Hi, New to quail and have a question. Was I planning on doing things the wrong way?

[Oregonbeek]

Hi, I'd love some help with my problem.

I'm almost done building my livestock barn and have built a chicken area for my 30 chickens, and have also built a nearby quail area. I have a lot of experience with chickens but very little experience with quail so I'm not sure I am doing things correctly. I built an empty "coop" area that's about 20'x4' with an attached and covered run area that is about 20'x8'. I guess I have to admit that without really doing any research I just assumed that I would raise the quail much like tiny chickens and run them all in together in the coop and perhaps build a bunch of small nesting boxes for the quail to use.

And now upon further research, it looks like quail won't lay eggs in nesting boxes and kind of lay their eggs wherever they get the urge to lay them, and it looks like a ton of people raise their quail in cages (almost similar to rabbits which I also raise).

So moving forward, if I want at least 50+ laying females, should I build system of cages to house the quail? Or just let them loose in the pen with the males running around in with the females and let them live as one big community?

Basically, is it better to raise your quail like rabbits? Or like chickens? (if that makes any sense lol).

I'd love to hear any and all input you might have! Thank you!

 

[FitzD]

Based on my experience. If you want to produce quail for meat and harvest them at 6 weeks your system will work. But if you want them for egg production then the easiest way to do it to facilitate egg collection is through the cage method. Slanted cages where the eggs roll to one area are even better.

 

[laseterlass]

If you put down straw the males will make nests for the hens to lay in. I have mine in a greenhouse in Alaska. And while the dont lay in boxes. They are miserable on wire. AnD each roo should have at least 3 hens.

 

[sydney quailman]

i have mine in wire floor cage system, 4 tier, i do also have sand boxes, so they can bath in the sand. i find it easier to keep clean and collect eggs for incubation. i also sometimes add some hay for them to peck at and sit in.

 

[Oregonbeek]

Thank you for the great responses so far!

I do primarily want to do this for raising meat, but as I understand it, you want to gather the eggs to incubate them so wouldn't it be correct that you'd probably have to gather eggs just the same if you were doing eggs or meat?

I love the idea of doing it as "kind and natural" as possible, but I'm also not sure that I want to go on an easter egg hunt every day looking for 40 tiny eggs hidden all over the place.

Maybe I need to look into a good humane cage system for the quail and use the current pen for another chicken pen for a rooster or more chicken space.

Someone also mentioned that you shouldn't have quail and chickens near each other because they can share diseases? If I did this how I was planning then they would be in direct contact with each other. Hmmmm....

 

[laseterlass]

I have mine together. BUT. We in Alaska do not seem to have alot of the problems of disease. I also do not heat. The quail have deeplitter and suet covered BOSS to keeep them warm. 7 degrees last night and the unheated water only has a skim of ice on top. I broke it with my finger.