Newbie with a few questions

[Flowerchik]

I have taken in 12 unwanted adult Coturnix. The man I got them from said that they will not raise/set/ hatch their own young since they are not out in the wild. Is this true? Also, some of them look pretty rough like maybe there has been some fighting or some super rough breeding going on. There were a lot of birds in fairly small cages, so I am sure that was part of the problem. They have a lot more room, plenty of food and water, straw, hiding places and sand for bathing now so hopefully that will help, but in the meantime is there any thing I can do to help them heal up or at least protect the backs on the girls.? I know that there are aprons for the hens, are there aprons for quail if so is it reasonable to try and use them?

 

[aaabirdman]

Not sure, but I dont think that they wont hatch their young.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have taken in 12 unwanted adult Coturnix. The man I got them from said that they will not raise/set/ hatch their own young since they are not out in the wild. Is this true? Also, some of them look pretty rough like maybe there has been some fighting or some super rough breeding going on. There were a lot of birds in fairly small cages, so I am sure that was part of the problem. They have a lot more room, plenty of food and water, straw, hiding places and sand for bathing now so hopefully that will help, but in the meantime is there any thing I can do to help them heal up or at least protect the backs on the girls.? I know that there are aprons for the hens, are there aprons for quail if so is it reasonable to try and use them?

It is rare for quail to go "broody" and raise young in captivity. It does happen, but don't count on it. If you only kept one pair in a private place, with an environment that closely resembled their natural habitat, they might go broody.

If any of them are bleeding with sores, it is best to separate them out until they heal so others won't pick on the ones with sores. If they only look a bit battered and missing feathers and such, you can probably keep them all together if they are getting along. Anybody that does not get along may need a time out for a few weeks to settle back down. You won't see any eggs for a spell until they get used to their surroundings.

 

[Peacerose]

What is your male to female ratio? If you have too many males in one cage, they will fight. Also this leads to the hens being over bred. An ideal ratio is 1 rooster to 3 hens. Pick out your finest males to put with the hens and let the extras have their own bachelor cage.

Think about buying or building an incubator. You can raise your own replacement birds.

 

[Flowerchik]

I have 2 males, 8 females and 2 undetermined that are a few weeks younger than the others. I have not seen any open sores just feathers missing,so maybe we will be okay. The man had just recently separated by gender the birds, from which mine were taken. There were as many if not more males than females so I would guess it was over-breeding that resulted in the loss of feathers. I haven't seen very much bullying. You are right about the eggs. I only had one yesterday. We will be building another pen, so this smaller one may become the bachelor pad if the younger ones are males. I hate that they don't go broody. I have a new hatch of three baby chicks compliments of my broody orphington. It was really neat observing nature taking it's course in manners of reproduction. Oh well, I guess I will give it a go with an incubator after a new pen is built. I am tempted to experiment though and see if I can create an environment that would be conducive to a pair raising their own. I will have to do some studying and convince DH that a little more construction won't hurt!

 

[Ntsees]

I cannot say the same for coturnix, but I've read that wild quail usually requires lots of space in order for them be become broody. Personal experience: my female valley brooded her own eggs and hatched them out this year. The amount of space she had was the entire backyard.

 

[Flowerchik]

That is a lot of space. I don't think DH will be okay with a request to enclose the whole backyard. LOL!