help with possible first quail pen please (: (coturnix)

[bigrob83]

Well a few are definitely bigger than when i got em. Still no crows that i have heard and no eggs or foam. Though i am not sure i am doing it right to get foam or not /: so time will tell i suppose.

hold quail on its back in palm of your hand. tail facing away head facing you
hold the tail with your index and middle finger and bring the tail back (away from you) like its sticking straight up like a turkey or peacock
with your thumb press gently between legs just above vent

combine those two moves and foam will present itself immediately

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Two flew out ): i was leaning in and placin the refilled dust bath and they got just right so they went past me. So five left. I tried again like you said, still no foam. So guessin they are hens i just gotta wait for eggs. Still no crowing.
And i clipped one wing on them so hopefully no more losses.

 

[USAmma]

Sorry they got away from you! They might come back if you stay away from the pen and wait until dark. Keep a light on next to the pen and they will come back to the light and to the call of their friends. I had one escape in my yard at night (wings clipped so just running fast) and it came back that way. I then snuck out and grabbed it as it was trying to get back into the coop.

 

[bigrob83]

when they are juvenile to teenager age they are in a certain spot where they are light enough and strong enough they can fly easily
a few more weeks and they can only pop up and glide a bit

I once had one fly off into the sunset... if I hadnt have witnessed it, I would have never believed a quail could fly that well

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

ya they got out just right /: but there are skunks and coons i know frequent around here and yesterday saw a big fox loping around the woods like 40 yards from my hutches. so my faith in them being alive still is about zero. hopefully these ones left will start laying though.

 

[practic]

I had a male escape while I was cleaning their coop. He flew to the top of a 40' tree that is about 50 yards away. This bird had been kept it's whole life in a pen that was not flight worthy so no idea how he learned how to fly like that... It is a bird after all tho, that might explain it lol

 

[practic]

Oh and I thought for sure he would come back for his friends but he never did

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Well they are 10wks old now. No foam. No eggs. They look healthy and put on weight.. just no eggs.

I rearranged inside the hutch bc they just poop on everything and then it stays in there. So now they will just have food water and dustbath. I moved the hutch today to hopefully let in the most light. And today while i was cleaning and moving things for their hutch and the rabbit hutches they have been in a rabbit cage on the grass. So maybe they eat some bugs and all. I only saw em peckin a little bit.

Gonna get a different feed when i go this time. And get some oyster shell for em. I am gonna try givin em a boiled egg later.

 

[gmatton]

How much (day)light do they get? Quails need about 14 hours of light to start laying.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Well right now itssunrise just after 6am and sunset just after 8pm so its 14hrs now. I dont have a way to run a cord to the hutch for extra light, thought about that.

They only really ate half the boiled egg i put out for em.