Wild bobwhites?

[TwoCrows]

Unfortunately most quail have lost the ability to brood and hatch their own eggs. They don't sit full term and some don't know how to brood babies. And other larger fowl can break eggs, not know how to raise quail, etc.... It just doesn't work.

You will need to get an incubator and order eggs on line from a reputable breeder. Hatching and brooding quail is not that hard and hatching can be a very rewarding experience.

 

[copper2]

What breeds are good mothers?Any?

 

[copper2]

Or in other words, is there any way on earth to get these unbroody birds, to become broody, know where food and water is, know how to fly ect.?

 

[TwoCrows]

No quail are broody. Once in a while a Coturnix here and there will go broody, but they are very rare.

They will never survive the wilds if this is what you are looking to achieve. Wild bobs teach their babies how to find food and water and how to survive. But if your area is devoid of quail that used to have quail, there is a reason and usually it is akin to lost of habitat, not because there is no birds there. Something huge is lacking for their survival. And many times in cases like this, there are too many predators.

Introducing birds to the wild is a very difficult if not impossible thing to do. It can take decades of very hard work to establish enough pairs to keep a species alive.

So I suggest keeping some quail for your self in an aviary and enjoying them on a personal level. They do quite well and enjoy large aviaries with brush piles, places to make nests and play house for a while. AND if you keep lone males, you can hear the Bob bob WHITE call in your own yard! I have two lone males and they call all day long. (they are ancient and lost their mates to old age. They are both 6 years old)

 

[copper2]

There old, I saw a pair of bobs a couple months ago and in spring I here them, thanks for the information

 

[btguy]

i wanted to do the same thing, federal attempts stopped because they couldn't get over a 5% success rate. i figure if they couldnt do it i cant so i wont try, im just gonna make them their own aviary and raise em for food. i have heard that some people have succeeded but that doesnt negate the fact that it usually doesnt.

 

[copper2]

I'm trying to make a plan to make them broody, but I'm still researching

 

[dc3085]

I'm trying to make a plan to make them broody, but I'm still researching

I'm not trying to shut you down or anything but realize that a whole lot of people (including both state and federal government as mentioned above) have been trying (in some cases for well over a hundred years) to restock with cage raised quail, what there is to try has been tried. The state of New Jersey started stocking bobs in 1895, today you cannot hunt bobwhites in New Jersey due to critically low population levels. Pretty much the same can be said for broodiness. I thought I could influence coturnix ability to brood if I put enough time into it. After about a year and half I gave up. In all the time I worked toward it, I never made an inch of progress.

Here is some bobwhite stocking info to chew on, one key thing to remember is that the grasses and grains growing abundantly in many states were introduced for hay, silage, etc. and are not suitable feed for bobwhites. Quail will not go vertical for food and long stem grasses and grains keep food well out of their reach. Their "habitat" being gone, causes a lot more problems than just lack of hiding places.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/natural_resources/wildlife/publications/fs7_bobwhite_quail.html

http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/03/...and-reverse-bobwhite-quails-alarming-decline/

http://mdc.mo.gov/your-property/wil...operty/quail-management/quail-management-faqs
http://mdc.mo.gov/blogs/more-quail/why-we-dont-stock-quail

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/bobwhite_resto_proj.pdf

And then there is this study from A&M which is sort of a knife in the heart of any restocking effort. Even using wild stock to generate the "release" stock, the birds produced exhibited sign of domestication. They fly substantially slower than wild quail and often don't realize when it is properly time to fly.

Hopefully you succeed where so many have failed, but you have a big hill to climb in doing it. The one factor I think we all have to accept is that human influence on these birds will not be easily undone.

 

[copper2]

I found out that cackle hatchery's bobs will breed but they must have a natural environment, is it possible I could release them? I have no experience in quail, if this is ever going to work I'm going to need help

 

[dc3085]

I found out that cackle hatchery's bobs will breed but they must have a natural environment, is it possible I could release them? I have no experience in quail, if this is ever going to work I'm going to need help

If cackle hatchery said their bobs will brood for sure, they were lying through their teeth. If that was the case everyone who wanted broody bobs would have them, and every state east of kansas would be using them to restore populations. TwoCrows has raised many bobs in much nicer more natural environments than most of can manage and you can see her opinion on the subject of broody bobs. Cage raised quail just don't brood.

I'd give up on the idea of releasing bobs for anything beyond a temporary increase in population. Cage raised bobs anywhere and everywhere, can't fly fast enough to evade predators, can't forage well enough to survive long and can't reproduce themselves. Kill all the tall fescue and other non native grasses this fall, build a few brush piles, plant some milo or something else they can forage easily and try to nurse your natives back to health. The other thing that really hurts your chances of restocking is that wild bobs won't associate with domestics. They keep them off the good feed/water and won't breed with them, effectively deleting them from the population anyway.