Future Quail Owner

[Tuhmu]

So I have been eyeing some bobwhite quail hatching eggs for awhile now and finally decided I'm getting some. I'm thinking for a shelter that I would use my cattle panel hoop run I made last year. I think its 8 x 8, I'll have to measure it to make sure. Anyway, think that would suffice if I were to make a somewhat small coop to attach to it and just keep it it one spot? I will probably rip the junky plastic chicken wire I foolishly put on it and put some hardwire cloth on it instead, and bury some around it to keep out predators.

For the winter I will make a more traditional hutch type cage that I can keep in my pole barn. But I definitely want them to be able to play in the dirt and grass during the summer.


Everything sound ok so far?


Couple other things I'm curious about are:

Do quail go in at night, if they have a coop?

Will they lay their eggs in the coop or will they hide them all over the run? (which probably wouldn't be a huge deal since its not that big of a space anyway).

Are they as destructive with foliage as chickens are? (Like every "pretty run" dreamer, it would be nice to make it a sort of mini aviary with nice lawn type grass and some fountain grass throughout the pen.)

Assuming that my hoop run is an 8 x 8, I should be able to hold around 16ish quail in there comfortably? I would like to keep a colony with probably 2 males and 8 females. Making it 10 quail total for this one run.

Thx for any advice in advance! I can't wait to add them to my farm but want to make sure I have a battle plan first.

 

[dc3085]

So I have been eyeing some bobwhite quail hatching eggs for awhile now and finally decided I'm getting some. I'm thinking for a shelter that I would use my cattle panel hoop run I made last year. I think its 8 x 8, I'll have to measure it to make sure. Anyway, think that would suffice if I were to make a somewhat small coop to attach to it and just keep it it one spot? I will probably rip the junky plastic chicken wire I foolishly put on it and put some hardwire cloth on it instead, and bury some around it to keep out predators.

For the winter I will make a more traditional hutch type cage that I can keep in my pole barn. But I definitely want them to be able to play in the dirt and grass during the summer.


Everything sound ok so far?


Couple other things I'm curious about are:

Do quail go in at night, if they have a coop?

Bobwhites are not a tame type of quail. They will prefer to roost on something high than go in a coop.

Will they lay their eggs in the coop or will they hide them all over the run? (which probably wouldn't be a huge deal since its not that big of a space anyway).

It seems like you plan to keep them in a covey but bobwhites aren't that type of quail for about 3 months out of the year. They breed in pairs, so during the offseason you can release the entire group into a large pen, but during breeding season they need to be paired up to avoid aggression.

Are they as destructive with foliage as chickens are? (Like every "pretty run" dreamer, it would be nice to make it a sort of mini aviary with nice lawn type grass and some fountain grass throughout the pen.)

They aren't very destructive, you'll hardly notice them damaging plants unless you find one they happen to love.

Assuming that my hoop run is an 8 x 8, I should be able to hold around 16ish quail in there comfortably? I would like to keep a colony with probably 2 males and 8 females. Making it 10 quail total for this one run.

You could possibly do this with coturnix but you cannot do this with bobs. The females will fight over their mate. In hobby sized cages its hard to have multiple roos of any breed but if you ran 2 roos you need to have closer to 20 females than 10 because they get aggressive. A coturnix roo can keep 7 hens fertile so I normally suggest a ratio of 1:4-1:7 but if running multiple roos I would go at least 1: or 1:9.

Given your situation and what it seems you are looking for in a bird I would actually recommend you purchase coturnix (Japanese Quail). Bobwhites are not really a beginner quail and they don't have the characteristics that you are looking for. Bobwhites also only breed (and lay eggs) for about 3 months a year.
Thx for any advice in advance! I can't wait to add them to my farm but want to make sure I have a battle plan first.

Here are two articles I usually recommend to people considering bobs.

http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/pdf/extension/raising_quail.pdf
http://www.gqfmfg.com/pdf/raise game birds pdf.pdf

Good Luck.

 

[Tuhmu]

Thanks for the info! Going to have to look farther into this, I naively assumed (you know what they say about that) that they could be kept the same as the Japanese quail. Seems like there is a lot of conflicting info out there, or the info doesn't specify between bobs or Japanese.