Twoandhelp
Chirping
- Apr 7, 2015
- 192
- 16
- 63
I found my birds via craigslist. In Texas you have to have your gamebird breeders license ($27 for the year) so I got my birds from
Some that had some. I've bought babies and adults. And yes, Browns and golds I just meant color. Lozuufy has a nice golden male in his pic.
My quail that i have raised very rarely fly. The good thing is- they don't have good survival instincts so they don't go far. The adults I've bought are more flighty since they weren't raised by me. I keep them in cages that have a door on the side rather than a top opening pen.
If you have good ratios you could just use the egg pen as your breeder pen and the a pen for males. I don't keep my males too far because we butcher our males at 6 weeks so they don't really get to the fighting stage. If I do have older males that are "extra" I just keep them far enough that they can see the males and it's even better if they can't hear the other quail too. I've read the ratio that for meat you can havek them at 4-5 birds per square foot. I had just under 2 birds per square foot recently and didn't have any trouble out of them. My egg birds/breeders get 1 square foot per bird. Less than that leads to more head picking and messy feathers. The more space they can have the happier they'll be, like any animal. And I agree- one male for every 5-8 females is what i stick with.
Another tip- at atwoods (or other farm supply store) they have a brown bottle that is called pick-no-more or something. I'll post a pic later. It smells like dimetap and you stick it on the heads of birds that have been picked or bloodied to keep the other birds away. When my ratios and square footages are right I rarely need it.
As for predator loss, I use hardware cloth on my cages (pics later!) so that snakes/coons/owls can't get it. They are raised and as for damaging their feet- I would think the smaller squared hardware cloth might be easier on them? But I provide a nest box (Rubbermaid with a whole cut so they can get in) and I put hay in there. They love that and lay most of their eggs there. I also proved some hay for them to walk on and even some branches for them to hide in and I think that gives them a little diversity and a break from the wire.
I'm in east Texas so my climate is a bit different than yours. I provide a heat lamp in the winter. They use it sometimes but usually pile up in the nest box together and do just fine. I set the nest box door near the heat so mate some of it will go in there. I just buy brooder heat lamps and I use red colored bulbs so they have light but it's not too bright. Red bulbs are supposed to reduce pecking/cannabalism in chicks too. In the summer I sometimes use a low watt bulb that provides a little light but they usually go in the nest box or on the other side of the best box in the dark anyway. I like the light for if I do late egg checks or look outside at them.
Man, I may have given too much info. I'll post some pics of my set up in a bit. Any more questions let us know- lozuufy has a lot of good stuff too.
And keep looking around- you'll get differing opinions- ask four people and you'll get five answers haha. But pick and choose what works for you and you'll be alright.
Some that had some. I've bought babies and adults. And yes, Browns and golds I just meant color. Lozuufy has a nice golden male in his pic.
My quail that i have raised very rarely fly. The good thing is- they don't have good survival instincts so they don't go far. The adults I've bought are more flighty since they weren't raised by me. I keep them in cages that have a door on the side rather than a top opening pen.
If you have good ratios you could just use the egg pen as your breeder pen and the a pen for males. I don't keep my males too far because we butcher our males at 6 weeks so they don't really get to the fighting stage. If I do have older males that are "extra" I just keep them far enough that they can see the males and it's even better if they can't hear the other quail too. I've read the ratio that for meat you can havek them at 4-5 birds per square foot. I had just under 2 birds per square foot recently and didn't have any trouble out of them. My egg birds/breeders get 1 square foot per bird. Less than that leads to more head picking and messy feathers. The more space they can have the happier they'll be, like any animal. And I agree- one male for every 5-8 females is what i stick with.
Another tip- at atwoods (or other farm supply store) they have a brown bottle that is called pick-no-more or something. I'll post a pic later. It smells like dimetap and you stick it on the heads of birds that have been picked or bloodied to keep the other birds away. When my ratios and square footages are right I rarely need it.
As for predator loss, I use hardware cloth on my cages (pics later!) so that snakes/coons/owls can't get it. They are raised and as for damaging their feet- I would think the smaller squared hardware cloth might be easier on them? But I provide a nest box (Rubbermaid with a whole cut so they can get in) and I put hay in there. They love that and lay most of their eggs there. I also proved some hay for them to walk on and even some branches for them to hide in and I think that gives them a little diversity and a break from the wire.
I'm in east Texas so my climate is a bit different than yours. I provide a heat lamp in the winter. They use it sometimes but usually pile up in the nest box together and do just fine. I set the nest box door near the heat so mate some of it will go in there. I just buy brooder heat lamps and I use red colored bulbs so they have light but it's not too bright. Red bulbs are supposed to reduce pecking/cannabalism in chicks too. In the summer I sometimes use a low watt bulb that provides a little light but they usually go in the nest box or on the other side of the best box in the dark anyway. I like the light for if I do late egg checks or look outside at them.
Man, I may have given too much info. I'll post some pics of my set up in a bit. Any more questions let us know- lozuufy has a lot of good stuff too.
And keep looking around- you'll get differing opinions- ask four people and you'll get five answers haha. But pick and choose what works for you and you'll be alright.
