What are some of the advantages of raising quail? I know I enjoy them for being ornamental, but as far as eggs go they are so small.
The advantages of raising quail?
- Thread starter Dean W
- Start date
Too many to count.
Some are meat, training dogs, reptile food, bird food, cat food?, eggs (better than chicken eggs), eat seeds off of floor of aviary, pets, were kept as songbirds (Chinese Painted, Button), to show off
, an easy way to see how responsible you are and to see if you can move ahead and go to chickens (LOL, one of my reasons), and i hope more people will contribute. OOOOOH, also for shooting/hunting. (More New World Quail than Cots and Buttons, lol Buttons for hunting.)
Depends which one you get (have), new world ones are fatter but lay less eggs, and reach maturity slower.
Some are meat, training dogs, reptile food, bird food, cat food?, eggs (better than chicken eggs), eat seeds off of floor of aviary, pets, were kept as songbirds (Chinese Painted, Button), to show off
Depends which one you get (have), new world ones are fatter but lay less eggs, and reach maturity slower.
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Yep, can be used for cat food.
Pros
- They have a big diversity of colours!
- They can live in small spaces, especially button quail. They're good for people who live in small apartments or don't have a lot of room.
- They're not loud, so you won't have to worry about hearing an early morning crow like a rooster.
- Coturnix quail are hardy, so they can withstand the coldness from winter as long as they're protected from drafts and bad weather days.
- They make excellent pets! If you tame them well enough, they're willing to eat out of your hand, come to you at your approach and let you handle them without them being afraid (as they're normally skittish birds), and they're gentle.
- They're eggs are healthier than chicken eggs. 5 quail eggs = 1 chicken egg.
- They lay seasonally, so unless given an artificial light source, they won't lay in winter. In a year, they lay around 300 eggs!
- Coturnix are colony breeders, so you can keep one male with as many females as you want.
- They don't smell as bad as chickens do. (True story.) But they still smell.
- They can be kept indoors or outdoors.
- Easy to raise and hatch.
- Chicks mature at around 6 weeks for cots, and either that or a little older for buttons.
Cons
(I know you didn't really mention this, but I thought it might be helpful.)
- They don't free range.
- They don't really live that long, only for a couple of years.
- Button quail breed in pairs, not colony (or so I've heard.)
- They shouldn't be kept near chickens due to disease.
- Button quail can go 'boink' where, when startled, they fly straight upwards and hit their head which could injure or kill them. So they need a high ceiling.
- They're sensitive to changes in habitat and I think food as well.
- They can be very skittish unless tamed and run really fast, so they could escape easily if given the chance.
Hope I gave you a brief idea.
Pros
- They have a big diversity of colours!
- They can live in small spaces, especially button quail. They're good for people who live in small apartments or don't have a lot of room.
- They're not loud, so you won't have to worry about hearing an early morning crow like a rooster.
- Coturnix quail are hardy, so they can withstand the coldness from winter as long as they're protected from drafts and bad weather days.
- They make excellent pets! If you tame them well enough, they're willing to eat out of your hand, come to you at your approach and let you handle them without them being afraid (as they're normally skittish birds), and they're gentle.
- They're eggs are healthier than chicken eggs. 5 quail eggs = 1 chicken egg.
- They lay seasonally, so unless given an artificial light source, they won't lay in winter. In a year, they lay around 300 eggs!
- Coturnix are colony breeders, so you can keep one male with as many females as you want.
- They don't smell as bad as chickens do. (True story.) But they still smell.
- They can be kept indoors or outdoors.
- Easy to raise and hatch.
- Chicks mature at around 6 weeks for cots, and either that or a little older for buttons.
Cons
(I know you didn't really mention this, but I thought it might be helpful.)
- They don't free range.
- They don't really live that long, only for a couple of years.
- Button quail breed in pairs, not colony (or so I've heard.)
- They shouldn't be kept near chickens due to disease.
- Button quail can go 'boink' where, when startled, they fly straight upwards and hit their head which could injure or kill them. So they need a high ceiling.
- They're sensitive to changes in habitat and I think food as well.
- They can be very skittish unless tamed and run really fast, so they could escape easily if given the chance.
Hope I gave you a brief idea.
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- Button quail breed in pairs, not colony (or so I've heard.)
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yea, they're supposed to, i challenged that rule (i didn't know about pairs, thought they were like Cots), now i have 1 male for 3 females.[/FONT]
- Button quail can go 'boink' where, when startled, they fly straight upwards and hit their head which could injure or kill them. So they need a high ceiling.
High ceiling won't do them justice, they'll 'bonk' on walls, on the floor, on each other, on you, etc. Low cage, or high, which ever you prefer, BUT with padding. (For higher cage put it on the sides/walls)
- They're sensitive to changes in habitat and I think food as well.
- They can be very skittish unless tamed and run really fast, so they could escape easily if given the chance.
Not really sensitive to changes, depends how huge the change is, not really food, when they're hungry they'll eat, plus they eat almost anything anyway, haha.
Skittish, maybe, depends if it's a weak bird, then it'll be really scared and up-chuck some water, but superior roo will be tame, my hens peck my shoes, clothes, hands, haha. Not really fast, again how scared and weak they are, also on what surface they run on affects their speed.
Also, THEY CAN'T SWIM!!!
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yea, they're supposed to, i challenged that rule (i didn't know about pairs, thought they were like Cots), now i have 1 male for 3 females.[/FONT]
- Button quail can go 'boink' where, when startled, they fly straight upwards and hit their head which could injure or kill them. So they need a high ceiling.
High ceiling won't do them justice, they'll 'bonk' on walls, on the floor, on each other, on you, etc. Low cage, or high, which ever you prefer, BUT with padding. (For higher cage put it on the sides/walls)
- They're sensitive to changes in habitat and I think food as well.
- They can be very skittish unless tamed and run really fast, so they could escape easily if given the chance.
Not really sensitive to changes, depends how huge the change is, not really food, when they're hungry they'll eat, plus they eat almost anything anyway, haha.
Skittish, maybe, depends if it's a weak bird, then it'll be really scared and up-chuck some water, but superior roo will be tame, my hens peck my shoes, clothes, hands, haha. Not really fast, again how scared and weak they are, also on what surface they run on affects their speed.
Also, THEY CAN'T SWIM!!!
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Where roosters are banned so breeding chickens in the city is impossible. Quail are rarely even mentioned so you can. And its fun and can be profitable if your careful and mind expenses.
My roo's are skittish around me, I simply put my hand down to change the feed, and they dash off. The little ladies don't mind though, they actually come up and peck my hand, expecting treats as they normally do get. They eat so much...
I don't own button quail (though I thought I was going too originally). So I'm getting this off research.
I used to own chickens long ago, but it wasn't really me. More like my parents. I was a toddler, and never really cared about them, but we owned a rooster and several hens who one brooded some chicks and they became adults quickly. We sold all of them to a family friend two years later so we could go on holiday. I lived in a quiet suburb, and my neighbours didn't really care back then that the rooster was crowing. I guess nowadays, it's a little stricter.
My cots are sensitive to food changes... I simply change their food temporarily to seedmix until I could get my hands on gamebird food, and they wouldn't touch it, sometimes peck at it, but not as viciously as when they had their regular food. When I gave them the gamebird food, they stuffed their heads into the cups and ate like pigs.
When a bird flies past, some of my quail raise their head high, others dip down low. And when they do, they dash around to find a hiding spot. Hehehehhe, since I've tamed my older quail, I can confidently take them out of their pen and let them free range to find bugs and stuff. I took my male out whilst the female is still in, he called to his mate, and ran with his head held high and skipped back to the cage to see his girl, then ran his beak along the cage wire trying to get in It's funny and cute to watch. :]
So it can be decent proof that quail know how to get home if they escape and believe freedom is over-rated. It's happened before from threads posted on here that I've read. xD
I don't own button quail (though I thought I was going too originally). So I'm getting this off research.
I used to own chickens long ago, but it wasn't really me. More like my parents. I was a toddler, and never really cared about them, but we owned a rooster and several hens who one brooded some chicks and they became adults quickly. We sold all of them to a family friend two years later so we could go on holiday. I lived in a quiet suburb, and my neighbours didn't really care back then that the rooster was crowing. I guess nowadays, it's a little stricter.
My cots are sensitive to food changes... I simply change their food temporarily to seedmix until I could get my hands on gamebird food, and they wouldn't touch it, sometimes peck at it, but not as viciously as when they had their regular food. When I gave them the gamebird food, they stuffed their heads into the cups and ate like pigs.
When a bird flies past, some of my quail raise their head high, others dip down low. And when they do, they dash around to find a hiding spot. Hehehehhe, since I've tamed my older quail, I can confidently take them out of their pen and let them free range to find bugs and stuff. I took my male out whilst the female is still in, he called to his mate, and ran with his head held high and skipped back to the cage to see his girl, then ran his beak along the cage wire trying to get in It's funny and cute to watch. :]
So it can be decent proof that quail know how to get home if they escape and believe freedom is over-rated. It's happened before from threads posted on here that I've read. xD
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Yea, button's wouldn't return.
- Thread starter
- #8
Thanks for the replies. I'm disappointed if I can't raise them along with some chickens. Of course they would be in a separate cage of their own.
Any suggestions of types or breeds that people have had the most success with? After posting this last night I browsed some online hatcheries and noticed quite a few different varieties. Also I noticed some of the advantages you all talked about.
Any suggestions of types or breeds that people have had the most success with? After posting this last night I browsed some online hatcheries and noticed quite a few different varieties. Also I noticed some of the advantages you all talked about.
Well, I'm pretty sure you couldn't keep CPQ's with chickens (they'd probably eat them) but before the great quail massacre (**** mink) I kept eight cots with three cream crested legbars and they got along well. The quail had their own sleeping quarters, but they lived in the same run. sometimes the chooks even gave the quail mealworms from my hand.
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Also, wild-bird and chicken have a sort of relationship when it comes to diseases, they transfer 'em, not all but most. (Correct me if i'm wrong)
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