Why Can't You Put Quail and Chickens Together

[iansaurus]

My friend has fail and chickens together so I don't think it will be a problem but that might depend on the breed. She also has Guinea fowl with them.

 

[iansaurus]

Sorry but I think my word editor changed Quail to fail.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Hi everyone, i just read through this entire thread. We recently got quail, and did build them their own mini-barn that's split into two halves. I did not know about quail and chickens not being together when i put them out for pasture at 1 week of age where we had meat birds last year. Also, their flight pen is built on land that used to be foraged by my free-range layer flock. The chickens dust bathe right up against the wire of the pen (outside) with quail doing the same just on the inside. Our quail are now about 8 weeks old and are doing very well - even got 18 eggs from the 16 hens yesterday!

Now, why i read this thread the whole way through is because in the other half of the mini-barn i have bantam cornish growing out. They are still too small for the chicken tractor but it pains me to keep them locked up like they are. (They are taking FOREVER to grow!) Now that I've read that my "separation" is really no separation at all (quail will have been exposed to whatever my birds may carry already), that the bantam cornish are comparable in size and that a handful of others have kept the two species together without issue, i will let my cornish out into the flight pen tomorrow. Thanks everyone for all the advice, facts and insights

Oh - for those asking about free-ranging quail: don't. We haven't tried and I'm GLAD we haven't! They do NOT put themselves to bed at night like chickens do - every night at dusk we have to go into the flight pen and physically catch them all and put them away ourselves!

 

[paneubert]

every night at dusk we have to go into the flight pen and physically catch them all and put them away ourselves!

Why are you catching and putting them to bed? There is no need....they do not roost or anything like that. If anything you are stressing them out. Is the flight pen not secure enough for them to stay in 24/7?

 

[Phoenixxx]

No! It is secure enough to keep them in but not to keep the mink and other nocturnal diggers out. We do still have a mink, plus this morning the dogs were chasing a rat and they failed to catch it.

 

[paneubert]

Well there ya go then.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Ha ha, yeah We're still renting so we didn't want anything TOO permanent, and we hope to be buying and moving sometime this winter Plus, digging down a foot through massive tree roots really didn't seem like an enjoyable prospect!

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I have a question- we have chickens that range and also see wild quails come through the yard quite often. The dogs drive them out but they do come and I know they hang around neighboring chickens a lot more than ours to steal the corn and feed. How are they not sick?

(I use a cattle dog as part of the protection for my birds, so anything that comes in to the yard which has not been trained into her as ours is fair game and she runs it out. She even knows which cats belong to us and which ones do not.)

 

[JaeG]

Old world quail (like Japanese) and new world quail (what will be wandering through your yard) are different, plus the wild quail aren't restricted by an enclosure so the opportunity to share diseases is lessened. Coryza is the biggest concern between quail and chickens. Chickens can carry it without showing symptoms. If your chickens aren't carriers then you'll be fine but you don't know until you try so it's a risk.

 

[paneubert]

How are they not sick?

This isn't an all or nothing thing. But if we play along with assuming a chicken even looking at a quail means instant nuclear death/laser eyes shooting out of the chicken and toasting the quail on the spot, then first, how do you know the wild quail are not sick and dying? They are wild and could be dropping dead in the woods, replaced by others next time you see them around. We aren't talking about an enclosed run here, so plenty of opportunity for replacement of dead quail. Second, new world quail (bobwhites, etc..) are not the same as old world (coturnix), which is what the majority of what people keep. I do not know for sure, but I assume that since new and old don't even breed successfully with each other, they also probably are not impacted by the same diseases at the same level. So your wild quail may not be as impacted as most "domestic" quail would be.

EDIT:
JaeG seems to have beat me to it by a few seconds. Haha. We were reading each others minds.