nest box for quail

[kingpincray]

this the box that my birds use to lay their eggs. I use to put some hay in but they pulled all of them out several times so I stopped giving them hay.
as you can see they are incapable of keeping it clean.

 

[Wifezilla]

I consider the hay a toy. They play with it, scratch at it, throw it around...it keeps them entertained

 

[kingpincray]

Quote:
I have used newspaper too and they first do this funny dust bathing dance on it, scratch it, shred it and throw it out from the box. Quite funny to watch.

 

[abundant acres]

Is anyone having success geting bobwhite and pharo's to nest and hatch on there own? If so please send a description of nest box and procedure you use. Thanks Abundant Acres north f.l.

 

[Wifezilla]

This woman accidentally got hers to brood...

"When I started raising button quail 13 years ago, I knew that I wanted to rear the birds naturally. I was unaware of the methods that most breeders use to produce the birds available for sale in most pet stores, and just assumed that my birds would raise their own young. Having read about their natural history, I set up a 30 gallon 'long' fish tank with a substrate of cob bedding. I used artificial ('silk') plants in bunches for cover, unraveled hemp twine and burlap for nest material and lined the tank cover with more silk plants for both cover and protection in case of the birds popping up. I placed one pair in this setup. They were fed game bird starter for balanced nutrition, finch seed for scratching and pecking at, leave lettuce and cucumber for green food, and mealworms.

It immediately became apparent that mealworms were (and continue to be) an important part of the diet, both nutritionally and behaviorally. They are a major part of the male's courtship, as the male tidbitted the female with every mealworm offered. He only ate the worms himself when the female was incubating. When the eggs hatched the mealworms also showed their value in cementing the bond between the chicks and their parents, as the parents tidbitted the chicks with every worm offered."

http://www.thatquailplace.com/articles/index.php?id=8

 

[darkfur]

Quote:
Not me, but a guy I know had a coturnix nest in the bottom of his planted aviary. They seemed to like the tussocky grasses he had in there. I wouldn't hold my breath though, seems like more of a luck thing to get them to do that.