Quail questions

[razzynathan]

Ok so yesterday I was walking my dog and I accidentally scared a mommy quail pretty badley when I turned a corner, and it ran away at the time it was pretty cold and rainy with lots of rain I assumed the mom would come back once I left so I walked on. unfortunately 15-20 minutes later I see that they are all lying in the gutter soaking wet and not moving, I assumed they were all dead but then one clenched up and opened its mouth I decided to take all 8 home because they were half dead and I didn't have the heart to leave them (luckily my border collie is really smart and didn't even think about attacking them) so I warmed them up and dried them up and they survived the night even though I didn't have high hopes. I think they are only a few days old so I gave them to a friend who's raised quail before for week one (there's no place where I live to rehabilitate them into the wild again) so in a week they will be in my care again and I don't know much about these birds. I have a big chicken run and coop from when I owned chickens and I think the wires are small enough for quail. My questions are is what should the male female ratio be if I keep them together to hatch eggs and I need any quail advice possible even the not so nice to talk about stuff like how to even prepare the bird for freezing. I'm going to measure square feet of the chicken pen and research how many quail I can keep in there without it being too cramped

 

[razzynathan]

Also they are obviously local game birds I'm in Utah what do i need to go to get certified to own them and once I am can I breed and eat some of the birds

 

[Kjordanov]

Hey! I'm a newbie to quail but I'll give you the advice that I do know from the top of my head.. They'll have to be in an enclosed pen with a net or roof over top as they will fly! female to male ratio is 4:1 I believe. And generally it's 1 sq. foot per bird, but more is better I'd say. As to how to butcher them, there's some really great videos on YouTube!

 

[DK newbie]

Local game birds in Utah means.. What kind of quail, exactly?

 

[razzynathan]

I think gambel

 

[paneubert]

Go talk to these folks to make sure you dont get in legal trouble. http://wildlife.utah.gov/

Specifically, email [email protected]

 

[Athaid]

I can't help with the Utah part because i don't live in the US, but i'll try to help with the rest. I've been researching them a lot the last few days, as we're hatching some in August.I don't know the breed of quail you've got, so can't help you there either..
So here's everything I know:

The female to male ratio should be about 3:1, if you get too many males they'll fight and may hurt the females.

For the amount of space, people say one square foot per bird, but seeing as you have an outdoor space and a large chicken run, then I think it would be nice to let them live there. But only put them out once they have their feathers and make sure no predators can get in.

As they're ground nesting birds they won't like to go up to nest, so you can just put a sort of little shed thing in their run for them to hide under.

For the breeding part, If you have the right amount of males to females then they should breed, but keep in mind they're going to be inbred, so you probably shouldn't breed any of their chicks with each other, as after a couple of generations of inbreeding things can start to go wrong. If you work out what kind of quail they are, then maybe in the future you can buy some other quail of the same breed to bring some new blood into your flock.

Other than that I would say, put some things in their run, like rocks, logs, things to climb on and hide under etc.. feed them a food mix with about 25-30% protein once their feathers start growing in, keep their water fresh etc..

I'm still kinda a newbie so here's some other links: https://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/quails/
http://www.quailfarm.co.uk/index.php/quail-info/quail-keeping
https://poultrykeeper.com/general-quail/beginners-guide-to-keeping-quail/

 

[Tony K T]

At 1 week old they will still need to be in heat.At week 1 they should be at 95 degrees and drop 5 degreees each week until they are about 5 weeks old.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[razzynathan]

Ok should I build another cage that's smaller for the kids that I keep so that they don't breed? Or maybe move the current quail into the new cage and put all their kids (girls only guys go to the freezer) into the bigger run and get males sometime? I'll start by contacting the people at wildlife.utah.gov

 

[Athaid]

Yeah, I'd say put their chicks in a separate run/cage and then get males later.