Surprise Bobwhites

[Riane]

My bf and I have been planning for a while to get a few coturnix quail for meat and eggs, but when I sent him off to get the birds (an hour drive) he came home with four Bobwhites instead. The breeder told him they were much better than coturnix for food-- obviously he was tricked. So now I have two boys and two girls of a breed I am totally not prepared for and looking for advice. We are no doubt stuck with them, and I want to make sure we do things right. Is there a lot of difference between them and coturnix? What can I do to make sure they produce at full potential? We have them in a 2 x 3 cage currently that I had prepared for the coturnix, with game bird feed we got from the breeder. I'm suspicious of it so we also got meal worms to supplement. I don't know how old these birds are, but they have a few remaining pin feathers on their butts and backs. They're insanely skittish so I put a towel over half the cage and am going to make a box for them to hide in tomorrow. From what I understand, they take a long time to mature and only lay eggs in the summer. Will keeping a light on a 14 hour timer help? Also, these will exclusively be indoors, around a 75 degree temperature. I'm also worried about the males potentially fighting. I had been expecting 3 female and 1 male bird. Should we cull one male, and when? I have an incubator on the way from Amazon so we can at least build a bit of a population.

Sorry this is a lot. I take raising animals extremely seriously.

 

[JaeG]

@007Sean can you advise?

 

[007Sean]

My bf and I have been planning for a while to get a few coturnix quail for meat and eggs, but when I sent him off to get the birds (an hour drive) he came home with four Bobwhites instead. The breeder told him they were much better than coturnix for food-- obviously he was tricked. So now I have two boys and two girls of a breed I am totally not prepared for and looking for advice. We are no doubt stuck with them, and I want to make sure we do things right. Is there a lot of difference between them and coturnix? What can I do to make sure they produce at full potential? We have them in a 2 x 3 cage currently that I had prepared for the coturnix, with game bird feed we got from the breeder. I'm suspicious of it so we also got meal worms to supplement. I don't know how old these birds are, but they have a few remaining pin feathers on their butts and backs. They're insanely skittish so I put a towel over half the cage and am going to make a box for them to hide in tomorrow. From what I understand, they take a long time to mature and only lay eggs in the summer. Will keeping a light on a 14 hour timer help? Also, these will exclusively be indoors, around a 75 degree temperature. I'm also worried about the males potentially fighting. I had been expecting 3 female and 1 male bird. Should we cull one male, and when? I have an incubator on the way from Amazon so we can at least build a bit of a population.

Sorry this is a lot. I take raising animals extremely seriously.

Hi, as far as Bob's being better for consumption is a matter of preference, there's no difference in the composition of the muscle. The only difference in "taste" would be how they were prepared and cooked.
Bob's can be skittish if not handled or don't have a lot of human contact.
A 2 x 3 cage will work for 4 birds but the bigger the enclosure the better, less fighting for space.
You will want to feed them a high protein feed, 24% is adequate. No need for grit, unless your feeding grains. If you want too, you can give them "greens", small pieces of romain lettuce or kale will work just fine. Clean water is one of the most important factors in raising quail. Feces, debris and other contaminates in their water will lead to disease.
You can put a small pan of sand or DE in their cage for dust bathes, most quail love to dust bathe.
Bob's are seasonal layers.
They usually start in April - May and will lay until Aug - Sept time frame. Putting a light on them will make them start laying sooner but also "wears them out" sooner....I raise my outdoors but in the past, I've had them indoors. I didn't use artificial lighting to make them lay earlyer.
In that size cage, I would either cull the 1 male or have another cage for the other pair. They will all get along fine till spring, at which time the males will fight in competition for the females. In a larger enclosure, there may still be fighting but not to the point of being deadly.
Many Bob's can be raised in community pens with no difficulties if it is a large enclosure.
Sounds like your birds are in the 6 - 8 weeks old stage. By 10 - 12 weeks, they should be completely feathered out. Their mature at that time but won't lay until spring.
Personally, I prefer Bob's over Coturnix. Cot's are easy to tame but I prefer to hear the Bob's call versus the Cot's. HTH, if you have other questions, just ask! Wish you the best in your quail raising adventure.

 

[DK newbie]

I've never had bobwhites, so I'm sure someone else will be able to respond better, but from what I've read I think your cage might be too small, even for a trio. Possibly for a pair as well. I think the recommendation is 4 sqft/bird. So you might be better of building another cage for the 2. pair.
Pin feathers on their butts and backs sounds suspicious to me - if they were buttons (the species I keep) I'd suspect they've been plucked at some point. My buttons usually feather up around the eyes last (wings first, back second). If you post some pictures, there is a good chance someone will be able to estimate their age.
With regards to being skittish, the buttons are as well. I find that keeping them in a cage that is closed on all sides except the front helps. Adding cover in the cage helps as well - they prefer to hide when scared and only fly if hiding is not an option. I usually use fake plants and tunnels (my buttons won't use houses but a tunnel with two openings is appreciated) and recently I tried substituting the plants for newspaper cut in strips to simulate long grass, attached to the cage sides and that works as well. Might take some adaptations to make it work with bobwhites though, as they are much larger.

Edit: Nevermind, Sean beat me to it and knows more about it ^^

 

[Diamond Dan]

Im with 007, with only 2 hens of a breed that seasonlly lays eggs adding extra light will only shorten the life span of the few birds you have. I'd say split them in 2 cages and work on hatching your own eggs. then you will have a mini flock to start next year. Also handle and socialize them as often as you can. Makes them easy to catch should they get loose.... and they will!!!!

 

[Riane]

Oh wow, tons of awesome info. Thank you. I'll definitely make a bigger cage. I'm actually thinking I'll just make another and stack them so the pairs each have their own. I was really hoping for year round eggs, but if they're that young I think they wouldn't start laying until April anyway. I'm surprised how big they already are. They're about the size of a jumbo coturnix. My bf said the guy had about 40 birds stuffed in a cage the size of ours and it just blew me away. They do seem very healthy from what I can tell. No signs of pecking. I'll try to get some pictures of them. Maybe someone will know what type I have. I'm almost thinking Georgia Giants, but I have no experience. Also, I put a rabbit water bottle in there and they seem to have it figured out.

 

[Riane]

Here are a couple pics.

 

[Riane]

Oh one more question, sorry. What are my chances of taming these guys a bit? They're so terrified and I feel awful for them. I'm not bothering them except for keeping their food and water up right now, and will probably just clean the cage every 3 or 4 days for now. But I would like them to be happy and at least comfortable with being around me.

 

[007Sean]

They may become a little tamer as they begin to settle down with their new environment. They just have been snatched up and moved to a foreign land, as far as they are concerned...I wouldn't expect them to become any tamer but they might, given time.

 

[Diamond Dan]

I have 12 GG i raised from eggs, a couple i can reach in and pick up. On some days i can stroke them all. Aint figured that out yet. But when food is low i got them to hand feed lettuce dandilion and clover.prior to refilling feeders. Seems to make them less skiddish. Also just spending time around the pen helps.