Adventures in quail keeping

[Jaye]

So, I thought I should make time to post an update on our quail keeping adventures, now that we’ve had them for a month or two.
Stuff we’ve learned about them. Stuff that we thought would work but didn’t. Stuff we thought might work, and did. Stuff we thought wasn’t working, but after a time, did.

Part One: Stuff we’ve learned about them
They are hardier than they look. Which is a good thing, because one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is with heating. And it hasn’t even gotten that cold yet.
Their manure is smellier than that of a chicken. Possibly because of the higher ammonia content? I don’t know. I noticed this when we still had them in the house, prior to their pen being completed. Now that they spend their lives outside in their coop and run on deep litter, so far there is no smell.
Chickens will run up to greet you when you come into their housing or run. They are kind of like an opportunistic welcoming committee. When you approach, they seem to say, “Hey, hi, what did you bring us?” Quail don’t really greet, per se: They will run up when you approach their enclosure, but it’s more like swarming than greeting. They seem to say, “Hey, you, hand it over, NOW.” Good thing they’re small and cute.
Their little beaks are quite sharp. They will peck at anything that catches their interest, and for no apparent reason. Like lips and eyebrows, if you are distracted and get too close to their level. Apparently, eyebrows and lips bear a striking resemblance to worms. Not sure why one of them nailed me just under my nose once. Anyway, the lesson here is try to avoid being in a position where your face is within pecking distance of their beaks.
Male quails take their role in the covey very seriously. So, unless Benny, our male, is shooting blanks, I have no doubt that Avro and Arrow (AKA the Jets) are laying fertile eggs. This will come in handy next spring, when we plan to increase the number of hens in our flock. One of the reasons that we need to increase the number of hens we keep is so that Benny will hopefully have more than one preferred mate and that will be easier all around.
They are really fun to watch. Everything is at full speed, except when they are dustbathing and preening or afternoon siesta time.
They hang together as a group, but they don’t really cozy up to each other at night. This may change as the temperatures get colder.
They like making little nest-like depressions in their pen litter somewhere under something and preferably also protected by brush or pine boughs, and laying their eggs there. The patterning on their eggs makes for excellent camouflage in deep litter that is comprised of wood chip and leaves. The upside of this is that our two hens usually lay in the same spot for a little while at least before “pulling up stakes”. This is handy because once you’ve found their laying spot, you’re pretty much guaranteed that all the eggs laid that day will be there. Their laying spot will change on a regular basis … little gypsy nomads.

Next post: Part Two - Stuff that we thought would work but didn’t

[kenya]

Ha! Ha! Mine have a sand box and almost always lay their eggs there. Swarm is the right word, they are not afraid of being handled and most chickens if not handled since very young do not encourage it and some readily avoid you handling them. The quail don't care, always surprises me. They are neat little characters for sure, and some males never seem to leave the females alone.

[windwalkingwolf]

That was an enjoyable read Jaye! I've been thinking about getting quail ever since the thing about coturnix eggs and allergies came up, but I just can't do another project right now. However your post makes them sound so entertaining, that I find myself wondering what I could drop or rearrange, just for a few LOL!
Looking forward to part 2!

[Farrier1987]

I have asked before and no one replied, but can you keep quail with the chickens or do they need their own coop? My chickens free range during the day, would the quail or would they run away never to be seen again?

[Home Grown Poultry]

Glad your enjoying the quail there Jaye! My only suggestion would be to not give them any heat. If something happens to that heat source it will end in tragedy. Remember oh 4ish years ago when we had that -30 arctic air mass over us for like 6 weeks? It didn't claim the lives of any of my quail, the suckers are tough, even kept on wire and not natural at all.

Farrier, these quail are not smart and would disappear or be killed fairly quickly. Most of the quail I have lost have never been seen again, I lost my blue egger that way... Gotta love kids but do I really need to put paddlelocks on everything? Haha thankfully they are all older now.

Ya quail, especially coturnix need there own dedicated pen and I recommend keeping them on wire, I like rabbit style hutches.

I don't have any quail right now... wish I did.

Have a great one!

[ross]

Yep in rabbit hutches as well or on ground in pheasant pens . Don't put with pheasants unless lots a spots for pheasants to hide . Mine would gang up on the pheasants & run um to the ground . Luck

[Jaye]

Ha! Ha! Mine have a sand box and almost always lay their eggs there. Swarm is the right word, they are not afraid of being handled and most chickens if not handled since very young do not encourage it and some readily avoid you handling them. The quail don't care, always surprises me. They are neat little characters for sure, and some males never seem to leave the females alone.

Thanks for mentioning the easy handling part, Kenya. You're right, it's true - they are much easier to handle / catch than chickens, even if you don't handle them regularly. That was a pleasant surprise for me the first time one of them decided flush up and out through the open door while I was putting in some fresh water. Once she landed on the ground outside, she just sat there, and I had no problem picking her up and putting her back.

[Jaye]

Glad your enjoying the quail there Jaye! My only suggestion would be to not give them any heat. If something happens to that heat source it will end in tragedy. Remember oh 4ish years ago when we had that -30 arctic air mass over us for like 6 weeks? It didn't claim the lives of any of my quail, the suckers are tough, even kept on wire and not natural at all.

Farrier, these quail are not smart and would disappear or be killed fairly quickly. Most of the quail I have lost have never been seen again, I lost my blue egger that way... Gotta love kids but do I really need to put paddlelocks on everything? Haha thankfully they are all older now.

Ya quail, especially coturnix need there own dedicated pen and I recommend keeping them on wire, I like rabbit style hutches.

I don't have any quail right now... wish I did.

Have a great one!

Yeah, the whole heat discussion ... I do plan to write a few of my thoughts on that in part two: Stuff that didn't work. LOL. I just haven't had the opportunity to organize my thoughts on part two's content and post it.

Thanks for answering Farrier's question, BTW. I so want to add that one of the reasons why it's not the best idea to keep quail with chickens is because chickens can be carriers of diseases that are fatal to quail.

[Home Grown Poultry]

That's another great point Jaye! Another reason why these birds need there own cage that's pretty secure is because they seem to be attracted to danger. Where most birds or animals have the fight or flight response, coturnix quail do not have those instincts for the most part. Being the first bird ever domesticated thousands of years ago by the Egyptians they have lost all there natural instincts. Hence why they can easily be caught. I have unortunatly watched these birds kill themselves. It took me a while to figure out what was happening. My geese were killing them like whack a mole, the birds woud stick there head through the 1x1 wire and the geese would grab them. Man was I ever upset but glad I figured it out. I quickly added another layer of 1/2 x 1/2 wire, this seems to be perfect for keeping them safe and secure while letting there crap fall through.

[Jaye]

Part Two: stuff we thought would work, but didn't. Stuff we thought might work, and did. Plus some details on something that we thought wasn’t working, but after a time, did (Ref: heated water bottle).

The Cozy Coop heater. It was a good idea in theory, but in our setup, not so much. Our quail house is insulated and small. Because of this, 1) 200 watts was waaay too much, and 2) the only location where it could be installed and fit was on the clean-out door, which was also the only wall with a window, so once installed it blocked out most of the light in the house. Quails like darkened places, but apparently not that dark. We had installed it prior to the weather getting cold enough to warrant turning it on, so we didn't even realize it was overpowered until the first cold snap. Thankfully I checked the temperature inside the house before I went to bed. It had gone up to +15 in the space of a couple of hours, while the ambient temperature outside was -18, so we had to shut it off rather than risk waking up the next day to toasted quail. They survived the night, and thankfully the temperature lows for the next few days were a bit "warmer" (between -10 and -15) so we went through a bit of frantic head scratching to come up with a replacement heat source for them before the winter arrived in earnest. I was thinking about plans for expansion of the group in the spring if by some miracle they survived the winter in spite of my ignorance. I knew I would need some sort of heat source for quail chicks when they hatched, so I did some online window shopping on Amazon and I found what I thought looked to be a decent enough "electric hen" (
Same concept as the Brinsea EcoGLow 20, but for a more reasonable price. Then it occurred to me that it might just work in the quail house as a place for them to huddle if it got too cold for them. Once I had confirmed that it would fit nicely with a bit of room to spare, I ordered one. It arrived in under 2 days. I cranked up the unit's legs to their maximum height, positioned it in the quail house, and waited for their reaction. They were under it in no time. But they only go under at night, and during the day when they are chilled, and still spend most of their time in the pen during the day. I think they took to it so quickly because it's a natural quail behaviour to seek out sheltered spots underneath things. Since it's only a 20 watt unit, it's pretty cost-efficient to run, so we have it on any time the mercury drops below -15. The Cozy Coop heater is now being put to good use as a leg warmer when we're sitting at the computer, and the quails got their window back. Win-Win.

The heated water bottle (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... _vc=-10005) is an example of stuff that we thought would work, but didn't. Not because of the product or the quail, but because of my own stupidity. Initially we had installed it on the fence opposite the access door to the quail pen because the power cord on the unit is very short and because we didn't have a long enough extension cord. This was awkward for training, refilling, as well as plugging and unplugging. After a time Ron moved it inside the quail house, where access to the unit and the power plug was much easier. Unfortunately, I thought that my efforts to train them to use it were fruitless because I didn't notice the water going down. So I stopped checking and kept on going with switching out their plastic waterer several times a day. I left the heated water bottle plugged in at the time because of the cold snap, thinking that I left it on, they might still try it out eventually. Apparently they did. They drank it dry. Then the heater failed because bottle was empty. It worked great, until it didn't. I can still use it as a waterer in the summer months at least. I do want to buy another next time I'm at Tractor Supply in Odgensburg, because it worked very well to keep the water open during that first extended cold snap we had. I won't forget to keep it filled next time. :-\

Next post: More stuff we’ve learned about them.