Coturnix Quail

[QuailPerson]

Okay, so I've only kept button quail and me and my family are going to build a big aviary and we heard you can house quail in aviaries so we are going to get about 3 coturnix quail but we have a few questions.

1. Can we only have females and no males or will that be a problem? I wanted to get 1 male and 2 females because I wanted them to hatch out eggs but I don't know if they will mate if they are kept in an aviary with other birds.

2. If I do buy a male coturnix will it make a lot of noise? I went into the pet shop the other day and the males were making a lot of noise and we don't want to get any complaints from the neighbours.

3. Will the females lay eggs fine if they are housed with other birds? Also can I eat the eggs or are they too small? How big do they get?

4. Is it possible to tame fully grown quail or do they have to be handled when young?

Anyway, I have a few more questions regarding quail chicks. My buttons have had chicks before but we hardly needed to do any work.

1. Can we feed the chicks a game bird feed or do they need something higher in protein?

2. Are the chicks always going to be skittish even if we tame them?

3. How much chicks do we need to get, we wanted to keep the amount of chicks low.

4. Sorry if this is a dumb question but can the males be housed together or will they fight like button quail do?

Thanks for any replies and any helpful information or personal experience about coturnix will be great. I've never cared for them before, are they just like buttons?

 

[cmobley]

1 one male to 5 or 6 females other wise he will mate them to death
2 they will crow when away from their females mine never crows he stays with his 11 girls
3 females are gonna lay regardless. Eggs are very good eating takes 6 to make one chicken egg
4 some of mine became tame when they were older i feed them meal worms every other day some are tame some are still jumpy.
1 purina game bird starter from birth till death males and females. Give females a little bowl of oyster shell for calcium.
2 yeah chicks are skidish they all have different personalities
3 i dunno how many chicks you want
Dont house males together some do but they will fight and injure each other.

 

[QuailPerson]

Thanks! I'm probably only going to get hens then since I only want to keep three. I only wanted to keep 3 chicks, that's if I can find some near by. If I can't get hold of any chick should I feed the quail meal worms every day as a treat to get them to become tame? Oh and I'm looking into breeding coturnix but I heard they don't go broody easily, is this true? And if they can go broody will they hatch chicks in an aviary filled with finches and canaries? Sorry for all the questions, just want to see what I'm getting in to before I get some.

 

[cmobley]

The more time you spend with them.the tamer they will be. Unless you have some like one of mine that runs back and forth all day at the back of the pen next culling shes gone she makes the rest nervous. As far as them being broody ive heard of some peoples setting on eggs but i always use a incubator mine never show signs of setting. I just hatched out 48 and have another 7 dozen eggs in my cooler to set wednesday.

 

[QuailPerson]

Okay, thanks! You're very helpful