Quails

[Kev]

Im thinking about buying a few quails. Just wondering if anyone who keeps quails(or have kept them) could offer any advice on raising them?. And do you have to keep them on the bottom of an aviary. Any advise would be great.

Kev.

[Wombat]

My daughter had a couple as pets (Iwasn't allowed to eat 'em....) and all I will say is...........Noisy as buggery!

Nev

[Kev]

Dont think I'll be eating the birds either Nev, Want to raise them for there eggs. Not to worried about the noise, There not going to be kept to close to the house.

Cheers. Kev

[the.fee.fairy]

They don't have to be kept at the bottom of an aviary, its just that if you have an aviary, they're handy little birds to have around.

I kep quails for years, and got 2 eggs...2 whole eggs. I had 8 quail at one point...and 2 eggs.

They are really difficult for even seasoned experts to sex, so you could end up with all females or all males.
They're also really picky at choosing partners, so they might decide they don't like each other enough to mate.
They're very friendly little birds, when they get to know you. I used to have one that would come and sit on my knee, and another who used to love nothing more than cuddling up with the dog!

If you want to keep them for eggs, you'd need lots of them to produce anything profitable. you can't force them to lay like you can chickens, and they don't lay that many that often.

[Kev]

Thanks very much fee.fairy for the information its much appreciated. I think I might have to give the idea of getting quails for there eggs a second thought.

Thanks. Kev

[farmerdrea]

Hiya -- we kept quail for several years, for eggs, when all we had was a suburban back garden. The egg laying quail are Japanese Quail, Coturnix coturnix. They lay massive eggs for their body size, and lay for about 2/3 of the year. Their eggs are the ones that you typically see as pickled quails' eggs in the shops, and when you buy a whole quail for eating, it will also be that one. They are hefty little birds!

They aren't noisy at all. The females hardly make a sound, and the males make a tiny wee crow, sounding rather like a tin trumpet at a distance. The females sound like crickets. We loved their sound so much, we kept their run outside our bedroom window!

They do need a rather high enclosure, as their fear response is to fly straight up. Our enclosure was about 6 feet high.

Hope this helps!

Andrea
NZ

[the.fee.fairy]

i had japanese quail! Ne'er a single egg!
The females sounded like frogs-we had one (the one that liked cuddling the dog) called froggy. She was a bit of a loony, but she was the only one that ever laid eggs - she laid the two eggs...in the six years i had quails..2 eggs.

[farmerdrea]

I'm really surprised you didn't get any eggs (ok, 2, but that hardly amounts to any!)

We had them for about 3 years, 8 hens and 2 cocks. We never let them set on eggs, we always just collected them. We had a couple of hens die at some point, so I just went back to the breeder and got a couple more. We usually got about 5-6 eggs a day except during the winter season.

This was in the states, so maybe what's in the UK isn't as good a laying strain??

We had them in the first place because of our son's food allergies; they were the only eggs he could tolerate at the time. Imagine the surprised look on people's faces when he told them he ate 8 eggs for breakfast! He was only 4 or so at the time we first got them, and he loved the responses he got.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[the.fee.fairy]

i didn't keep them specifically for eggs, i got them really because they were cute, and i wanted some for the bottom of my aviary.

Maybe i was ripped off when i bought them...I have no idea what sexes they were, the man who sold them to me (it was at a farmers auction) said that they were difficult to sex, and he wasn't sure what they were.

[farmerdrea]

Are you sure you had Japanese Quail? They are a sizeable quail, very plain looking, being a sort of dirt brown. Button Quail or Chinese Quail are the tiny little birds that are more popular for aviary use (at least here and in the States...).

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[Kev]

Imagine the surprised look on people's faces when he told them he ate 8 eggs for breakfast!

brilliant. That bit made me laugh.

Thanks very much for the info Farmerdrea. Great help.


Kev.

[the.fee.fairy]

yep, definitely japanese quail.

I had some chinese painted ones once too, but they were a bit of a disaster to keep...i never had any luck with those!

To be honest, i preferred the japanese ones, i liked the chunky little birds (well, not so little) and they were much more bolshy and brave.

[Kev]

Went to a pet shop today to see if they had any quails in. There was some there but the workers there couldn't tell me what type they were or even which were male and female.

[the.fee.fairy]

Japanese ones look a bit like brown chickens, but smaller. Or they can be a light beige colour (i had one of those, she was beautiful). They've either got speckly tummies, or stripy tummies. I can never remember which way round it is though - whether speckles are male or stripes.

Chinese painted ones are small, they fit in your hand, and they're grey and delicate looking. They're more nervous than the japanese ones.

TBH i wouldn't go to a pet shop to buy one, the people have no idea about keeping them, they want to keep them as pets rather than livestock (i admit, i did that with mine, but they lived outside in the aviary, and i spent a lot of time in the aviary, which i suppose is how they became more like pets). And, pet shops have trouble sexing most animals, let alone animals like quails that are difficult when they're adults, let alone babies. I got my first rats because the people i worked with had bought females for their children that were pregnant. When they complained, the pet shop said it was difficult to sex them (males have huge testicles...there's no missing them!!).

[Kev]

[quote=" (males have huge testicles...there's no missing them!!).[/quote]

how the hell did they get that wrong.

Cheers Fee.fairy will stay clear of the pet shops from now on.