- Mar 27, 2014
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Hi I am new here and looking for some advice on raising some birds. I live on a farm in southern Idaho and have raised a few birds before for fun. We started with pheasants because we wanted to release them on our farm but they didn't survive well and we just got bored with them. We raised some chukar partridge for fun and they were neat but really mean to each other and we quickly learned they can't live in the same pen with pheasants. Also once the chukar were released (or escaped) they didn't stay around long.
We raise birds mostly just for fun and I was wondering if anybody has recommendations or advice on what we should raise next.
I am really interested in some valley (california) quail. My sister in Washington has a wild covey that lives near her house and they are really neat birds to watch. They live in a little 10 acre patch of sagebrush by her house and come by every few days to eat what falls on the ground from her bird feeder. I think it would be cool to see if I could establish a covey near my home as the habitat is very similar where I live with thick sagebrush nearby and a few trees. Just wondering if anybody has experience raising and releasing valley quail? How much space do I need per bird in my pen? Do they get along well with one another and with other birds? We are also looking at getting either bobwhite or coturnix quail. I want bobwhite but there is a hatchery nearby that sells coturnix.
We may use these birds a little bit for training bird dogs. What would be the best quail to raise for training dogs? Can the coturnix serve that purpose? I was doing a little reading and it seems bobwhite would be good for it, but I can't find any bobwhite for sale closer than 2 1/2 hours from my home. We have an incubator that we used for pheasants and was thinking of ordering some bobwhite and valley quail eggs. Anybody know where is the best place to order eggs from? Can I get a reliable hatch ordering my eggs from somewhere online? Is there another type of quail or other bird that I should be considering? Anything I need to watch out for raising valley quail, bobwhites, and coturnix together? Right now just to get started I think I'd like to order a dozen or so valley quail eggs and hope half of them hatch, as well as a dozen bobwhite eggs, and I'll pick up eight or ten coturnix chicks. Right now we have no birds except for three mallard ducklings that we raise up every year and watch fly away in the fall. We have everything ready now to raise probably 50 to 100 birds so we are trying to decide what to get. I know I asked a lot of questions but I'd appreciate whatever you know the answer to.
We raise birds mostly just for fun and I was wondering if anybody has recommendations or advice on what we should raise next.
I am really interested in some valley (california) quail. My sister in Washington has a wild covey that lives near her house and they are really neat birds to watch. They live in a little 10 acre patch of sagebrush by her house and come by every few days to eat what falls on the ground from her bird feeder. I think it would be cool to see if I could establish a covey near my home as the habitat is very similar where I live with thick sagebrush nearby and a few trees. Just wondering if anybody has experience raising and releasing valley quail? How much space do I need per bird in my pen? Do they get along well with one another and with other birds? We are also looking at getting either bobwhite or coturnix quail. I want bobwhite but there is a hatchery nearby that sells coturnix.
We may use these birds a little bit for training bird dogs. What would be the best quail to raise for training dogs? Can the coturnix serve that purpose? I was doing a little reading and it seems bobwhite would be good for it, but I can't find any bobwhite for sale closer than 2 1/2 hours from my home. We have an incubator that we used for pheasants and was thinking of ordering some bobwhite and valley quail eggs. Anybody know where is the best place to order eggs from? Can I get a reliable hatch ordering my eggs from somewhere online? Is there another type of quail or other bird that I should be considering? Anything I need to watch out for raising valley quail, bobwhites, and coturnix together? Right now just to get started I think I'd like to order a dozen or so valley quail eggs and hope half of them hatch, as well as a dozen bobwhite eggs, and I'll pick up eight or ten coturnix chicks. Right now we have no birds except for three mallard ducklings that we raise up every year and watch fly away in the fall. We have everything ready now to raise probably 50 to 100 birds so we are trying to decide what to get. I know I asked a lot of questions but I'd appreciate whatever you know the answer to.
