Coturnix Quail Basics- Information and Pictures Galore

[DonnaMiniFarm1]

how many quail do you have in that 18' x10' by 12' tall

 

[Lobzi]

Maybe 40 but I havent counted them

 

[jeepster]

Donnaminifarm1
I keep males and females together without any issues. I currently use cages that are 2 x 2 x 2 that are meant for rabbits that I purchased. I only keep 5 or 6 birds to each cage 1 male and the rest females.

I will be switching them this spring to an aviary type pen. I have decided after a year of cage use that the pen will be a better solution as the clean up will be easier and the happiness of the birds will be higher. When they go in the pen there will be several males and lots of females. The solution is to give them places to hide and be alone (as others have said).

I have also been keeping Bobwhite quail for about 7 months and they are in an aviary. They are much more docile and I have never had an issue with health or fighting with them.

This is a picture of the pen I use.

 

[dc3085]

so many quail people out there I want to know if anyone is successful with keeping males and females together. I have 25 quail all hatched together. I was going to build a coop 4'x8' with a 4'x8' run not sure how high to make them. Wondering if you all think I will have problems with them fighting? I mostly want the eggs but may hatch some out in the future. I have about 9 males in the group.

What kind of quail are they?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Community pens can work. Watch close for the boys pecking each other tho they need room to escape dominant cocks.

 

[Lobzi]

My goal is to provide a natural environment for my quail. I dont know excatly what that means as I am not familiar with anything but California quail and their lives in marshy areas..Im realy hoping for a female to brood some babies in this environment. If I notice this happening I know I will have to protect her and her young from the others. That is probably years down the road so Im not thinking of that yet. My aviary is set up such that I can segment it if necessary. Currently all roam the spaces freely.
Here is the entire aviary which is connected to my chicken coop.



Next shows the quail pen I built inside the aviary. When my quail numbers were small the quail were in their pen and the chickens had the rest of the space to play and eat. Now the chickens have the entire yard and my quail population has the entire aviary. I can always close off the quail pen area as necessary.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My goal is to provide a natural environment for my quail. I dont know excatly what that means as I am not familiar with anything but California quail and their lives in marshy areas..Im realy hoping for a female to brood some babies in this environment. If I notice this happening I know I will have to protect her and her young from the others. That is probably years down the road so Im not thinking of that yet. My aviary is set up such that I can segment it if necessary. Currently all roam the spaces freely.
Here is the entire aviary which is connected to my chicken coop.



Next shows the quail pen I built inside the aviary. When my quail numbers were small the quail were in their pen and the chickens had the rest of the space to play and eat. Now the chickens have the entire yard and my quail population has the entire aviary. I can always close off the quail pen area as necessary.

Quail fly up and can bonk their heads so keep in mind the roof should be flexible. Otherwise I commend you for wanting them to have a natural life. Keep them away from chickens, they are more susceptible to diseases and the chickens can make your quail sick. In other words, chickens are resilient to disease your quail are not. I would feel awful if I didn't tell you and you lost your quail.

 

[Lobzi]

None have flown up to anywhere near the suntuff top but they do land on the sheet sometime. The biggest bonks come from them flying into the wire cloth sides and there is nothing I can do about that.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I mention this because I have lost birds. I tried using rabbit cages to house quail, and it was a terrible mistake. If something causes them to flush (fly up) Any type of hard roof will kill them. They don't think about it and will flush upwards. if your cage does not have a soft roof it will kill them when they fly up.

 

[Lobzi]

Yes, I learned that with my first quail pair (kept them in a pet carrier with a hard top at night and lost the female to a broken neck) and so when I built the outside pen I covered their area with a sheet. Since the actual hard roof is so far up, it keeps them safe from predators but they dont bong their head on it.