Hatching and raising Cali Quail with a Bantam chook

[chooknlover]

Hi all, Ive hatched 2 previous clutches of Cotunix Japonica quail with this bantam, but the mortality rate was very high in the first few days.
We would just find dead ones. BUT I didnt make an adequate home, I dont think. The bantam mum is a free range chicken.
The 2nd clutch we got 4 quails to 4 weeks of age, but then I foolishly thought they would follow her up her usual roost tree, AFTER she had already jumped out and flown up the tree to roost (because they could fly by then). Sadly, all vanished by morning.
Third time round I have bought Cali Quail eggs, 5 hatched yesterday. I have made them an unroofed pen in the back yard (summer here) and on day 2 of hatching, all are well and I watched 2 of them pull up a worm, fight over it and one determinedly ate it all, over a few minutes, because it was at least twice his body length!
Last time the Coturnix definitely listened to her and came when she called, as they roamed the back yard by day and came back to their pen at night, when I would close it up. These Cali peeps are already listening to her at 2 days old. She is a really good mum, very vocal.
So all those who say Quail cannot learn Chicken speak, well they can. Fingers crossed I can keep these alive to independent status, as I want them to be free range quail, and live and prosper in the wilds of my back yard. Anyone who has similiar experience, I would love to hear from you!

 

[Nabiki]

I think you have learned that if you are going to keep quail, you can't free range them. That doesn't mean that there aren't the rare exception, but if you don't want to lose most of them, you need to keep them in a fully enclosed pen.

Another thing to note is that EVERYTHING likes to eat quail. If they are not in a predator proof pen, you will likely lose them to raccoons, possums, cats, dogs, hawks, rats, squirrels, snakes, weasels, ferrets, and lots of other things that I don't know off the top of my head.

 

[chooknlover]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I live in New Zealand, so we have less predators, with cats being the main one. We have lots of wild California quail on the outskirts of town, so Im hoping. I know! Its a big hope.

 

[chooknlover]

5 days and still 5 chicks. Doing well, eating chick starter crumbles. Outdoor pen of about 10 foot by 6 foot oblong of sturdy square mesh wire, 3 foot high, open roof. This breed seems much hardier in the early days than the previous clutches of coturnix. They listen to mummy bantam when she calls them to feed, and when she calls them to her for safety when I fill up the water with the hose. She is a vocal hen, lots of purring in their little home of an upside down gardening wheely bin.

 

[chooknlover]

I think you have learned that if you are going to keep quail, you can't free range them. That doesn't mean that there aren't the rare exception, but if you don't want to lose most of them, you need to keep them in a fully enclosed pen.

Another thing to note is that EVERYTHING likes to eat quail. If they are not in a predator proof pen, you will likely lose them to raccoons, possums, cats, dogs, hawks, rats, squirrels, snakes, weasels, ferrets, and lots of other things that I don't know off the top of my head.

PS, none of the mortalities of my coturnix in the past were due to predators, but my own mistakes. The ones that lived to 4 weeks old I opened up the pen at about 3 weeks old when fully feathered up, and they foraged around the yard with their mother, while i supervised, and she would bring them back for food and water in the pen. And then I would shut the pen. They were very clever and didn't stray far from the pen, and neither did she, til they knew their way around. When they called for her, she went to find them. And she would hunker down at many spots in our big, bushy backyard, and be an anchor for them to have a little snooze, a little wander, and get their bearings.
I think its absolutely possible. Especially if they are being taught by a free range mum.

 

[chooknlover]

PS I found it difficult to find an exact incubation time for California Quail, most of my googling said 18-23 days ! Not very exact. So I started pulling out a couple of eggs from under the bantam and holding them to my ear from day 17. I didn't hear anything until day 22 (movement) and they all hatched on day 24.
To be fair, only 5 from 11 incubated actually had chicks in them so I could have been pulling out the duds. With chickens and quails you can hear them inside the eggs a couple days before hatching. (movements, tiny pecks). SO, Cali Quails = 24 days.

 

[chooknlover]

Update***** 2 days ago, before they were 2 weeks old, mum jumped out of the pen, and one flapped up and over to join her! So I let them all out. they stayed with her for the whole day, and then I herded her back into the coop in the evening to sleep in their little voered home. Yesterday morning, they ALL could flap out and follow her, and in the evening she took them all up her roost tree, (a tangelo tree) right to the very top. Their feathers aren't even fully grown yet, so I don't think thats a good idea! They wont be waterproof yet. So I got a ladder and made her get down, they all flew/fell down and I herded her gently back to their pen and shut the door for the night.
Today is 2 weeks, I fed them in the morning, they all ate, then later on I heard them outside in a different part of the yard. She's roaming around and all 5 are staying with her and foraging, and scratching etc. I think I will have to keep dissuading her from going up the tree till they are fully feathered up.. 5 still alive and thriving so far. Definitely the breed I think, they are definitely more wild and more able than the Japonica.

 

[chooknlover]

They spent their first night up in the tree last night, all came back down safe this morning..whew! I realised it was going to be too difficult to keep trying to pen her in the evening, without causing them all stress. Theyd go in easy enough and then half hour later, he'd jump out and only one would go with her and the rest just cheeping at her through the bars. Googled, and in the wild a Cali Quail mum would brood up to 2 weeks. And as they were 2 weeks and 1 day, AND it is our summer here, I had to let go and hope for the best. Winning!! Got some good pics of her sitting on the grass late afternoon today, with 2 walking on top of her and the others under her wings.....just before she took them back up the tree for the night. I will upload when I figure out how.

 

[chooknlover]

PS a little about me. I live in a small town in NZ. Apart from the bantam mum, who is about 5 years old, I have 3 Leghorn Hens, Silver Duckwing, who are about 3 or 4 years old. They are all free range on my quarter acre section, with many trees and shrubs and wild places. If you know Leghorns, they are not friendly birds, but they all stick to their backyard, all roost up the same tree, and I use a little yellow bucket to put feed into, I shake it around, they hear it and see it and come running to be fed, morning and evening. So I'm hoping that now I don't have to interfere in the quails' life anymore, they will be less afraid of me and just learn to come when the yellow bucket comes out. The reason I posted on this site, is because there is very little information on raising California Quails in NZ, and I thought maybe other people in America had done it this way. I forgot about snakes and foxes and such, as we don't have them here, but we do have weasels and cats and hawks etc, cats and hedghogs being the main predators for ground dwellers at night. But these little guys are definitely safe up the tree, and even thought their eggs were REALLY expensive for such low fertility, I will absolutely only buy California Quails for free range in future. Its actually the first year I've ever seen their eggs for sale here, otherwise I would have bought them instead of Japonica the last 2 times I tried.
Even though Im sure the only way the eggs got hatched was by someone capturing a wild quail pair, which i think is quite mean, because even as babies, they are so wild, and definitely would not enjoy living in a cage. But needs must, and though I woudnt do it, Im glad someone did. I hope they got set free after breeding.

 

[Couchie]

I enjoyed this read. I have my first quail and some very young pekin bantams. They share a divided yard and seem to get along well. I suspect the male quail is more curious about the little hens than the female quail. I'd like to try to put them together but I am not sure if it is wise. I also let the bantams out now and then to run. If I did that I worry the quail would not come back. I hope you write more about their co-existence and I'll check back in sometime.