Greetings from Northern Arizona!

[Tookie]

Welcome!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, Jota, and welcome to BYC! Make yourself right at home here!

 

[N F C]

Hello Jota, best of luck with all your plans!

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Wild Gambels quail are fun to watch scurry from bush to bush, they always walk or run single file in a perfect line, top knots bobbing as they call ha haa ha, ha haa ha! You will need to build an aviary and set it up in a natural way...very high ceilings as they flush hard and fast easily, piles of brush to linger under, litter such as hay on the floor to make nests ect... Not too many Gambel breeders out there, your best bet would be to get an incubator and hatch them yourself.

Welcome to our community!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I've recently relocated in retirement to Northern Arizona where Gambel's
are native. I've also been based in the military in Northern California where California/Valley quail were native. Apropos for pilot to have fellow feathered friends who are also aviators.
In this relocation, we are building on six acres of old grazing land and will establish habitat so I might get a resident covey. It was cool in NorCal where I had two coveys of quail in my back yard on base. They really enjoyed the blackberry vines I planted much more than we were able to!
Though I don't have any stock at this time due to being in a rental house, I'm looking forward to starting a hatch next spring. I am very thankful for all the corporate knowledge as I hate reinventing the wheel.

 

[sourland]

Good morning, Jota, and welcome to BYC.

 

[M14Jackson]

Thanks TwoCrows! That's exactly my plan. Establish the habitat as you so expertly described and then start hatching. I'm hoping to start in the spring of next year. Until then, I'm getting schooled up on the process.

I've been fortunate to have feathered friends at some of our homes. Our last home, in Wyoming on 11 acres, had a lek of sage grouse. I didn't know about it when we bought the place, but while I was surveying the fence lines one day, the 25-30 birds flushed in such a surprising roar that I nearly soiled myself! Good thing I have a strong heart!!!

I know I'm going to enjoy my time here.

Thanks to one and all for the warm and kind welcome.
Jota

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Wild Gambels quail are fun to watch scurry from bush to bush, they always walk or run single file in a perfect line, top knots bobbing as they call ha haa ha, ha haa ha! You will need to build an aviary and set it up in a natural way...very high ceilings as they flush hard and fast easily, piles of brush to linger under, litter such as hay on the floor to make nests ect... Not too many Gambel breeders out there, your best bet would be to get an incubator and hatch them yourself.

Welcome to our community!

 

[TwoCrows]

Thanks TwoCrows! That's exactly my plan. Establish the habitat as you so expertly described and then start hatching. I'm hoping to start in the spring of next year. Until then, I'm getting schooled up on the process.

I've been fortunate to have feathered friends at some of our homes. Our last home, in Wyoming on 11 acres, had a lek of sage grouse. I didn't know about it when we bought the place, but while I was surveying the fence lines one day, the 25-30 birds flushed in such a surprising roar that I nearly soiled myself! Good thing I have a strong heart!!!

I know I'm going to enjoy my time here.

Thanks to one and all for the warm and kind welcome.
Jota

I think you will enjoy keeping them, I kept Bobwhites for 11+ years aviary style. I also kept a pair of Gambels and a few Coturnix too. Quail are skittish so you need to handle them a LOT as babies. Some can become quite friendly however and they can learn their names! (Food is a huge motivator) Get yourself a "dog clicker", I trained mine to go into their coop at night in bad weather or snowy nights by clicking the clicker, everybody filed in. (Its impossible to wrangle up quail hiding in brush piles. ) Oh and get a fishing net or butterfly net, makes it WAY easier to catch them. I used to enjoy sitting on my bench outside the aviary or inside on a chair and watch them mill around and do their thing. Very relaxing.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh and be aware, they can mate for life and during breeding season in the wild the covey breaks up and a pair needs their own space. Kept in aviaries, pairs can fight and possibly kill each other. I had two aviaries and usually separated the males and females from late spring to early fall, females in one males in the other. At first I was caging pairs but that got to be too much. I lost a lone hen to an aggressive breeding pair, so I began separating them all together. Come mid fall, I mixed them all back together for the winter covey.