Different breeds together? And housing?

[sfgwife]

Someone on CL has a few different breeds of quail livin together. (I havent asked what breeds they are but he does have a pic and yea they are not the same). He is sellin the whole set up for a reasonable price. We do want quail eventually and if the hutch is in decent shape we do have a place one could go right now. But is it ok for different breeds to live together? In all of our research of quail here and books and internet we have never come across more than one breed together in a hutch. Just curious if this is a crazy person who just is ignorant or doesn't care so long as he had the birds.... or if it is ok to do this. It just surprised me and then i went hmmmmm maybe we could have quail right now.

And onto the housing part.... those cheapie prefab coops. One of our friends had one for his chicks/pullets first home and it is sittin empty now. Would one of those properly protected work for quail? It was just a thought i had the other day when i took him his weekly sweet treat from me. I have only ever seen quail in hutches and didn't know if it was a crazy idea or maybe a good one lol! Just so the birds could have grass and space instead of on wire all of the time. .

One last? What is your fav quail breed and why? We kinda want bobwhites here but not totally set on them. We live in NC on 150 acres (family farm that has not been worked because of my dad's health for a long time) since hubby retired in march.... and i remember hearin the calls of those lil guys all the time when i was younger and kinda would like to hear it again. But we also want them for meat and if possible to release some into the woods. To maybe hopefully see them start to repopulate a bit. But the releasin part is a ways off... need to make absolute sure they would have the right habitat plentiful. From what we have been told the bobwhites left mostly because of predators in this area and so much habitat being lost in the region.

 

[DK newbie]

I only have button quail, but from following this forum for a couple of years I can at least attempt to anser some of your questions:
If the enclosure is big enough (as in a large walk-in aviary), it's not entirely crazy to have different breeds together. But if it isn't very big, there will likely be problems. Even with the same breed, there can be problems if the enclosure isn't sufficient.
If we are talking ~6 birds of species that are usually not very aggressive, a small chicken coop might be okay - if we are talking 20+ birds of aggressive species, I wouldn't attempt it.
If you post the pictures of the birds, someone might be able to tell what kinds they are.
With regards to using a chicken coop, it will likely need some adjustments to become suitable for quail. The wire size is one thing - raccoons and other predators are known to pull the heads off quail, if they can reach through the wire or if the quail can get their heads out. So ½ x 1-inch wire is about the biggest you can do, and even then two layers of wire might be better. Also make sure digging predators can't get in.
One more issue is quail tend to fly straight up when scared. If there is something hard above them, they can get hurt or even break their necks like this. A chicken coop might need to have soft mesh suspended below the top in order to prevent this.

In general, coturnix is the breed that's recommended for beginners. They are calm and easy to deal with, lay lots of eggs and mature quickly.
Bobwhites tend to be a lot more skittish, if you keep more than one pair together in the breeding season they are likely to fight, they mature much slower and lay less eggs.
With regards to releasing them, you might need all kinds of permits and even then very few released birds are able to survive in the wild.

 

[Nyla]

My favorite breed is Blue Scale. I have alot of diffrent quail breeds. But if we are talking bobwhites, then Snowflakes top them.
Do you have the pic from cg list?
It's not wise to house different breeds together because it causes crossbreeds, or infertile eggs.

I'm actually planning on cross breeding Snowflake bobwhite with a Blue scale. I've herd their offspring are amazingly beautiful!

Here is what a California Valley quail crossed with bobwhite looks like!
(Makes me think of a masked killer off a scary movie!)

 

[sfgwife]

Hmmm. I cannot find the ad this mornin. :/. But still good info to know for us.

 

[JM25]

We keep button and coturnix together. They always have gotten along well!