My new quail project

[Royac]

Hi friends!
I'm new in the forum.
I would like to have your opinions and help, sorry if i commit an error with my english.
I'm planning to start a quail project, probably to have eggs, but principally, for hobby and touristic reasons (I work with tourist)
The building is now ready, it was occupied by other animals. I know the size is exaggerated, but I love for the reasons I want.
The building size is 5mx2.5m with 2 meters up.
I have some questions first:
1. ? Is better to install a big group because of the size of the crop? I was thinking in buy 10 female and 2 male.
2. I know is difficult, but if I construct a good environment inside, with small hay bales, wood and good space is probably that they can hatch eggs by theirselves (naturally)? Anyway, i may also try with small hens.
3. Which should be the correct distribution of males and females for warranting all the eggs will be fertilized?
4. In my area, we have a rainy place, but normally the climate is not really cold (we have no snow, temperature does not go under ° 17 Celcius) Is a good option to install a lamp for warming them?
Thank you in advance !!
Best,
Roy

 

[JaeG]

Welcome Roy. Glad you joined us!

Quail are very tough little birds so as long as they have shelter they'll be absolutely fine with your temperatures. Coturnix rarely go broody but are the most docile quail to keep. That sounds like a good number for the space as long as they have lots of hiding places to get away from each other when they want to. It will be a hunt to find their eggs though as they tend to lay them wherever they feel like it on that particular day. In that respect chickens may be easier. I'd love to see it once you have it all set up whatever you decide to do.

 

[Royac]

Thank you so much for your response JaeG!!!
I decided a new quantity: 16 female and 4 male. is that ok or I may have less males and more females?? There is a problem witht he quantity of males? they may fight together in that crop size?
Of course, I hope will be ready the next week, so i will post later some photos about the place.
I have a question more, I heard something about coturnix and white color. They like or not? most of the construction is white inside.
I will do some hide places with hollow trees cut by half.
Best,
Roy.

 

[JoeQ]

I'm new as well but I would say 5 meters by 2.5 meters can certainly accommodate more bird than you mentioned, if you want more. I've heard that the bird needs 1 square foot to thrive. The dimensions you discussed show almost 120 sq ft. As far as ratio I think it is recommended 5:1 from what I've read and is typically sufficient for fertile eggs. Please keep in mind I'm new to quail myself so this is only based on what I've heard or read, BEST WISHES!!!!

 

[DK newbie]

If you want your birds to go broody, your best chances would probably be with a male and maybe 3-5 females. I don't have coturnix quail myself, but there are occasional stories on here about broody ones and quite often those are birds that are kept just a few individuals together in big cages or aviaries. Natural cover and grasses to build a hidden nest in also seem to be important factors. And if any DO go broody, they are likely to become aggressive towards other birds, including the father, so it might be necessary to remove the others - though the aviary in question might be big enough for that not to be needed.
Should they manage to hatch chicks though, you'll have even more problems. Any gap the chicks can get stuck in, they will. Any open water, however shallow, they will likely end up wet, go cold and die. The other birds might hurt the chicks (though there have been stories where the others kept their distance and didn't do anything). And the mother herself might be clueless as to what to do with the chicks.

The chances of a hen deciding to go broody in a group of 16 females and 4 males are probably very slim (well, they are very slim even in a 1:3 group..).
There is a lot of space, so if the males are gentle they might be able to peacefully coexist, but if they are not, you might end up with birds that kill each other, scalp the hens from violently mating them, peck at each others eyes and so on.
Personally, I wouldn't consider more than one male in an enclosure of that size, but it does work sometimes.

With regards to egg fertility, the only way to get an almost certain 100% is to keep just one male and one female together. As soon as you have more than one female, there is a risk that the male decides he only likes 1. That said, a single male can actually keep quite a few females at a very decent fertility. This is a quote from a research report on the subject:
"In single-male groups containing 8, 12, 16 and 20 hens (experiment 4) the percentages of fertilised eggs were 92%, 84%, 77% and 69%"
Keep in mind that those are probably quite yong birds - less than 6 months old. As the birds get older, fertility drops a lot.

As to the temp, coturnix quail can easily handle -17 C, so you have nothing to worry about. But I'd put a roof over the enclosure and make sure they have places to get out of the wind.

I have heard nothing of quail not liking white.

 

[Nyla]

I'm glad you could Join us!
When I kept quails, I always fed mine DuMOR Chick Starter 24% with 1 cup of Manna Pro Gamebird/Showbird Feed Mixed in at every feeding. I fed them this from day old chicks to laying adults. Worked great. They were nice and plump and laid eggs non-stop everyday like clock work. There was of course 1-2 days break time a week.
I always kept mine indoors in raised cages, auto feeders, auto watering cups, and dust baths filled at all times. I would clean their dropping pans once a week too.

 

[007Sean]

Howdy Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
You have been given excellent advice from @DK newbie and @JaeG .
As far as the color white, I think what you may be referring to is a white light vs. red light for brooding purposes.
Red bulb heat lamps are preferred, tends to pacify the chicks. Clear/white bulb light tends to make the chicks go "stir crazy", often resorting to cannibalism. They also tend to pile up in the corners when using white bulb heat lamps, causing trampling, and suffication.
Blue light works well, also, I used both red and blue bulbs in my free standing brooders. They were only 15 watt bulbs, free standing brooders have a heating element to produce the required heat.
I've used red bulb heat lamps in my outdoor brooders for years with no problems, ie; fires, bulbs breaking.
If you use heat lamps be sure the bulbs are not Teflon coated. They can produce fumes that will kill your chicks. HTH

 

[Royac]

Hi good friends!!!
I'm really so grateful for your kind comments!!
I think this project will be able tomorrow, because I bought the quail group yesterday, but i need to pick up them today. The seller says they're just at a week of becoming ''adult'' or ''ready'', something like this, so I think they are really young.
I will try with these males, if I have problems, remove some of them.
I really want to breed some, but as I said, the principal activity will be to pick up the eggs and be ornamental.
The cage have a complete roof. Also have roof by one of the three sides, completely covering. I think will install a transparent plastic in other of these sides, specially that where comes the majority of wind and rain. I live on the mountains, so is a windy area, specially on the night...
Also, I'm thinking on install auto watering and auto feeders to avoid messing and wasting food and water. We usually use wood chip on these areas (the wood shaving, the curly ones type, i hope be explained haha), my grandpa works with ebanistery so is a facility. They are really clean right? more than chinken?.
I'm now 22 y old, I had quails but when child, I remember, was a disaster, there were some monkeys on the area and they ate them hahahaha
Best,
Roy

 

[Royac]

Other point, the construction soil is in build in cement. Is this a problem? anyway they will have the wood chip.

 

[Royac]

Hi friends!
My quails are now in home.
They're less big than I suspected. today at morning one of them died, I think was because of cold, they pobably are still very small, so this morning I put a lamp for heating there.
The man who sold me the quails said there are approx. at 1.5 months to start laying eggs, so they probably have like 2 weeks. I really don't know so much about these birds. I think is better to let them to become big to release at the big pen.

My quails

• Royac
• Apr 17, 2018

My quails

• Royac
• Apr 17, 2018