How do you keep quail from flying?

[RollingE]

So a short background story. Im Skeeter, Ive kept poultry for many years. This year I decided I would raise quail for release at some property we have. The memories of abundant quail draw me into wanting to help supplement the local population. Before you say anything, yes Ive read the studies, yes i know theyll likely die, and yes this is something I still want to do.

Quail have presented a whole new set of problems. Ive been able to overcome all but one so far. The last 3 or 4 days my bobwhite have become familiar with the sight of their feed bucket. Day one, one bird got out. No biggie, grabbed the net and put it back it. Day two, 2 birds got out and we were able to round them up. Day 3, an absolute disaster. 5 birds got out and all were quickly wrangled up by my dogs. 2 birds were unfortunately squished in the door of their flight pen as i had a quick decision to close it or let more birds keep flying out. Guess what? I closed the door, poor little guys!

Anywho, ive got this idea to build a tube style gravity feeder that pokes through the side of their flight pen so i can feed from outside the flight pen. Right now theyre in a smaller style flight pen about 8x8, hoop house style, made from cattle panels, covered in chicken wire and the bottom 36 inches in hardware cloth. The ends are framed in and civered in hardware cloth with a door at one end.

I will take any and all advide on how to mitigate this problem of mine during feeding time! The birds are so excited they come running to the door and just absolutely will not go away. Hopefully this new feeder idea will help but ill still need to go inside for water, cleaning, change of hay for their boxes, etc. If i keep doing this eventually ill have no birds left!

These birds are about 4 weeks old. There are 54 birds total. My younger batch is about 2 weeks old and there are 113 of them. Eventually all birds will go into a flight pen that is 8x32, same design as the smaller pen. I dont want to clip wings as these birds will all be released.

Thank you ahead of time for any help you can provide!

 

[DK newbie]

I read a website of a professional breeder of bobwhites for release once. According to that website, you should only go near their flight pen at night, when they don't see you, because getting used to humans will reduce their chances of survival. I guess that would fix your problem.
But other than that, I'd just build an extra gate either outside or inside the current pen door. You go in the first door, close it behind you so you are standing in a small room with no birds, then you open the door to the actual enclosure. Any birds trying to escape will just end up in the small room and you can easily get them back into the enclosure.

 

[RollingE]

I had considered the same about the double door thing as well. Im learning quickly as i go along thats for sure! I have read some studies about release quail conducted by A&M that showed that quail tend to imprint within the first 3 days after hatch. They also conducted a study about exposing adult quail to 17 hours of light and then adding in newly hatched chicks. Many of the males would steal babies from each other in an attempt to raise as many as possible.

I knew this batch would have to be hand reared. My plan is to keep about 30 for breeding purposes, incubate and then have the adults raise the next batch. Next year ill release the previous breeding adults and keep 30 from the new batch. Occassionally ill replenish stock so as to keep anh inbreeding down.

This has been quite a whole new experience. Frustrating at times, but fun along the way. Unfortunately these guys are way too tame for their own good. But luckily i also have a cat who keeps them on their toes!