First Eggs!!

[Quailiesss]

Yeah, we free range them during morning, letting them out at about 7:00 am, but at about 1:00 pm we lock them up on their big cage, there they run around a lot before at about 5:15 pm we lock them up in their more secure, smaller cage for the night. Next day: repeat. They seem to already be used to this routine and loving it, since their previous owners kept them just in a small cage all day. Though I do worry about predators, we must be lucky because we checked, no house on the street had a single cat!! ( CRAZY LUCK ) And the council checks for foxes every month and there are none. Though I always watch for birds, we have no hawks, ravens, crows or any birds big enough to carry the quails away. I do watch the quails whilst free ranging most of the time, but they seem fine and just happily peck at the ground and roam about the yard. So in a nutshell, I WAS SUPER DUPER LUCKY!!!

 

[blackdust951]

THEY MUST BE ENJOYING THIS I CAN'T DO THIS I HAVE A DOG THAT WOULD KILL THEM HE ATTACKS EVERYTHING THAT GOES NEAR HIM IF THEY WERE IN A CAGE I DON'T THINK THAT RATIO 1:2 WOULD WORK?

 

[paneubert]

Yeah, we free range them during morning, letting them out at about 7:00 am, but at about 1:00 pm we lock them up on their big cage, there they run around a lot before at about 5:15 pm we lock them up in their more secure, smaller cage for the night. Next day: repeat.

I wish you luck. Your experience seems to be the rarity. When they free range, it is in an area that is still fenced in, even if it is a large area like a backyard or property line? I think the key to this working is for them to not be able to just walk away. That seems to be what happens to most people who try to free range. They just leave. But you say yours come inside the house on their own...... You need to start a breeding program to see if you can keep this behavior going. Haha. You could sell birds that wont run away.