does anyone here raise quail?

[the funny farm6]

Looking for info. I had quail 2 years ago, they were older adults and didn't lay so we ate them. We kept them in an old rabit cage. We are thinking we would like to try them again- they are just so good! Do you think they would do better up off the ground in a special made rabbit type cage or on the ground in a small special made chicken tractor type cage? The people what raise them around here have 100s in large outdoor flight pens. We just want @25-30 breeders, then we will hatch the eggs and raise our oun for food. These won't be bob whites they are cortex quail.

 

[lorihadams]

I had quail briefly and they loved being in small chicken tractors on the ground. I had a triangle shaped tractor that was about 4ft x 3ft that was light enough I could move it by myself. It did make getting eggs challenging but if you separated them into breeding groups of like 1 male to 3 females and used smaller tractors they would probably do well. We got out of them cause our foundation stock was just crappy and they weren't laying well.

 

[BarredBuff]

 

[Wannabefree]

I had a few of the coturnix for a while for eggs..it was a food allergy experiment. I had the Jumbo Browns and kept them indoors until they got too dang messy. I think the outdoor setup would be good. We didn't eat any of ours. They were too funny to eat Ever see a 90 pound Pit bull run from a 10 oz. attack bird? They were entertainment Our 3 females laid like mad so long as they had a light on them and temps stayed comfortable.

 

[the funny farm6]

Sounds like our pit bulls. They look mean but afrade of their shadow. And they run away from the very vicious hamster...


Till you put it in a wheel on the floor.

 

[Wannabefree]

Well then I hafta give the background story sine you're familiar with how hillarious both species are. We used let the quail walk around on the couch arm a bit. We played with them alot. We had one little roo that got full of himself one day and as the dog was sniffing he pounced right on her face and pecked her between the eyes. Of course she ran frightened to death to go hide under the bed After that..he'd get off the couch and chase her down the hallway pecking her toes. That poor dog was terrified

Okay, now back to our regular programming.

 

[the funny farm6]

OMG!

One of ours is 16 inches tall and 14 inch wide chest. And she gets a hot spot just above her tail and she can't reach it to bite at it so she sits and snarles and growls at her butt!

 

[Bettacreek]

To maximize production, increase your ratios to 5:1 females to males. One male to five females have always produced an excellent fertility rate for me (right about 100%). They were younger males though, older might have issues. I wouldn't keep anything older than a year old though, butcher and stew at that age. It takes about 5 weeks for them to mature and start laying eggs. If I remember correctly, the minimum caging requirements were .5sq ft per bird. Small cages, you'd want more per bird, larger cages, you could easily fit more. Just watch the condition of the birds. If there's fighting and feather plucking, increase the space/butcher a few birds. Bald heads isn't uncommon in females (even with 5 females for every male, they can still be a little overzealous and pull feathers from the females' heads when breeding). My girls laid an egg every single day, with 1-2 missed days per month. Awesome production animals. Not much meat, but hey, their feed:meat conversion is MUCH better than chickens.

Edit: Misread your post... Guess you didn't say "breeding pairs" lol. And, as for caging, I kept mine indoors (EWWW on the dust/dander factor!), but outdoors, I'd stick with a wire bottomed cage. It just helps with disease prevention. They aren't walking all through their poop and aren't getting into the dirt to pick up disease from the dirt. Roofs help to prevent contamination from wild birds. Just make sure the wire gage on the bottom is somewhat big and the spacing small, but big enough for poop to pass (.25" is too small, try .5" for ADULTS only). Also provide a respite area with solid flooring so they can get off of the wire bottom. Any kind of washable, non-porous surface will work for adults. You could use wood, but make sure it's well sealed to prevent bacteria from soaking into the wood.

 

[BarredBuff]

WBF,

 

[pinkfox]

im planning on doing cortinux myslf, i love them for meat and eggs.
ve been told a 5f:1m set up groups in 2x4 pens. make sure its either tall enough that when they jump they dont crash thier head OR short enough to keep them from gaining any kind of velocity...(i have a frined who lost a bunch of cortinus inx 18" tall cages because a cat spooked them, they all freeked jumped and broke their necks...ive been told 24" tall is about right.

ive got a frined who also raises cortinux on the ground, but she says he had to put wire down on ground first now be cuase rats were breaking in and chewing the quail killing them.