Quail pen

[Aspen Forest]

Hello,
I was thinking about getting button quail for meat and eggs next year. I already have Pheasants and know the housing/pen for them just not quail. So I was wondering if someone could tell me some pen ideas, like how big and what materials.

 

[DK newbie]

If you want meat and eggs, coturnix might be a better choice. Buttons are cute, but when fully grown they are about the size of my (female) fist - really not much meat on them. And the eggs are tiny as well, they lay lots of them, but you'd need many to get an amount similar to a chicken egg.
Pen size for buttons, the bigger the better, but at least 1 square ft pr. bird. I suggest not using a wire bottom for buttons. If the pen is less than 1½ meters high, the top should be soft material, to prevent boinking injuries. Some would probably suggest making the cage so low they won't fly, but personally I think they should be allowed to use their wings a little, so my cages are at least 50 cm high. If you are set on buttons, I can post a few pictures of my pens.

 

[Aspen Forest]

I'm open to ideas right now and all the information I'm able to obtain would really help.
I was looking at the quail on this page http://www.strombergschickens.com/prod_detail_list/Quail-Button-and-Japanese

 

[DK newbie]

Well, I suggest you go for coturnix But as I only have buttons, you'd better take advice from someone else with regards to cots ^^ I only know what I've read on this forum about cots - but that's actually quite a lot. You might want to read old threads on cots, to get a clue of what you are getting into If you want to know about pens.. Here is 91 pages of suggestions ^^ :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/280575/show-me-you-quail-pens

 

[Lozuufy]

Coturnix would probably be the best for eggs and meat, I used to have buttons and they were tiny and didn't lay very many eggs. Buttons are also less than half the size of a coturnix, and jumbo coturnix are even bigger. The coturnix quail I have now can get pretty big for a quail and usually lay almost an egg a day all spring and summer but stop over the winter because I don't use artificial lighting. I keep them in my pigeon cage that has a covered part and an uncovered part and is 6 feet tall by 13 feet long by 7 feet wide and I keep 15 pigeons, 4 doves and about 30 quail in it.

This is one of my jumbo males, hard to tell how big he is but he weighs about the same as my pigeons (rollers).


And here are some non-jumbo coturnix with a ringneck dove for size comparison

 

[dc3085]

Button quail are the size of a dwarf hamster, I'd take them out of your consideration for meat/eggs. I'm a big guy and I have big hands but I'm not Andre the Giant so you can imagine seeing a button in my hand just how small they are.




A jumbo coturnix in the same hand

 

[Aspen Forest]

Haha quail nuggets.
Would I be able to put a quail pen next to my pheasant pen?
What could a 10x10 pen hold of the coturnix?