[Butterfly]

Have been vaguely thinking about getting some Quails. Does anyone here have any advice, hints, tips or suggestions or could point me in the right direction?
Thank you.

[muntjac]

treat em like chickens .......... just dont put em with chickens  
try here for all the details
http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/Poultry/Keeping_Quail/index.php

[Butterfly]

:oops: May be a stupid question but do they fly?

[muntjac]

sure do ,,,,, n make blooming hard targets lolo

[Butterfly]

sure do ,,,,, n make blooming hard targets lolo

 

[muntjac]

butterfly can you put your location on the profile details so we can know what part of the uk your in to advise you best .please

[chickenlittle]

Hiiya,
I'm new to this site but I have quails - I have been keeping birds with a mate for about three months and we decided to start incubating!!
We bought a dozen quail eggs for £1 !!! and put them into our new incubator (bought second hand on same dame as we bought the eggs!!)with some trepidation!!
The quail take two weeks to hatch(we had 10 out of our dozen) and are at point of lay at around six weeks!
Ours are 4 weeks old now and are starting to spread their wing and attempting to fly!
At six weeks the male will start leaving "foam balls" on the ground which is a sign of sexual maturity
As we've only got to the four week stage I'll let you know what happens as we go along!
bye for now
sam

[muntjac]

welcome to the site  chickenlittle   great info coming me thinks  

[agapanthus]

Hiiya,
I'm new to this site but I have quails - I have been keeping birds with a mate for about three months and we decided to start incubating!!
We bought a dozen quail eggs for £1 !!! and put them into our new incubator (bought second hand on same dame as we bought the eggs!!)with some trepidation!!
The quail take two weeks to hatch(we had 10 out of our dozen) and are at point of lay at around six weeks!
Ours are 4 weeks old now and are starting to spread their wing and attempting to fly!
At six weeks the male will start leaving "foam balls" on the ground which is a sign of sexual maturity
As we've only got to the four week stage I'll let you know what happens as we go along!
bye for now
sam

Hi chickenlittle, welcome!!
What breed of quail do you have?

[chickenlittle]

hi all
they're japanese quail....pics soon as I can get digicam back off daughter!!

[chickenlittle]

be warned butterfly....they are not as easy to keep as chickens.......
they do fly and will need to be in a covered run.
If the cock gets out he should come back providing he can see the hens, however if a hen gets out she will be away!! also the same is true if a cock and hen get out at the same time!!
As I said they are at point of lay at about 6 weeks old (the male sexually mature at approx 5 weeks. Try and put something in the run for the hens to shelter behind whilst laying (a shrub if your run is on ground or perhaps a small woodpile if its got a concrete base. checked on mine just before i came to work (they are still in the shed under a light (at night) and they are all starting to spread their wings and fly/scrabble across the box (make sure you put wire over the box!!)
more info coming as soon as i find it (or after my next mistake whichever comes first!!!)  :o

[chickenlittle]

butterfly have just found this...

http://coturnixcorneruk.forumotion.com/

haven't quite looked at it yet but on 1st impression looks ok

[van connick]

what quail were you thinking about keeping?
what do you intend doing with them?
where are you going to keep them?

i keep very large quail.
incubation... 17 days.
maturity...8 weeks.

a quail when startled, will always fly up. directly up. so if you are going to keep them in pens, which you will have to do or you will lose them, the height has to be at least 3 feet high, or they will damage themselves, even break their necks...but you can always line the inside of the top with foam rubber...
( the height i am talking about is for the quail i keep, not the smaller breeds )
if you are hatching smaller breeds you will have to use very fine chick crumbs for the first 4 weeks, then go on to growers crumbs, and then layers crumbs. if you cannot find any, then you will have to buy pellets and grind them up yourself.
mine however are fine with normal pellets, apart from when they are first hatched.
be careful, they are prone to cannibalism.
cockbirds will be fine kept together in a colony, providing they have been raised together, and there are no henbirds in the vacinity......
you can also keep henbirds together, again if they have been raised together.
quail tend to pair up easily, and once they have, you cannot introduce another bird, because they will peck it ...to death !
an ideal group, would be 3 or 4 hens to one cockbird.

[mdueal]

I was thinking about keeping quail too - Have read around and will make a quailery(with required head room etc).
When you say you keep large quail - which are they? Are they these jumbo japanese type?
Also - we do not have an incubator but we are lucky enough to have a silkie chicken. I did read somewhere on internet that she would hatch quail eggs but what do you think?

[muntjac]

she will and make a great mom .....