Hello

[K85trb]

I am new to keeping quail. I started with minding a friends chickens while they travelled. I decided to get smaller birds for myself. I got my first birds about a month ago.

They are cute and fun to watch. Right now they are living in an XL dog crate, which will be were they stay during the night and they will have a mobile pen for daytime.

I would appreciate any help with figuring out which ones are hens.

 

[Poultry keeper12]

Hey, they are very cute,

Best regards!

 

[lomine]

Very nice looking birds. Looks like they have lots of things to enrich their environment too.

I would highly suggest you rethink your plan though. Quail don't do well with change. They will get stressed if you move them back and forth every day. You would be better off just leaving them in the mobile pen full time (provided it's big enough and predator proof).

 

[paneubert]

Is it just the lighting, or did your babies turn a lot more white, grey, and silver when they got their adult feathers? The baby photo looks like classic Pharaoh and Italian coloring, but the adults look like some hardcore dilute or silver genes are showing. Like that Pharaoh pattern that looks silver instead of brown.

 

[K85trb]

Thank you for your comments, suggestions and advice.

You would be better off just leaving them in the mobile pen full time (provided it's big enough and predator proof).

I am concerned about predators, that’s why I thought it would be better to bring them in at night. Also, it gets really cold here in the winter and I don’t think the little birds are robust enough to survive outside without something better than a simple coop. I have no electrical skills, so I’m not sure how to heat it for them.

Is it just the lighting, or did your babies turn a lot more white, grey, and silver when they got their adult feathers? The baby photo looks like classic Pharaoh and Italian coloring, but the adults look like some hardcore dilute or silver genes are showing. Like that Pharaoh pattern that looks silver instead of brown.

I have absolutely no idea. I thought they were just regular chicks, mixes of colours. There is a bird show in May, I was hoping to learn more about colours there. Here are some more pictures, maybe it is just the lighting/camera.

 

[lomine]

The colors look like Pharoah, Italian, and A&M to me.

Quail are actually very cold hardy. They don’t need heat. You would just need something where they can get out of the wind if they need to. The only thing you’d need to worry about is the water. For mine I have a long extension cord and a gravity feed heated chicken waterer.

For predator proofing it will depend on what you are dealing with. I place a skirt of chicken wire on the ground around the run. That should keep things from digging under. Just make sure you cover every spot. I missed a spot and lost quail to skunks. If you have raccoons, hardware cloth would be better. Cover the rest in hardware cloth and get good latches and you should be okay. Unless you have really big predators.

 

[paneubert]

Must be the lighting. Are you using something like a daylight bulb? Something in the 6,500K range?

The photos of them when they are older look like they have a clear shift to more grey/blue coloration versus the one baby shot where they look like chipmunks. The Italians look Italian, but the others, especially the Pharaoh look like they lack the browns I would expect to see. Look really cool either way!

And I echo what @lomine says, they are cold hardy. They can take sub zero temps as long as you don't stick them somewhere windy. Just give them somewhere to shelter from wind/drafts and they will be fine. Mine often have their water freeze into a sold block of ice. So there is that....

 

[K85trb]

Quail are actually very cold hardy. They don’t need heat.

Unless you have really big predators.

I didn’t know that, the guy I got them from said they would do best in a garage or barn for the winter.

Unfortunately there are large coyotes here. They took down a deer last winter not far from my house.

Must be the lighting. Are you using something like a daylight bulb? Something in the 6,500K range?

I was using a daylight bulb when they were little. In the basement it’s a combo of fluorescent and LED.

 

[Acre4Me]

Your quail can happily live in the cage through winter or all year. I’ve provided my garage dwelling quail with dust bath (dry sand) using a cheap cake pan in the cage. Since mine are in the garage, they also have a windscreen (an opened up large appliance box), to keep the drafts off when the garage is opened. How low does it get in winter where you are?

 

[K85trb]

It can get down to -18 Celsius, but it’s more the windchill that would be the problem. And the snow. It can fall quickly and deep.