Looking for help with owning Quails

[Morgan561]

Hello

I am looking into getting Quails. Im not sure which to get and if I can just have females. I would like to have males but I really don't want babies. I don't want to get over run with quails. Im not sure on the market for quails either...as so far as selling the extra babies. I would like egg laying ones. I really like the Asian blue quails. Maybe I could get pair or two of them. Do they breed often? Then maybe I could get a few separate females for egg laying? If I can do that, which breeds are good for egg laying?

Sorry this is so all over the place. Im not sure what to do with this LOL. Please any help, info, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rock101fan]

I would get coturnix, if you have enough luck to get them to lay , incubate and raise the babies to the point you have so many you can't deal with them, then you are the luckiest person in the world owning quail. If you want to raise eggs up you will need to incubate them anyway, the majority of everything I have read and dealt with myself is that they do not go broody and incubate their own eggs. If you like the males breeding call as I do , and find it relaxing but I am weird because I love the rooster crowing in the early am, then get a male. If not then get just females. No need for a male and you still will get eggs. Plus coturnix lay the most eggs and at the earliest age. Some like the colors of the bobwhite or valleys but I can't get enough of the color mutations from the coturnix.

 

[Morgan561]

Ok. Thank you so much. I have chickens and parrots! I love birds lol. I just find it tough getting info on quails. Everything i found contradicts the last thing i read on them. So im really confused and unsure

 

[rock101fan]

Well this place is great, any questions I can try and answer. Just don't keep them with chickens I have read a ton of info and see pictures of a nasty uri they can get

 

[Weirdness555]

You might be reading info about different species and getting mixed up, as they all have loads of different names. For instance, chinese painted quail = button quail and japanese quail = italian quail = pharaoh quail = coturnix quail. Coturnix are better for eggs, are their eggs are a better size to eat. You could keep a male because, as said, they probably won't incubate their own eggs. If you want chinese painted quail (not sure if the same as asian blue quail?) then chances are that they won't hatch out loads of eggs either (though it is more common than coturnix) and the males are VERY pretty, but the eggs are also very small (we didn't bother to eat them when we had them).

The best species depends entirely on what you want to do with them. If you do research into the different species and ask on here for clarification, you can't go wrong.

 

[rock101fan]

Who might be getting confused?

 

[veggiecanner]

Coturnix are raised for eggs the most. But you would need an incubator to get chicks. they won't set their own eggs.

 

[Weirdness555]

I meant that Morgan561 might be confused by the contradictory information if she's reading about different species without realising

 

[rock101fan]

I agree with weirdness555 some website seem stupid for info, I read a lot about coturnix not being worth raising. They are beautiful, give eggs, eat way less than my chickens. What's not to like !

 

[James the Bald]

Well this place is great, any questions I can try and answer. Just don't keep them with chickens I have read a ton of info and see pictures of a nasty uri they can get

DITTO. Like oil and water... chickens and quail don't mix.
follow my link below
James