Quail Questions

[bobbieguyette]

I have been doing some research and checking into quail my hubby is interested too can you quail breeders help me out?
What are the good things about them and the bad you have to watch out for? really like the looks of the california ones with the cute thing hanging on the males head! and the buttons sound adorable are they winter hearty?
what kind do you raise?
when is the laying season?
hoping to get some eggs anyone have any for sale? now that I have hubbys interest they sound adorable!
thanks for any help here!

 

[swiftfoot]

the pretty quail with the drop are usually gamble or mountain quail
the buttons im not sure about
i raise bobwhite they are pretty good
what are you looking to raise them as

 

[Lophura]

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There are a host of good reasons for keeping quail!! Some of the drawbacks could be their nervous nature of several species (although I have seen some handreared birds become very tame); government requirements for native species; susceptibly to disease of domestic fowl.

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They can be, but should be provided with a heat lamp and protected from the elements.

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Varies among species, but usually late srping. They can be induced to breed earlier with lights. In an aviary setting (and not the awful batteries), quail hens may become broody and naturally raise their chicks.

Several of the more commonly kept species are represented with factsheets at http://www.gbwf.org/quail/index.html along with links and images.

Dan

 

[SamG347]

I personally wouldnt recomend starting with any desert or mountain quail to begin with. I would start out with Bobwhite or Cortunix and maybe Buttons. Button quail will deffinetly need either a heat source or even to be brought inside in the winter depending on your climate. Cortunix quail can lay all year but many specieces of quail only lay in the spring/summer. And housing is different really for all quail. There are 4 main types of breeding setups.....

Pair(1 male 1 hen)
Trio(1 male 3 hens)
Quad(1 male 4 hens)
Colony(several males and many hens)

For Valley quail, gambels, and mountains it is usually wise to stick with the first 3 choices. But many do colony breed them. Mountain quail especially are better off in pairs and they need a good size pen just for the 2 birds. My advice would be to get a good book on raising gamebirds and look at as many sites and forums as you can.
Good Luck

 

[cgjsmith]

I would love some gamble quail as well but right now we have cortunix and bob whites. I love our quail. their flightyness to me is an advantage. I like to just sit back and watch them as you would in the wild (well sort of) They are tiny when they are hatched (i kid you not they look like little popcorns) and learn to fly Very very early! I mean like 3 or 4 weeks they are flying. So they really need a big brooder. Other then that They are really easy to take care of. Crystal

 

[dangerouschicken]

We have wild California Quail with drops in Oregon. They love to come into the yard in winter, one after another, looking for food. We leave out cracked wheat and corn when we can. They seem to like it best.

I never thought about raising them, but what a cool project!

 

[bobbieguyette]

What I wanted them for was to make pickeled eggs for my hubby he loves those! and them being small I bet he would like em and for pets too of course!

thanks for all the info you have been a big help doing more research and then will be looking for eggs!

 

[Dodgegal79]

If you want them for the eggs go with the Cortunix (Japanese) quail. They are the smallest but lay lots of eggs, and the eggs are huge compared to their bodies. i have a Jumbo Cortunix girl and she lay huge eggs. These are the birds they usually use for that anyways, the Japanese would keep these birds in the house for the eggs.

 

[roosters97]

yes the good thing is they (coturnix ) give you tons of eggs!! and the bad thing is my texas a&m whites can really fly!!!!!

 

[mothergoose]

Your wild varieties are very suseptible to quail entiritis, if they get it, 100% mortality rate. It can be transferred through feces, and can be drought in by flies wild birds etc. It is very important to keep their pens very clean, best if on wire, and we use a preventitive antibiotic rotation too.

The courtnix varieties are the only quail that are very rarely affected by quail entiritis.

Christie