unit, even with a pretty spacious balcony. As much as my heart belongs in the country, I'm still stuck here for maybe a few more months or years... So until I could move to a more rural area, I was hoping to make the best out of my situation and thinking if i should try Quails out.

I'm practically clueless with Quails and hoping to find out if they can survive the city life. Are they noisy enough to bring in complaining neighbors? How do they lay? I'm only familiar with the commercial set up for Quails, so I have no idea if they would be needing a nest box like chickens do. I'll be converting my old rabbit cage for them, and was wondering what I should gear it up with. I'm thinking of adding anywhere from 3 to 5 ladies.

I also haven't decided if I should get my quails as adults or chicks. Any suggestions?

Please do share if you are living with a city quail!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rchives-important-frequently-requested-topics

Start by reading all of this info, it's the threads members deem most helpful. There is a lot of good info there. You should also read the blue links that come up in my posting signature.

After you cover that stuff you'll have more specific questions you can ask.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

My quail thrive in the city, I have close to 40 breeders right now and no one even knows about them, only know about my goose But they do well in just a plain old wire cage or even a fancy aviay, and hens produce delicious eggs frequently! I dont do tons with Coturnix quail, but dc3085 has a wealth of knowledge on coturnix. TwoCrows is a wealth of knowledge on New world species ( Bobwhites, california valley, scaled, gambel, etc)

 

[Sill]

I guess everyone here could agree, living in the heart of a busy city sucks. Sadly, the city life meant I had to say bye bye to my girls, since chickens were nearly impossible to keep in a condominium unit, even with a pretty spacious balcony. As much as my heart belongs in the country, I'm still stuck here for maybe a few more months or years... So until I could move to a more rural area, I was hoping to make the best out of my situation and thinking if i should try Quails out.

I'm practically clueless with Quails and hoping to find out if they can survive the city life. Are they noisy enough to bring in complaining neighbors? How do they lay? I'm only familiar with the commercial set up for Quails, so I have no idea if they would be needing a nest box like chickens do. I'll be converting my old rabbit cage for them, and was wondering what I should gear it up with. I'm thinking of adding anywhere from 3 to 5 ladies.

I also haven't decided if I should get my quails as adults or chicks. Any suggestions?

Please do share if you are living with a city quail!

There is no way anyone would complain about the sounds of quail hens. They make cute quiet sounds, usually like crickets...quiet crickets. The males can get "loud" with their crowing but it's not any louder than chickens when they are laying an egg if you are familiar with that sound, but it is much louder than the soft sounds the hens make. My quail are more consistent layers than my chickens especially with the heat we are having now in AZ.

Coturnix have short life spans so it you could start with chicks you would get to spend more time with them. The hens only produce well for the first year so if you get adults you might not have much production time left. With chicks you won't know their sex until they are at least 3 weeks old for browns or 6-8 weeks for most other colors. Another consideration is most breeders won't part with just adult hens, its just easier to get chicks. They mature in 8 weeks anyway so you won't have too long to wait for them to grow up and give you eggs. Since chicks are sold straight run you would have to figure out what you want to do with all the males.

One thing you will have to deal with is poop. They have high metabolisms so they eat and poop a lot. Is your rabbit cage wire bottomed or does it have a solid bottom? Wire bottoms work good for quail in that it keeps them cleaner and with fewer foot problems. I don't recommend shavings. If you have a solid bottom on the cage sand is a good bedding since it keeps poop from sticking to their feet (plus they can dust bathe in it). Sand can also work well under wire bottom cages because it helps dry the droppings quickly to reduce the ammonia odor sometimes associated with quail.

 

[dc3085]

I forgot to point out that I live in the city too (hopefully not that much longer), my yard is appx 1/3 acre and at times I have had upwards of 150 Coturnix and have never had a complaint. Not that it would matter if I did, since most cities in the US (mine included) have no set regulation for how many coturnix you can keep.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I forgot to point out that I live in the city too (hopefully not that much longer), my yard is appx 1/3 acre and at times I have had upwards of 150 Coturnix and have never had a complaint. Not that it would matter if I did, since most cities in the US (mine included) have no set regulation for how many coturnix you can keep.

Haha story of my life! The coturnix are my noisiest, and they are still really quiet.

 

[cotquail]

Question for all city quail keeps, how do you deal with their droppings. What goes in comes out so say two 50 lb bags of feed per month for 40 to 50 birds. that's like two or three maybe more bushels of dung. Any processing tips for dealing with that? What do you do in the winter with it?

 

[Quail Jailer]

Question for all city quail keeps, how do you deal with their droppings. What goes in comes out so say two 50 lb bags of feed per month for 40 to 50 birds. that's like two or three maybe more bushels of dung. Any processing tips for dealing with that? What do you do in the winter with it?

I live in the country so my situation is different, that said, have you considered one of those composting "machines" its a drum on rollers or something...

Anyway you might be able to produce compost that could be sold.

 

[James the Bald]

One point that hasn't been mentioned here is your city ordinances may prohibit you from owning quail, depending on how their classified. Some locations will list quail as a game bird, and that has it's share of restrictions as well, so you may want to contact your local officials first. The last thing you want is to get smacked with a fine for having either a game bird or poultry species that is prohibited.
James

Edited to add: I just realized that Makati is part of Manila Philippines. I just got done looking at a website for Makati, and I wish you the best of luck with quail there.

 

[Quail Jailer]

I did not realize we had a poster from Makati, I've been there quite a few times. My wife used to work at Manulife in Pasig and lived in Pasay.

My mother and father in law are still in the PI in north Luzon. I love it there, I would like to retire there. Alas, I would be happy just to retire.

If we can help, just pull my chain....