Coturnix Quail Anyone?

[frustratedearthmother]

I fried the last ones that I cooked and DH loved 'em! But, I actually love 'em baked with bacon around the breast and some honey/garlic/cumin/siracha glaze. (Light on the siracha for me).

I've seen them kept in converted rabbit cages. The few quail I have now toss feed out and the chickens come a'running. They clean up anything under the cage that the quail drop. So, not a bad thing.

 

[flowerbug]

Could a rabbit cage work? I have those. But we have snakes in the barn, so put rabbit cage in chicken coop? My silkies cant roost... I can set a cage on the roost. Or is that bad to mix species like that?

i think for people who are used to raising animals that they don't just mix things together all at once, but have a quarantine period and then perhaps mix a few of each together to make sure they're not hiding some incompatible diseases or whatnot. but to me this is just common sense and what i did when i had aquariums and was trying out various species combinations to see who was compatible.

 

[tortoise]

To convert a rabbit cage, I need to cover the bottom and up the sides a few inches with 1/4" hardware cloth?

Do they use chick feeder and waterer?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

For mature quail - If the rabbit cage has 1/2 x 1 on the bottom - they'll be ok with that. The birds themselves will be fine in 1 x 2 or 1 x 1 cages - they can't get out of that size openings when mature.

However I'm wrapping my entire cages in hardware cloth to keep out predators as opposed to keeping quail in, lol. We have rat snakes that will easily fit through those openings when they're hungry. But, when they eat a quail they don't fit back through to get out. Yikes!

They can definitely use chick feeders and waterers. The only issue would be if they were itty, bitty tiny babies - they will drown in a chick waterer if you don't put rocks or marbles in it. You can get waterers that have a smaller surface area for game bird chicks. That one is fine for babies.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

MIRACLE! Found some quail right down the road from me...ok actually...about a half-hour from me. She only had a few but I took 'em all. Now I have a dozen - six pairs. Didn't really need all the males because you can put 1 male to 2 - 3 females, but I took 'em anyway. I always need extras "justincase."

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Broke down and ordered a new incubator. I don't get a lot of quail eggs yet - but I'm collecting them anyway. I really don't enjoy trying to incubate small amounts of eggs because it would just be my luck to hatch ONE little bird.

 

[baymule]

They make good fried eggs. A yolk in every bite!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They do - and I had one this morning. I had cracked one bringing it in - so I ate it! Yum!

 

[baymule]

They make great pickled eggs too!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They make great pickled eggs too!

They definitely do! I've only done that once - some years back - but I'd love to pickle some again. I'll be hatching as many as I can for awhile but then will definitely pickle some again. And, they make great deviled eggs too - but oh my - peeling a bunch of those little eggs is quite a chore!