Taking the plunge

[dougan778]

OK. I tried holding onto some bobwhites for a week as an experiment and it has gone pretty well, so I want to "take the plunge" and start doing this. I will be doing coturnix since I live in a subdivision and these bobwhites are loud.

I've never done chickens or anything like that and have no real exposure to it except for the last week. I plan to build a small raised coop, basically something like a 2' wide, 5' long, 18 inch high cage with a small coop attached to it for eggs and reducing draft (Wisconsin, will be outside in the cold). I'll maybe get 8 or so to start. I think they'd fit in this size cage.

A couple questions:

1) Is there any reason for me to get any males at all? Starting out I don't intend to breed them, just get eggs. If I want to get into hatching them I'll do that next year.

2) If I keep a light on in there, will they really lay eggs in the winter? Like, when it's 2 degrees out? I plan on lightly insulating the coop so with a 60 watt bulb in there I guess it would be above freezing. Is that really OK? Or is it just unreasonable to expect eggs in the winter?

3) Has anyone used coturnix quail for hunting dog training? I have a puppy I'm going to be training on birds soon. But these seem overly domesticated so I'm not sure that this breed woul dhave any value-- teaching the dog that birds are plump sausages with legs that let you chomp on them won't help me much.

Any other advice is appreciated. Most of the tutorials I've read seem to assume that the person has some knowledge of chickens, which I do not, so I might be missing something obvious. This just sounds really easy.

 

[dc3085]

OK. I tried holding onto some bobwhites for a week as an experiment and it has gone pretty well, so I want to "take the plunge" and start doing this. I will be doing coturnix since I live in a subdivision and these bobwhites are loud.

I've never done chickens or anything like that and have no real exposure to it except for the last week. I plan to build a small raised coop, basically something like a 2' wide, 5' long, 18 inch high cage with a small coop attached to it for eggs and reducing draft (Wisconsin, will be outside in the cold). I'll maybe get 8 or so to start. I think they'd fit in this size cage.

A couple questions:

1) Is there any reason for me to get any males at all? Starting out I don't intend to breed them, just get eggs. If I want to get into hatching them I'll do that next year.

You mentioned noise and the males can be really noisy. Sometimes for various reasons you will have a male not being kept with females and those birds will crow like crazy, even in the middle of the night. Normally they are pretty quiet but if you irritate them...

2) If I keep a light on in there, will they really lay eggs in the winter? Like, when it's 2 degrees out? I plan on lightly insulating the coop so with a 60 watt bulb in there I guess it would be above freezing. Is that really OK? Or is it just unreasonable to expect eggs in the winter?

Quail are fine at any temperature above 0 degrees as long as the wind is blocked from blowing on them. Temperature doesn't affect laying. THe reduced light cycle of the day during winter is why birds don't lay without lighting in winter. C

3) Has anyone used coturnix quail for hunting dog training? I have a puppy I'm going to be training on birds soon. But these seem overly domesticated so I'm not sure that this breed woul dhave any value-- teaching the dog that birds are plump sausages with legs that let you chomp on them won't help me much.

People do use them for dog training but I probably wouldn't. Fully conditioned they're poor fliers and as you pointed they lack a lot of instinct.

Any other advice is appreciated. Most of the tutorials I've read seem to assume that the person has some knowledge of chickens, which I do not, so I might be missing something obvious. This just sounds really easy.