[Kate and her Ducks]

OH and I are having a serious talk about quail but as some of you know, all I have ever kept is ducks. Would been keen on knowing the basics for them and what people thought were the pros and cons about them. First concrete question would be on how much space they need? Know that they need to have an avairy sort of arrangement due to being good fliers but not much more.

Very excited about new additions to the menagerie but don't want to leap into anything without being prepared (and may need a bit of encouragement to get the OH motivated into the construction side of things despite this being his idea!).

[Chookiechook]

Quail are easy peasy

Japanese are the easiest and hardiest....  they only need a rabbit hutch and a little run to be happy.

They eat layers pellets and dont roost or demand anything fancy

The worst thing they do however is to scalp each other if the fancy takes them.....  They dont squabble like chickens so much as just peck for the sake of it...  But this isnt all the time

Great little birds... I have bred literally hundreds and hundreds of them and not got bored yet

[Caralou]

I love my little quail that Debbie (chickenlady) gave me. They are real little characters  Mine are outside in a double level rabbit hutch so they can bounce and fly between the two levels. I keep the hutch full of hemcore and also have a winter cover over it so they dont get too chilled. At the moment I have 1 boy and 4 girls in there and they are very happy and come running to the hutch door when they see me  They eat layers pellets and I give them some grain to scratch in the evening. The cats have thankfully got bored of watching them and when the little boy escaped while I cleaned the other day they ignored him which was a relief!!!

[Caralou]

The worst thing they do however is to scalp each other if the fancy takes them.....  They dont squabble like chickens so much as just peck for the sake of it...  But this isnt all the time

Yes! One of my little girls has had this done to her by the over amourous boy  I have now added another two girls and she seems to be healing up as his attentions are now divided 4 ways instead of two.