So i think my hubby has gone crazy!!! he bought me Quail??? a whole pen of them. what to do?

[psycoforsilkies]

So we are picking them up this week end, I am still learnign about chickens. Can the eat chicken feed, or do they need game bird food? what about housing roosting, heat? Do i need the free range area covered? Well advice needed? I think they are bob whites? they are brown in color.

 

[Lucky1]

The stickies at the top have tons of information there, I am new too and they answered all my questions and more!!

 

[3goodeggs]

I seem to be the recipient of everyone elses poorly thought out acquisitions.
They get dropped off at my house, but they never come with feed. or housing.

I only have three coturnix. I have a love/ hate relationship with them.
I love the eggs. They are beautiful. They are sweet and delicious.
I hate the mess. They are so dusty.

I love the sweet little girls 'cheeps'.
I hate the constant 'TWICK-OR-TRWEET' that the roo screams at the top of his voice. He rivals our australorp rooster in volume.

The girls eat a lot, but the egg food ratio seems acceptable. We feed them flock raiser. we have the chickens on that as well. We wanted a high protein for them. When we have enough to eat an entire bag of game bird feed before it goes bad, we will switch to that. Purina has both of those.
When we have time to get them from cages to a real live pen I think we will raise them for meat.

They will dust bathe in their food if they do not have a nice container of sand to dust in. Dusting is their number one activity besides pooing. I used an old refrigerator hydrator drawer. The sides are high enough to keep the sand in so it does not need to be replaced everyday.
also I use one of those long chick feeders to feed the girls with. Their heads fit and their bodies don't, that saves feed. If they can scratch it out, they will.

When we do make a pen I think it will be hardware cloth all around. We have not decided if they will be on the ground or not. They do seem to poo a lot. I think if they were on wire the droppings could be collected for compost easily. I remember buying a bag of quail poo decades ago for fertilizer. It came in a really cool bag, we still have it somewhere... with the bat poo bag I suppose.

I think you will enjoy them. I find two girls give me plenty of eggs. The eggs are difficult to get into. Get a sharp pair of embroidery scissors. Poke in the end, then cut the shell away in a small circle to release the insides. be neat about it and you will have a cute little shell for crafts.

oh, and by the way, your husband bought HIMSELF quail. Just because he said he did it for you does not relieve him from the duty of cleaning up after them.

 

[psycoforsilkies]

haha yeah i think they may be his project, Will be putting up a pen for them this weekend and i guess a temp house too. i think he got 10 of them, not to sure. im not to worried about crowing i already have roosters so I am used to it!

 

[diggerduck]

If they are bobwhites, you have awhile till they start doing anything interesting. They can be little spazoids most of the time. They will mature around 16 weeks. If they are coturnix, they get fun very young. My cots start crowing between 3 and 4 weeks old, and usually start laying eggs at 6-8 weeks old. Coturnix are eating machines, but you get rewarded with quick to table treats. Be it whole birds or their eggs. You should try to find the highest protein food you can, I use Purina Game bird Startena and it is 30% protein. JUST GAME BIRD FOOD....it is the most balanced, have everything they need, food out there. You don't need to add anything, nothing, no cat food or polar bear droppings, or seeds.
Depending on what they are will vary their heat requirments. Most of my birds are outside on wire at two weeks with a 250w heat lamp above their sand box. Before that they stay in a brooder with a drop light at about 95 degrees. You will read a lot about weaning these birds off of the heat....I hatched a little over 300 this year and didn't wean a one. They have the option of heat up until five weeks, but where I live it can get into the teens at night. Five weeks and on they do fine. Hope something here helped.

 

[psycoforsilkies]

It helps alot! the ones he got, are all breeder age, they were hatched late summer early fall. He also has some younger ones there. We will prob incubate the eggs. The man he got them from rasied them by the 1000's and sold to a game farm. I could not eat them, if they were my pets. I know these are in a barn that is not heated. So know i have to learn about brooding them. i have silkies i hatch and raise right now.

 

[Apatedolos]

Oooooh new quailies! how fun. i used to feed cat food because thats what the pet store guy told me, but alot of people here have said no way. i had my mom go find some of that gamebirds starter now. boy was she mad because it costs more than catfood but my quailies really like it! im glad you are not going to eat yours. They are soooo much fun and will sing to you to. they sound like little crickets. ha,ha polarbear droppings! who would feed that? I feed mine some birdie seeds to. your not supposed to do that either? i've got so much to learn! I love my new byc family!