New to the quail questions.

[chickbird]

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CAN YOU BREED QUAIL(CORTURNIX) AS A COLONY? A FOR INSTANCE: 12 FEMALES AND 4 MALES PER PEN OR AN EVEN LARGER NUMBER OF FEMALES TO MALES IN ONE CAGE? OR DO YOU SEPARATE 4 FEMALES TO ONE MALE.

 

[Stellar]

Oh yes! Coturnix are simpler in the quail world. Depending on your projects and lines, you can have pairs, trios, quads, but larger colonies work just as well.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
CAN YOU BREED QUAIL(CORTURNIX) AS A COLONY? A FOR INSTANCE: 12 FEMALES AND 4 MALES PER PEN OR AN EVEN LARGER NUMBER OF FEMALES TO MALES IN ONE CAGE? OR DO YOU SEPARATE 4 FEMALES TO ONE MALE.

I keep a few colony pens. There is nothing wrong with colony breeding with coturnix! It just makes a pen space and accounting nightmare for me, but you can successfully do it, as do many others. For the most part I use single roo to (X hen set) pen setup, where X=1 to 5. It's just a more manageable setup for me due mostly to my pen situation.

If you are going to do colony breeding then I would go with 1 roo to 5 hens, and increase the floor space as much as you can. Going by the 1 bird to 1 square foot rule, then if you had a 2 roo 10 hen set colony, you would need at least 12 square feet of floor space, and the more the better. This can create a totally unmanageable pen situation for me, which is why I don't generally do it.

Nothing wrong with it, and you can use the same basic model I use for keeping the genes straight, just make a bigger flow chart

 

[joe125]

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That has been my experience as well my friend. If everyone gets along, it's cool with me

Though one should never waste pen space

 

[snyd08]

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my "processing" males all live together. because they were hatched together and i generally am butchering them as soon as they are mature they dont have time to get hormonally frustrated. in the freezer they go.

 

[snyd08]

Quote:
CAN YOU BREED QUAIL(CORTURNIX) AS A COLONY? A FOR INSTANCE: 12 FEMALES AND 4 MALES PER PEN OR AN EVEN LARGER NUMBER OF FEMALES TO MALES IN ONE CAGE? OR DO YOU SEPARATE 4 FEMALES TO ONE MALE.

I keep a few colony pens. There is nothing wrong with colony breeding with coturnix! It just makes a pen space and accounting nightmare for me, but you can successfully do it, as do many others. For the most part I use single roo to (X hen set) pen setup, where X=1 to 5. It's just a more manageable setup for me due mostly to my pen situation.

If you are going to do colony breeding then I would go with 1 roo to 5 hens, and increase the floor space as much as you can. Going by the 1 bird to 1 square foot rule, then if you had a 2 roo 10 hen set colony, you would need at least 12 square feet of floor space, and the more the better. This can create a totally unmanageable pen situation for me, which is why I don't generally do it.

Nothing wrong with it, and you can use the same basic model I use for keeping the genes straight, just make a bigger flow chart

got to be honest joe. 12 sq feet is a lot of room for 12 birds to be in... i would think you can get away with a little bit smaller. look at those battery cages guys use.. my goodness they have 3-5 birds in 1/1/2 sq feet cages... thats a bit much IMO.. i just feel like i have 12 birds in a little bit smaller of a 12 sq foot pen and they do very well as a matter of fact. my pens seem to be pretty large "ground aviaries" but i dont want to say every bird has 1 sq foot to itself... noone is overcrowded on my farm.

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
I keep a few colony pens. There is nothing wrong with colony breeding with coturnix! It just makes a pen space and accounting nightmare for me, but you can successfully do it, as do many others. For the most part I use single roo to (X hen set) pen setup, where X=1 to 5. It's just a more manageable setup for me due mostly to my pen situation.

If you are going to do colony breeding then I would go with 1 roo to 5 hens, and increase the floor space as much as you can. Going by the 1 bird to 1 square foot rule, then if you had a 2 roo 10 hen set colony, you would need at least 12 square feet of floor space, and the more the better. This can create a totally unmanageable pen situation for me, which is why I don't generally do it.

Nothing wrong with it, and you can use the same basic model I use for keeping the genes straight, just make a bigger flow chart

got to be honest joe. 12 sq feet is a lot of room for 12 birds to be in... i would think you can get away with a little bit smaller. look at those battery cages guys use.. my goodness they have 3-5 birds in 1/1/2 sq feet cages... thats a bit much IMO.. i just feel like i have 12 birds in a little bit smaller of a 12 sq foot pen and they do very well as a matter of fact. my pens seem to be pretty large "ground aviaries" but i dont want to say every bird has 1 sq foot to itself... noone is overcrowded on my farm.

CAN YOU POST SOME PICTURES OF YOUR GROUND AVARIES? ALSO IS HYGIENE MUCH HARDER WITH GROUND PENS?

 

[Stellar]

For those who asked, I have two cages, those nice rabbit cages purchased from TSC, both have all males. Each male respects the other male (with some jail loving lol) but they do fine. When I need a male or two, a smaller colony is produced with their new ladies, unrelated but carrying the gene colors I need.