Coturnix keeping and vacations

[Deegie]

Does anyone keep Quail and leave them for periods of time? We would like to keep quail for both eggs and meat and for the joy of just watching them. If we set up a really good aviary for them could they be left for periods of time, say for a couple weeks or so. We have kids in other states. We are constantly weighing the choices of having birds and being tied down to the option of not having them and being able to get away when we want. We are new to this area and it is very, very rural so no hope of a pet sitter.
Thanks to you all for sharing your knowledge.

 

[Acre4Me]

If you have an aviary, then your concerns will be around water, feed, and predators.

If you build a good/strong aviary then predators are hopefully not a concern. This includes snakes and mice and rats, so use 1/4 inch hardware cloth as part of your aviary. Of course, you will need stronger stuff if you might have larger predators.

Water: plenty of people have methods for providing water that lasts several days, so keeping it clean and cool and plentiful is what you need to provide. This includes keeping it out of direct sunlight so it doesn’t evaporate or grow a lot of algae.

Feed: like water, you need to provide enough and keep it clean and dry (and predator free). Also, try to provide feed using a feeder that prevents them from spreading it all over the ground - many ideas for feeder designs on BYC.


Eggs: they will lay eggs wherever. They will be bad when you return, and they may attract predators when they are left lying for some time in aviary....so a strong aviary is important.


Good luck !!

 

[mdees88]

I raise quail for meat and eggs. I raise them in wire cages though. When I built my cages I wanted to able to leave my quail for 1 week without having to feed/water them. With the setup I have now I leave them for approximately 4 weeks.

I have an unlimited water supply using a bucket with a float valve, pvc pipe and nipples. I copied and modified a feeder design I saw that which holds about 4 weeks worth of good for 6 birds and wastes VERY little feed. Here's the link to my cage setup, I explain the waterer in post 10.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-2-0.1231366/

Here's the link to my feeder.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-no-waste-quail-feeder.1232052/

These could definitely be incorporated into an aviary if you wanted too...