Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Glen on March 29, 2008, 22:58

Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: Glen on March 29, 2008, 22:58
As above really............................

Looking for housing requirements and information please!
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: chicken soup on March 30, 2008, 21:27
Hi Glen

I keep Japanese quail and keep them in rabbit cages indoors over winter.  In summer I like to get them out onto the grass in rabbit arks but you have to be very careful because they easily escape.
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: van connick on March 31, 2008, 07:15
i keep quail.....

last count over 150......lol.....

was there anything inparticular you wanted to know?
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: Glen on March 31, 2008, 08:32
Just interested in their basic requirements, housing, feeding etc.

Could be a consideration for the plot.
Title: quail
Post by: bexphoto on March 31, 2008, 11:10
there a funny bird in a canabulistc way. Two much light and they can kill each other, not anuff and they eat each others tows. if they go on grass they can easly cach buggs and die. if they get wet they die. If you introduce new ones to an existing groop they must all be put in a new home because they are very teratoriull
 Apart from that there grate. All they need is a hy proteen food (love meal worms) and lots of water. Its good to have a hy enclosher for them, then they can fly. I used an old wendy house and had 18Quail in it. 1boy to 4ladys is best. The eggs are soo scrummy.  Good luch :)
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: van connick on March 31, 2008, 18:45
depends what quail you are thinking of keeping....

chinese being the smallest, italian jumbo the largest.
i have italian jumbo, japanese and californian.
most quail are ground dwelling, with the exception of claifornians and gambols.....so you will need some sort of ground cover for them.......preferably plants of some kind rather than a box structure.
quail fly straight up so you need a decent height to whatever you keep them in. mine are in cages 3feet high, 2 feet deep and 4 feet long.....each cage houses 2 hens and 1 cockbird. they are in a heated, lit shed in the winter months......i use one normal lightbulb to light up a shed 16 feet x 8, and the heating is by way of a halogen heater.

feeding is easy...chick crumbs up til 8 weeks old then straight on to layers. as a treat once or twice a week i also feed millet, hemp, sunflower kernals and any mix of finch seed available at the time. they also enjoy mealworms and grubs aswell as green stuffs.

it is true they are cannibalistic, especially if they are overcrowded. and the males are worse than the females. summer they go into aviaries. their call is inoffensive to neighbours if you have any.
if you plan on hatching any eggs you will need an incubator as they are not very good at hatching their own eggs.

hope that helps a little.... :)
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: Oliveview on April 01, 2008, 07:02
Our neighbour has some quail, they have them in a partitioned part of the shed.  They got quite a few eggs last summer from the other ones she had, then when we had a bad storm the quail pen got flooded and they all drowned bar one, so the dead ones were eaten.  The new ones have produced no eggs yet, they have been there quite a few months now.  In the summer they will go into tiny individual cages, hung on the wall :shock:
Pamela
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: van connick on June 13, 2008, 05:50
in the winter mine go indoors....i have large sheds i keep them in......most are set up into either trios or in larger cages there are 5 hens to one cockbird.....quail  dont live long so i always have eggs in the incs through out the year.
Title: Anyone Keep Quail?
Post by: Glen on June 13, 2008, 21:05
Can anyone suggest a good website for info?