Severly scalped chinese painted quail

[abot87]

I honestly can't see it as over crowded but I completely get where you're coming from.

In the large aviary I have 17 Japanese quail with about 4 males, another 4 pairs of diamond dove and 1 pair laughing doves.
The males chase each other, but there isn't a single bird that has missing feathers.

In the smaller run I had 8 Chinese painted quail, of which 3 were male (now 2 males as I took the injured boy out) and its a fairly large space.
I'd estimate roughly 70cm x 2m (2.29 x 6.56 feet). Almost the size of a door and roughly knee high.

I'm busy building a new garden aviary for the Chinese painted quail that will be roughly 16 squared feet (5 squared meter) and about 5.9 feet (1.8 meter) high, but it will still take some time to complete as I'm doing it woman alone. They will be housed with my pair of laughing doves once complete. Once the 2nd large outdoor aviary is completed I will use the current run as an outdoor recovery unit.

As for food, they get starter crumbs, enough to waste as I'm paranoid that they'll starve, ample fresh water changed daily (I use Mexican-hat watering bowls) and they get treats such as worms, kitten food and sprouts (mainly millet and sorghum, which I sprout myself). I put a spider plant in there and they ate most of it, got a few more plants growing in pots to add some snacks and hiding spots.

 

[DK newbie]

I would disagree with that statement. The OP has not stated what the cause of the injury was. Not necessarily a matter of too many roosters. It is such a common misconception that farmers can only have one rooster per flock. My flock has 90-100 chickens. They free range from around 9am-9pm on 3 acres. I have 7 grown roosters & 1 cockerel that are all together in the same 10'x20' coop at night. The youngest chicks (4 months old) go into a dog crate at night. Even when hens are brooding chicks, I have never had a rooster injure a chick.

And I would have to say button quail and chickens are not the same thing. I'm well aware that with roosters you usually don't see any significant issues if they've been raised together. Not so with buttons. Once they become mature, several males can be housed together - but if there are females around, doing so comes with a great risk and I personally wouldn't attempt it if I had anything less than 10 square feet a bird.

I honestly can't see it as over crowded but I completely get where you're coming from.

(...)

In the smaller run I had 8 Chinese painted quail, of which 3 were male (now 2 males as I took the injured boy out) and its a fairly large space.
I'd estimate roughly 70cm x 2m (2.29 x 6.56 feet). Almost the size of a door and roughly knee high.

The usual recommendation is around 2 square feet per bird - and that's when you are housing only one male with one or more females. You have less than that, so actually it could be defined as crowded.

I'm busy building a new garden aviary for the Chinese painted quail that will be roughly 16 squared feet (5 squared meter) and about 5.9 feet (1.8 meter) high, but it will still take some time to complete as I'm doing it woman alone.

16 square feet and 5 square meters is not the same thing, so I'll assume the 5 square meters is the correct one. At least that's enough room for 8 birds, but I'd still be very careful about putting more than one male in there..

 

[eHuman]

DK I think she meant 16 feet squared and 5 meters squared. Look at the wording. Those values jive with each other.

 

[Outpost JWB]

And I would have to say button quail and chickens are not the same thing. I'm well aware that with roosters you usually don't see any significant issues if they've been raised together. Not so with buttons. Once they become mature, several males can be housed together - but if there are females around, doing so comes with a great risk and I personally wouldn't attempt it if I had anything less than 10 square feet a bird.

 
I honestly can't see it as over crowded but I completely get where you're coming from.

(...)

In the smaller run I had 8 Chinese painted quail, of which 3 were male (now 2 males as I took the injured boy out) and its a fairly large space.
I'd estimate roughly 70cm x 2m (2.29 x 6.56 feet). Almost the size of a door and roughly knee high.

The usual recommendation is around 2 square feet per bird - and that's when you are housing only one male with one or more females. You have less than that, so actually it could be defined as crowded.

I'm busy building a new garden aviary for the Chinese painted quail that will be roughly 16 squared feet (5 squared meter) and about 5.9 feet (1.8 meter) high, but it will still take some time to complete as I'm doing it woman alone.

16 square feet and 5 square meters is not the same thing, so I'll assume the 5 square meters is the correct one. At least that's enough room for 8 birds, but I'd still be very careful about putting more than one male in there..

Ahhh! Ok, I retract my disagreement then. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[abot87]

Howdy all you birders.

So apparently conversion to imperial is not as straight forward as I thought.

Here in South Africa we use the metric system.

My run for the Chinese Painted Quail is:

90cm x 2m, which isn't small, however the new aviary will be roughly 5 squared meter.

My apologies for the confusion.

ABOT

 

[eHuman]

So apparently conversion to imperial is not as straight forward as I thought.

Here in South Africa we use the metric system.

My run for the Chinese Painted Quail is:

90cm x 2m, which isn't small, however the new aviary will be roughly 5 squared meter.

My apologies for the confusion.

ABOT 

Metric vs Imperial is easy to follow, it was the wording that caused confusion. You said "5 squared meters" which is the correct way to say it in some parts of the world and would mean 25 square meters not 5 square meters.

To avoid the confusion we would say 5 meters squared. Don't worry you said it correctly for South Africa but some Americans "heard" it wrong due to differing sentence structures.

 

[Outpost JWB]

How is your quail? @abot87

 

[abot87]

Howdy.

Initially things ran smoothly. Enter mating season. The 2 males ended up plucking each other and most of the females. To the point where a male would actually drag the female along as he failes at running away from the other male. One female sadly flew off to find greener pastures.

I ended up separating them into 2 trios and called it a day. Since then they have begun growing back feathers and egg production is great. A egg a day unless its cold out.

Of their eggs ive hatched about 10 babes. There would have been many more but i had some frustrating bator issues. All fixed now.

I dont collect eggs daily as im attempting to get them broody. One or two hens have their broody moments but those are few and far between. Each trio is sitting with 12-15 eggs in their nests.

Im hoping to hatch just 1 naturally. Holding thumbs.

 

[DK newbie]

Good luck with the natural chicks I'd cut down the number of eggs though. I have seen a hen cover 12 eggs, but I've also seen one that could hardly cover 5 (not that she really seemed to have a clue that she was supposed to try) - and if they can't cover the eggs, they are likely to go cold in turns and not hatch.
I have two breeding groups living in aviaries at my parents' farm - they hatch chicks every year (well, this is year 2 for the original group and year 1 for the other) with great success. I also have two pairs in large cages in my apartment, and both hens from those pairs are broody now. One has been so 3 times already this year - she hatched 1 chick twice, the last one lived for 3 days. Fertility seems to be really low. 4 of 10 eggs are double yolkers, but even the single yolkers seem to have low fertility. The other is the one that couldn't cover 5 eggs. She seems to be doing better this time - she had 10 and I removed 4 when I saw she was broody, can't see the remaining 6 so I have my fingers crossed. She's been broody twice this year and as far as I can tell, just about every egg has been fertile but due to her being lousy at incubating them, she hasn't had chicks.
I gave them hay for the first time a couple of weeks ago and that kind of seems to have thrown them both into their broodiness. I actually thought they'd stopped laying for the winter, but apparently they were just taking a slightly longer than usual break after their last attempt at hatching chicks..

 

[abot87]

Hi there.

Quick update.

I managed to hatch 5 chicks under one hen (the crazy one) however the other merely sat in the nest to make deposits, etc.
Egg were marked and tracked on a calendar. There were 6 chicks that failed to get out of their shells.

The process was extremely frustrating and even more rewarding.

I had my nests lined with a slight curve. I used "teff". The lining enabled the hens to cover 12 to 15 eggs easily.

The chicks were all successfully reared by the hen, she is currently sitting on another clutch - holding thumbs!

ABOT