Quail Free range?

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

Uhhh I don't know of anyone having success

ok thanks how would you train a chicken to come back to its coop? Because it might work with the quail maybe...Dont have much experience with chickens and non with quail.

 

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

Chickens have instincts to return to coops and rest I think. Quail are ground dwelling so they just sleep wherever.

ok thanks

 

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

if you had a chicken or something like it broody and it watched the quail righat as they were born could the hen train them to come back?

 

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

This person says she free ranges hers.

I would be too afraid of losing mine to try.

I raised my California quail chicks indoors and would let them out of the brooder (in the bedroom) to eat/play several times per day. They always returned to the brooder voluntarily for naps or when they were afraid (and then I'd close it back up). When we moved them to the aviary, we left the brooder there in case, like a child's security blanket. They do go back inside it sometimes to rest or when nervous, but they've also found other spots they like to use, and they roost in tree branches at night. So they wouldn't go back to it to sleep if they were free range, and I'm not sure they'd stay nearby. In nature they have large territories, I think I read one acre per bird, so I don't think they'd naturally return to a specific spot each night if they were free range.

And of course, there's also the issue of predators.

Thanks for the info

 

[Fishkeeper]

"Genetically more tame" is a thing, but it's not tame. It's domesticated. That's what domestication is- you make an animal more prone to acting tame. Taming an animal is taking a wild animal and making it calmer/not afraid of you by teaching it, domestication is breeding animals to be like that from the start.
Coturnix quail are very heavily domesticated, which is why they don't have good survival or brooding instincts. They're slightly better for small outings, though I'd still be worried about them flying away if spooked. The domestication is also why they can be kept in such small cages without killing themselves or each other, they're more tolerant of it.

 

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

A chicken won't teach the quail to come back, no. The problem is the instincts. Quail don't have the instincts to return to a place every night to roost, like chickens do, and nothing you can do (except maybe a very long and difficult project to breed for those instincts) would change that. Quail are not chickens, even if they're raised by one.

would be a fun project

 

[ScoutingInTheWoods]

"Genetically more tame" is a thing, but it's not tame. It's domesticated. That's what domestication is- you make an animal more prone to acting tame. Taming an animal is taking a wild animal and making it calmer/not afraid of you by teaching it, domestication is breeding animals to be like that from the start.
Coturnix quail are very heavily domesticated, which is why they don't have good survival or brooding instincts. They're slightly better for small outings, though I'd still be worried about them flying away if spooked. The domestication is also why they can be kept in such small cages without killing themselves or each other, they're more tolerant of it.

could you clip a wing?

 

[ManitobaQuail]

Ok thanks for the info

Good luck!

(also supervising them for a bit would give you an idea whether they are suited to "free range" or not

 

[muddy75]

A chicken won't teach the quail to come back, no. The problem is the instincts. Quail don't have the instincts to return to a place every night to roost, like chickens do, and nothing you can do (except maybe a very long and difficult project to breed for those instincts) would change that. Quail are not chickens, even if they're raised by one.

and on the flip-side chickens raised with quail won’t go in to a coop or roost at night either! my 3 still sleep on top of a hideaway box cuddled together at night.

 

[muddy75]

would be a fun project

a quail can flush 8-10 feet in the air and can fly a 30+yards. I originally tried to train my first flock to go into a hutch/coop at night by locking them in every night. after about 2 weeks I gave up. I also lost some later that flushed/escaped 2” aviary netting. My original chickens still go to their coop every night, however my chicks that were raised with quail cannot be coerced to sleep in the coop.