You should not put them on the ground at all. I looked into retiring a favorite female to grass, because of her feet not holding up on wire. (She is an older breeder I bought as an adult and has not laid even one egg since she came to me 3 months ago. She was one of my first and boy did that awful woman I bought them from see me coming. *Sigh*) Anyway, putting her on grass would have killed her because quail are highly susceptible to parasites in the ground. They really ought to be on wire for ease of cleaning. if you give them a sand/dust bath if gives them somewhere to go where they are not on wire. Giving them a sand bath box is also great entertainment, you may just have to cancel your satellite TV
I also give the older ones some newspaper to rest on. That older female will be dinner one of these days, sadly. Shame on me for getting attached. I personally haven't had trouble keeping males together if they are all males from the same hatch and never separated, with 3 females per male. I had 5 females and 5 males in my jumbos and I will try to only cull 3 males but if there is trouble I have an extra cage to put a roo in. (Always have backups!) Since that is all the Jumbos I have (for now, more are on the way!) that pen will be 5:2 females to males.The females may lay as early as 6 weeks, but may not start until 8 weeks. The first few eggs from new layers are not generally hatched because they tend to have low fertility. Quail Jailer is doing a hatch project with some *brand spanking new* layers. Most people harvest at 6-8 weeks.
Quail don't need much space. I keep up to 10 in a converted rabbit hutch, (i just put a net in about 6" from the top inside so they bounce if they spook and flush) but you could probably keep twice that many in the same space. I just don't like feeling like a factory run operation.
If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you quail-proof the area you keep your pens in. I have 1" chicken wire all the way around mine now, last week one of my Pharaoh's got out and slipped through the chain link into my (feuding) neighbor's property. I had to dive over the fence with my hubby's fishing net and catch her. Thankfully the neighbor did not see me, but I am too old and (dare I say) fat to be hopping fences and chasing stupid little birds. As soon as I was done gently chiding my miscreant I got to laying chicken wire all the way around that place and even put in a 6' tall chain link gate, with 1" chicken wire on the bottom.
Did I answer everything? I hope so! Enjoy them...
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