i have quail....now what?

[miss_thenorth]

What are you going to do with them? Will they be food? I keep mine in cages, and they are fine. IMO, they are not around long enough to try to simulate a natural enviroment for them. I hatch them, they stay in the brooder for three-4 weeks, depending on outside temps, and then they go into the cages for about 4 weeks.

They start laying eggs at 6 weeks, (typically), so you collect those for incubation and rotate your flock. They are about the cheapest meat you can raise, and they are quite tasty.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

golly how many eggs would it take to make an omlette...

hee hee congrats on your new friends!!!

 

[Wifezilla]

Angel wing is a condition that waterfowl get where their wings don't develop properly. The most popular theory is that excess protein is the cause. If you study ducks in the wild, this notion strikes you as pretty silly. Wild ducklings eat vast quantities of high protein insects and even high protein plants during that rapid development phase. So why would a high protein commercial diet cause angel wing? Well, it isn't the protein, it is all the grains/starch/sugars in commercial feed that are the problem.

Wild ducks don't get angel wing. Ducks in ponds where people feed them bread, crackers, etc... get LOTS of angel wing. So how the theory developed that it was protein causing the problem is beyond me.

I have butted heads with many in the duck forum on this. Turns out there are some areas that believe what I do so i guess I am not as crazy as some might think ...
http://www.spokanecity.org/services/articles/?ArticleID=1850

What are you going to do with them? Will they be food? I keep mine in cages, and they are fine. IMO, they are not around long enough to try to simulate a natural enviroment for them.

I find animals kept in an environment as close as possible to what they evolved to live in tend to be healthier. If I can do that without too much expense, I see no reason to not do that.

I want them primarily for the eggs. I will also use them for meat if I can get past the fact that they are cute (hubby and I are both wussies about killing stuff, but will do it)

I wouldn't worry too much about raising them on wire except I do see damage on their feet. For now I am going to put down some hardware cloth. It will be more support than the straight wire they have now.

I will also see if I can get them some outside time today. If they are getting bugs, seeds and plants on their own, that just makes them even more economical.

I do tend to spoil my animals, but in a way that adds to their health AND makes them more cost effective. Hard to go wrong like that.

 

[Dace]

Ahhh.....we always knew you were smart

 

[Wifezilla]

You guys don't see me trip over stuff that isn't there, lose my keys, or leave the remote in the refrigerator!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I understand if it' just for eggs, and I do agree with the natural encironment, (although you will get grief posting that on BYC--they say keeping tem on the ground opens them up to worms and bacteria etc), but for me, my main use for them is meat. Cages work well for me and our situation.

 

[Wifezilla]

you will get grief posting that on BYC--they say keeping them on the ground opens them up to worms and bacteria etc

I was beginning to get that feeling.

I had someone tell my that feeding my ducks night crawlers would give them intestinal parasites and I would have to give them chemical wormers. Uhhhh OK! LOL Why in the world would doing what they evolved to do make them sick? Well, when they aren't stressed, overcrowded and fed garbage even if they do get some exposure, they can fight off illness and disease in most cases.

One big component to animal health (and human health too) is sunshine. Vitamin D goes along way towards boosting the immune system. I want to give my quail sunshine, grass, dirt, bugs and let them be as quail-ish as possible

I am a Joel Salatin fan. His whole farming business is based on letting chickens be chickens and cows be cows. He calls it "biomimicry". I want to use biomimicry on my quail (I am trying to do it more and more with my ducks). The poor things want to scratch so bad and they just end up scattering feed everywhere because they scratch at their food

I guess I am going to have to travel this road alone. Good thing quail breed like cockroaches. If I screw up I will have plenty of replacements

 

[Dace]

Well please share with us along the way...you never know who here may have some quail land in their lap!

I only have chickens but I love reading all the goat, sheep, duck and other critter stories! some of the knowledge sticks and you never know when it will be useful!

 

[Wifezilla]

A lot of stuff transfers over. I learned a lot from reading the chicken forums even though I have ducks. I imagine a lot of the chicken info will translate great to quail.

For now I am going to read up on wild quail and see what will transfer over to what materials and space I have.

 

[Farmfresh]

If I ever get to raise bobwhites like I would most like to they will have a nice flight pen, as fancy as I can make it and near my house so I can hear them sing!

That is MY favorite part about the quail. I LOVE to hear them sing!

Of course the meat is absolutely wonderful and pickled quail eggs are delish as well!

I agree animals need as natural of an environment as we can provide them.