Restless quail?

[Hungarianquail]

My 2.5 weeks old quail seem restless at times (even at night for a brief time). They peck at the brooder walls, call out to each other, run around and try to fly out the top (which is covered with a screen). Is it normal or are they uncomfortable? I raised their heat lamps a few inches, but they don't seem to huddle under it, so I don't think they are cold. They are inside the house. There are 16 of them, but split up in two 3sq feet brooders, because they got too big for one. Their outside pen isn't ready yet; maybe this weekend. But I think they may be still too young to go out. Are they just being "kids" or are they in need of more space?

 

[mdees88]

They could possibly be too hot since they don't have enough room to get away from the heat... but I see you have the lights pretty high up so maybe not.

Mine only did what your describing one time. Here's what happened...

I have a 1 gallon waterer. When I fill it up and flip it over it always looks like it's half full. So one day I filled it to the brim where it overflowed. I screwed on the bottom, flipped it over, and put it in the brooder. Later that night I heard the quail running around and pecking at the walls.

I had never seen them act like that before. I had just previously raised the light so I put it back down thinking they were cold. 15 minutes later they were still acting crazy, pecking at the waterer and the sides of the brooder.

I looked at the waterer and noticed it was still completely full of water. Well it had pulled a vacuum and never drained water into the red bottom. I emptied a little water out and it started working normal. 30 minutes later the quail were calm and quiet like usual.

That's the only time I've had them act like you mentioned..

 

[Hungarianquail]

They could possibly be too hot since they don't have enough room to get away from the heat... but I see you have the lights pretty high up so maybe not.

Mine only did what your describing one time. Here's what happened...

I have a 1 gallon waterer. When I fill it up and flip it over it always looks like it's half full. So one day I filled it to the brim where it overflowed. I screwed on the bottom, flipped it over, and put it in the brooder. Later that night I heard the quail running around and pecking at the walls.

I had never seen them act like that before. I had just previously raised the light so I put it back down thinking they were cold. 15 minutes later they were still acting crazy, pecking at the waterer and the sides of the brooder.

I looked at the waterer and noticed it was still completely full of water. Well it had pulled a vacuum and never drained water into the red bottom. I emptied a little water out and it started working normal. 30 minutes later the quail were calm and quiet like usual.

That's the only time I've had them act like you mentioned..

Yes, that happened to me, too! They were frantic and it couldn't have been more than two hours! Lol. Their waterer also flooded the brooder twice before switching to glass Mason jars with some vaseline around the rim and placed them on a cooling rack with trays underneath.
They are not THAT frantic. Just a bit restless. But they could be just "kids" horsing around testing their wings.