Quail????????????????

[schroader]

I am intersetung in trying to raise some. I have been told they are hard to raise. I need your help. I need some does and do nots. Please help me

I have bben told that they cant raise on a level surface. Can they?

I ive in Ky if that helps.

 

[Fancy Feather Poultry]

There not hard at all to raise it depends what breed really, im hatching button quail, there due this weekend. I advise raising button quail.

 

[TerrasCritters]

I have both Button Quail and Coturnix Quail. I think over all I like the Coturnix Quail, they are naturally tame and not as flighty as my Button Quail. They are round about the same as for raising. The Buttons are very tiny and require very small wiring. The Coturnix are a dual purpose bird, pretty, egg production and meat product. They lay ALOT of eggs, my kids LOVE the bite sized hard boiled eggs and do not choke on the huge yokes like a chicken egg. They are often pickled too, we have not tried that yet, they are hardy in the winter, we have got down to the teens here at night and I have no lamps on my coturnix, I do on my Buttons and you sure can tell when they are getting to cold. The buttons are super small and cute, they lay the smallest eggs and when hatched they are as small as a bumble bee or as big as a herseys kiss. They are SOO adorable!
I will be raising a couple different Bob Whites also this year.
Mainly, chicks you will need to grind the food up smaller for them and provide them a quail water or small water they WILL drown, we place marbles in our water so they can not drown or get soaked.
Some people use medicated chicken starter, but others swear by game bird starter, they swear that they loose more on chicken starter, the game bird is not medicated. I have not noticed a difference, and mainly feed the game bird starter. I wean my quail at about 4 weeks to water bottles, the ones used for rabbits or rodents, less mess, cleaner, and lasts a bit longer between changing.

Button quail should not be raised on wire floors, Coturnix are ok with it, there feet are bigger, if you do not have a large enough avary, button quail WILL fight, make sure to have a padded roof for your botton quail, they LOVE to boink and will kill themselves this way.

This should get you started!

 

[cgjsmith]

Out of all my birds the quial so far have been the easiest to raise. I love my bob whites. Its so great to hear there singing when you throw corn into there pen!! I don't have mine on a raised floor but thats because i have an avary (well of sorts) I started my quail (25) ranging between a day to 5 days old in a large plastic container in the house. definatly buy a quail waterer and grinding the food is preferable. One they got to be about 2 weeks old we had to move them because they learned to fly really well and as soon as I opened the box they would all flush and fly all over the house ha ha. we moved them into a bog brooder box then into there avary by 3 1/2 months. They grow super fast. I'm looking into getting some pharoah quail this weekend.
As i warn everyone with whom I talk about quail you need to do a double check with you state age rules. In Tn if you are planning on selling or giving away eggs or the birds you have to have a permit. Crystal

 

[Lophura]

Quote:
The difficulty in keeping quail depends on the species and the housing you can provide. As mentioned in this thread already, Button (aka Chinese Painted, Asian Blue, King, etc) Quail are good beginner birds that will not require a great deal of room (just ensure that the mesh is small); Coturnix Quail (aka Japanese Quail) are probably the easiest to keep and most affordable; the native quails may require a permit by your state.

Regarding level surface, I guess I don't follow what you mean. Other keepers may disagree with me, but I prefer to keep and see quail in aviaries with natural substrate and not on wire. If the aviary is large enough, planted and with lots of enrichment items (rocks, logs), the quail will thrive and some species (wouldn't count on the Coturnix) will go broody and raise their own young.

Dan

 

[Rocket Raley]

My DH wants to hatch Bob Whites to set free. Because we hardly hear them anymore outside. (We live in the country) But I don't know the first thing about them.

Is there a reccommend book or website?

 

[deeszoo]

Raising them to set free is a whole different ballgame. You have to have a permit in most states in order to set them free. You will need to have a flight conditioning pen, and set it up so that they don't see you or your animals too much so they don't get used to human activity.

If you want to promote wild quail, plant food and cover for them, and make sure you have a source of water. They will move in!

Or, you could raise pets AND plant food and cover for the wilds. Your pets might encourage the others to move in with their calls, and they will stay because it is a nice neighborhood.

DeAnna

 

[cgjsmith]

Rocky this fall we had a huge flock of wild bobwhites hang out around our house because of ouf whites in the avary. C

 

[Rocket Raley]

got any good links about building an avery and caring for Bob Whites?

 

[ksacres]

I'm thinking of getting some quail, but am looking at it from a more practical standpoint-what breeds of quail are big enough to eat (and be worth it).

I've heard buttons are too small (and too darn cute) to mess with, but some people still eat the eggs??

I would prefer to have a non-native species, so I won't have to get a permit.