Greetings from a quail owner in the PNW

[oxalis]

Hi! Quail are such neat birds. I hope their health has improved. Hopefully your dream of keeping chickens also gets fulfilled as well. Best wishes to you and your covey!

Thanks for joining and welcome to BackYard Chickens!

Thank you! Now that we've had them for a bit longer, I think I'm starting to see an improvement in the two that were lethargic. I think they're going to be okay!

Wow! your quail are so beautiful...I'm thinking about adopting some quail.....are they better than chickens???

Right?! I was just looking at all the gorgeous color morphs on Thieving Otter's site and it was hard to say no to more birds. Anyway, I can't say if they're better than chickens, since I haven't had chickens in so long that I can't really compare the two, but if you're interested I encourage you to look into it!

Just like chickens, they're very cute and they do lay a *lot* of eggs. The eggs are of course smaller than chicken eggs but they are more nutrient dense and I think they're a bit tastier and creamier as well. I definitely noticed a difference when we pickled them compared to chicken eggs, and our neighbor prefers them to chicken eggs as well when we shared some with her.

I think one specific scenario where quails would beat chickens is if you want to have a poultry house pet with a side bonus of some eggs. I've heard mixed things about chickens as housepets (some say it's fine with the right breed, others say don't do it) but with quail, they're small enough that you can easily keep them inside with most setups. A small flock of 3 or 4 hens won't make too much mess, though you will have to have the right setup to manage dust and contain bits of sand they like to shake off after bathing. Keeping them indoors as pets is where most of my experience is so if you have any questions about that I'd be happy to share.

And I wanted to say thank you to everyone else who dropped by to say welcome! Here's a couple pics of the girls I took today.

 

[TwoCrows]

Thank you! Now that we've had them for a bit longer, I think I'm starting to see an improvement in the two that were lethargic. I think they're going to be okay!


Right?! I was just looking at all the gorgeous color morphs on Thieving Otter's site and it was hard to say no to more birds. Anyway, I can't say if they're better than chickens, since I haven't had chickens in so long that I can't really compare the two, but if you're interested I encourage you to look into it!

Just like chickens, they're very cute and they do lay a *lot* of eggs. The eggs are of course smaller than chicken eggs but they are more nutrient dense and I think they're a bit tastier and creamier as well. I definitely noticed a difference when we pickled them compared to chicken eggs, and our neighbor prefers them to chicken eggs as well when we shared some with her.

I think one specific scenario where quails would beat chickens is if you want to have a poultry house pet with a side bonus of some eggs. I've heard mixed things about chickens as housepets (some say it's fine with the right breed, others say don't do it) but with quail, they're small enough that you can easily keep them inside with most setups. A small flock of 3 or 4 hens won't make too much mess, though you will have to have the right setup to manage dust and contain bits of sand they like to shake off after bathing. Keeping them indoors as pets is where most of my experience is so if you have any questions about that I'd be happy to share.

And I wanted to say thank you to everyone else who dropped by to say welcome! Here's a couple pics of the girls I took today.

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Super adorable! I love their enclosure.

 

[N F C]

Thank you! Now that we've had them for a bit longer, I think I'm starting to see an improvement in the two that were lethargic. I think they're going to be okay!


Right?! I was just looking at all the gorgeous color morphs on Thieving Otter's site and it was hard to say no to more birds. Anyway, I can't say if they're better than chickens, since I haven't had chickens in so long that I can't really compare the two, but if you're interested I encourage you to look into it!

Just like chickens, they're very cute and they do lay a *lot* of eggs. The eggs are of course smaller than chicken eggs but they are more nutrient dense and I think they're a bit tastier and creamier as well. I definitely noticed a difference when we pickled them compared to chicken eggs, and our neighbor prefers them to chicken eggs as well when we shared some with her.

I think one specific scenario where quails would beat chickens is if you want to have a poultry house pet with a side bonus of some eggs. I've heard mixed things about chickens as housepets (some say it's fine with the right breed, others say don't do it) but with quail, they're small enough that you can easily keep them inside with most setups. A small flock of 3 or 4 hens won't make too much mess, though you will have to have the right setup to manage dust and contain bits of sand they like to shake off after bathing. Keeping them indoors as pets is where most of my experience is so if you have any questions about that I'd be happy to share.

And I wanted to say thank you to everyone else who dropped by to say welcome! Here's a couple pics of the girls I took today.

View attachment 4053994
View attachment 4054006

Such pretty little birds!

 

[janiedoe]

Thank you! Now that we've had them for a bit longer, I think I'm starting to see an improvement in the two that were lethargic. I think they're going to be okay!


Right?! I was just looking at all the gorgeous color morphs on Thieving Otter's site and it was hard to say no to more birds. Anyway, I can't say if they're better than chickens, since I haven't had chickens in so long that I can't really compare the two, but if you're interested I encourage you to look into it!

Just like chickens, they're very cute and they do lay a *lot* of eggs. The eggs are of course smaller than chicken eggs but they are more nutrient dense and I think they're a bit tastier and creamier as well. I definitely noticed a difference when we pickled them compared to chicken eggs, and our neighbor prefers them to chicken eggs as well when we shared some with her.

I think one specific scenario where quails would beat chickens is if you want to have a poultry house pet with a side bonus of some eggs. I've heard mixed things about chickens as housepets (some say it's fine with the right breed, others say don't do it) but with quail, they're small enough that you can easily keep them inside with most setups. A small flock of 3 or 4 hens won't make too much mess, though you will have to have the right setup to manage dust and contain bits of sand they like to shake off after bathing. Keeping them indoors as pets is where most of my experience is so if you have any questions about that I'd be happy to share.

And I wanted to say thank you to everyone else who dropped by to say welcome! Here's a couple pics of the girls I took today.

View attachment 4053994
View attachment 4054006

Thry are so pretty!

 

[romea]

Hi there! Do you have any experience with Bobwhites? I would also love to know more about your setup. If I read your posts correctly, you currently have 5 hens, right? How large is the area they can access and how do you contain the dust?

 

[oxalis]

Hi there! Do you have any experience with Bobwhites? I would also love to know more about your setup. If I read your posts correctly, you currently have 5 hens, right? How large is the area they can access and how do you contain the dust?

Hi there Romea! Currently I just have three hens (I posted a picture in another thread of some hens we had before that passed away last year).

Before we got our new hens we decided we wanted to build a better enclosure for them that would have more space and be easier for us to clean. We decided to go with these C&C cages as they were modular and come with vinyl inserts you can use for the floor that would contain their bedding and some of the mess. We ordered from the manufacturer but they're also common enough to find on FB marketplace for cheap.

The area is about 13.5 square feet for all the birds if you count the loft area, which they do use a lot. The only good thing about the barn we got them from is that they were already used to using a ramp..

Dust containment is a multi-factor situation:
1. We buy their sand from the store and have to wash it to remove the finer dusty particles before it even goes into their sand pit. This does a lot to prevent dust buildup.
2. Putting a hood/roof and walls over their sand bathing area to keep sand particles further contained. For us its a separate piece that we can take out to make litter scooping their sand easier. The rest of the pen has the sides of the vinyl floor insert that are 6 inches high which also help contain some shaken-off sand.
3. We keep an air purifier right under their pen that runs all the time. (Note: If you go this route make sure the filter is non-ionizing so it doesn't produce ozone which can hurt the birds)

In the end I still have to sweep up a bit right around the pen but its a lot better then when we had our first quail in a pen that wasn't well designed to contain dust, and more dusty sand. We actually haven't had the sand pit hood on much since we wanted them to adjust to the space first and there's still not that much sand getting tossed out.

Here is a full picture of the pen for context:

All that aside, I don't have any experience with bobwhites. I saw some snowflake bobwhites at the local breeder that melted my heart with their cuteness but I heard they were more difficult to keep so I got coturnix as my indoor birds instead. There is someone I've seen on tiktok who kept some indoors and they made a bunch of videos about their experience and setup which I thought was neat and might be worth checking out.

 

[romea]

Thank you for this comprehensive reply!
I am currently contemplating getting some quails - again. -> I had different types in the past but only kept button quails inside the house (except for a bobwhite that was with us in the livingroom as a juvenile - who was actually a lot of fun).

Since birds don't probe, I occasionally used bedsheets to partition areas inside the chicken-coops whenever I had, for instance, a broody hen with her chicks or needed to create an adhoc enclosure while blocking visibility at the same time. I took the idea of using fabric to also shield our livingroom from too much dust coming from the button enclosure.

While I kept the (free-ranging) chickens and quail on sand, I used hay for the indoor buttons (with access to boxes with sand).
Btw: cleaning the coops daily with a cat litter scoop took maybe 10 minutes and I feel quite strongly that this is way superior to the 'deep-litter-method', but I digress...

My buttons were fairly relaxed, and used to cats and dogs (and vice versa ). I sometimes gave them access to run around our open-concept livingroom - which was probably only possible because everybody was fairly chill...
How tame are your coturnix and where are they located within your house? (I am asking to figure out how much exposure they have to you/r activities). I am not sure if I will be able to replicate the button-experience with coturnix.
While I keep reading that they are better suited because of their calm nature/advanced domestication, my personal experience with the bobwhite hen - who was such a clever little bird - makes me long for a more interactive quail.

P.S.: Thank you for the links... I got a little sidetracked by this here:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7459821336584654086

I'm noticing that she appears to also use baby tents for young birds - which is a great way to contain those of the order "Galliformes" who tend to propel themselves upwards when startled.

 

[oxalis]

How tame are your coturnix and where are they located within your house? (I am asking to figure out how much exposure they have to you/r activities). I am not sure if I will be able to replicate the button-experience with coturnix.
While I keep reading that they are better suited because of their calm nature/advanced domestication, my personal experience with the bobwhite hen - who was such a clever little bird - makes me long for a more interactive quail.

Ours are in the corner of our livingroom, which is sort of connected to our kitchen and dining room (which we use as an office for me and my husband). So we can usually always see the quail pen when we're working, and we're often over to check on the birds/say hi/clean up. This has helped with getting them more used to people. They have been okay with regular household noises so far like noises from people chatting, some music, and noise from kitchen when cooking, but I will note that we don't really watch TV in the living room so we haven't really tested that.

Our first batch of quails before this group was raised from incubator indoors and they were used to pretty much everything. They didn't even startle if the fire alarm were to go off. The main difference these new birds have is that they are more sensitive to noise at night when the living room lights turn off after 8pm. I think they will get used to it as time goes on, but for now we have to be careful to use headphones if playing a video game or something so the new birds don't startle when its dark.

This batch of quails came from a farm breeder so I dont think they got a ton of interaction with people, but they're doing surprisingly well with us (strategic use of treats help a lot). We are also giving some meds to one of our birds with a swollen foot so we are holding her every day. Surprisingly, she handles being held very well now and its only been a week! She is calm and doesn't shy away from our hands when we're in the pen. Each group of coturnix I've had so far have at least one bird that takes well to being held.

With our first coturnix, we did actually leave them free to walk around in the living room if they wanted. Their pen was lower to the ground with doors that could lower like little ramps so we often left them open during the day. Mostly they liked to stay in their pen, but our one jumbo liked to come out each day and forage in a cardboard box I'd leave some treats in. She'd hop out and and jump a few times to flap her wings and then head to the box. Always put a smile on my face.

And yeah, her latest video of her pigeon and bantam... omg