Hi, I just joined and thought someone maybe able to help me with a question about quail

[farmfrau1977]

Two years ago I was breeding Coturnix quail for eggs and it all went well as long as I only kept one male per pen with about 5-6 hens. However I have read many times that if they are given a large enough pen that multiple males can be kept together. This never seemed to work out for me. I had 3 males and two of them injured one so badly that he died the following day. Then the two were fine for awhile but then the hens stared to beat up on one of the other hens and took out one of her eyes. She ended up dying as well. I have the opportunity to get some hatching eggs in a couple of weeks and decided to try my hand with them again. I don't like keeping them in small cages with wire floors and am in the process of building an even larger outdoor enclosure than the last one. This one will be about 8'x15' with various hiding places and plant coverage. Am I fooling myself into thinking that I will be able to keep 3 males each with 4-5 hens in an enclosure of this size. Has anyone had any luck keeping them in a colony situation. Thanks.

 

[Lozuufy]

Hi, I keep my coturnix quail all in one cage, about 8x14. I have multiple males and they do fine together, but they are very mellow for male quail, I only kept the calmest ones. They do have lots of places to get away from each-other, and there is a divider in the middle with a doorway through. They have to jump up 6 inches to get over it and it seems to help break up any fights. I did have some problems at first but once I got rid of the aggressive males everything settled down.

It doesn't work for everyone but so far it works for me.


This picture was taken last summer (I also have pigeons and doves in there)

 

[Lozuufy]

Oh yeah and any plants you plant will probably be destroyed by the quail, I had tons of blackberry bushes in their cage at first and after a couple months they were completely gone

. They ate everything except the stems.

 

[farmfrau]

Thanks for your reply. That gives me some hope that it's doable. I will have to make this pen more secure than the last. I had a 1' apron of hardware cloth along the ground but a weasel managed to dig under and killed them all. This time I'm going to use 4"x4" for the perimeter and line the entire bottom and then fill it with top soil. I'm going to use the divider idea. I might make it out of stones since they are plentiful in the fields around here. Can't wait to get started now.

 

[farmfrau]

Sorry about the two profiles. Earlier I couldn't sign on with my old one on my desktop and now on my iPad it replied using my old profile.

 

[farmfrau]

My plan was that after I covered to area in top soil I would buy some sod and lay it down so that the whole area is covered in grass. In the old pen I had large low planters with small evergreens which I pulled up and planted. They all survived the quail.

 

[Lozuufy]

Lol the 2 profiles was confusing for a moment, but I figured it was something like that.

I hope this works for you! Another thing, it would be good to have a covered roof (you probably were planning on having that anyway) cause half my quail cage has a roof made of fencing and when it rains it gets super soggy.

 

[farmfrau]

I just got 4 sliding glass door panels from someone and my intention was to use two side by side for one of the short walls and the other two for part of the roof. I'll put some poultry netting below it so the don't fly up and knock their heads. The rest will all be hardware cloth. TSC had it on for half price and I ordered two 100' rolls. I've also started cleaning up dead trees on the property and cutting them into 6' lengths which I'll put on the outside of the hardware cloth on one of the long walls.

 

[Lozuufy]

Sounds cool, please post pictures when you finish it! And Merry Christmas!

 

[farmfrau]

Thanks, and same to you.