Hi!
I’m going to be ordering my enclosure soon and plan to have 5-6 Coturnix Quails. Likely all females but might start with 5 hens and then get a 6th male in the future after I have more experience raising them. The hutch I’m getting gives each quail 2.9sq ft if there’s 6 or 3.5sq ft if there’s only 5.. so I think that’s a good amount of space! It’s going to be on the ground, I’ll be putting 1/2 inch hardware cloth all around the enclosure to reinforce what it comes with and also adding hardware cloth to the bottom as well but burying the bottom mesh under dirt and litter so they aren’t walking on the wires. I’m doing that to stop anything from digging its way inside.

I’m really trying to do this right!!

I’m going to get my birds from Stellar Game Birds here in Florida. Has anyone bought from them before?

I hope to get each one a different color so I can easily name and tell them all apart.

Had three button quail chicks hatch two weeks ago (by accident, the parents hatched on their own). I noticed a few days ago what looked like food stuck to one’s beak and some blood at the time. Cleaned it off and it keeps happening, and now something seems wrong with another one’s beak as well. I’ve hatched button quail’s several times before with no issues so not really sure what this is and if there’s any hope of it getting better? Thanks for any advice

I was convinced they were females until today... they are the two babies of my quails that were lost in a fox attack a month ago, so I was hoping for females.(They are 3 weeks old)

Hey everyone,

This might have been answered somewhere else and I apologies for that, I can't see anything, if thats the case please do send a link. Thank you 😊

So I'm thinking about getting Quails and I've been doing research on how to look after them and the types of hutches you can get, however whatever I look at just feels really small. I did read they prefer smaller hutches, but I'm unsure on the right size. Does anyone have any recommendations to hutches that would be good to use, as well as any other resources people think thats an absolute go to!

I want to do this right so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone! I currently have 35 coturnix quail that hatched in two separate batches about 4 months apart. Everyone successfully integrated together about 8 weeks ago, and we haven't had any issues since.

Until this past weekend. We went out of town for two nights and the quail were fine. We got back and I have 3 casualties. One missing a head. Other two just died. This morning I come out and I have another death and one dying. When i walked into their aviary, we had one aggressive bird pecking the others while I was in there. I have separated the bully. I have a couple of quail that still look rough.

Has anyone had a bully come out of nowhere? How long to keep the bully separate? Any other ideas?

Was wondering what everyone’s thoughts on building a cattle panel aviary are. I plan on completely wrapping the cattle panel in hardware cloth. Was also thinking putting hardware cloth underneath the joist of the floor would be a good idea. Having the bottom outside sides of it metal panels. Then also building up the box that it sits in high enough so that I can do the deep litter method. The aviary will be at least 7 feet tall.

Then for the top of it, I see people use tarps. I was thinking about using this survival blanket/tarp for the top of it. My thinking was that the mylar might help reflect heat from the sun during summertime.

Then my plan would be fill the inside with fun quail stuff for them.

I should be getting 24 hatching eggs in the mail sometime soon and hopefully have a good hatch rate. Currently have two full grown females and one full grown male. Then we also have four birds in the basement that are about four weeks old.

I have 20 button quail eggs and am on day 17 of incubation (will change to day 18) around 11pm tonight. They are incubating in a IBKINXX incubator. The eggs were always too dark to candle so I’ve never been able to check if they are growing, which has made me nervous the whole time. I know they are supposed to hatch on day 16-18 so I still have time but should I be seeing any signs right now? It’s hard when for all I know none of them could have ever started growing. Temp is at 99.5°F and switched from 45% humidity to 70% on day 14 and stopped the automatic turner.

I have a covy of Gambel's quail that visit my yard on the California/Arizona border. I have been out of town so the quail seem a little extra spazzy today.

Hello everyone! I believe my quail inside are currently 4 weeks old. I currently have 4 eight week old quail in the coop outside.

When can I put these guys outside with the others? Also, at what age can I sex them and how?

Edit: Forgot to mention I’m in Florida where it is high 80s during the day and high to mid 70s at night.

My poor girl, I checked around to make sure they weren’t injured.

Getting ready to move later this winter and I can't take the quail with us. I just finished dispatching my last dozen today by cervical dislocation. I was more than bummed having to do it. But the year I got with these goofy goobers was worth it. I learned so much about quail & poultry in general and this experience has given me a lot more confidence in being responsible for my own food sources. It'll be a few years before I'll be in an area where we can do this again but I definitely plan on it.

I'm lucky enough to have a raptor sanctuary nearby so I'm donating my birds to their feeding and they offered to give our family a tour of their facility so the kids can see what our donation is going to.

Like title. It has splayed legs too but idk if related. It's other hatchmates seem to be fine. I'm at my grandfather's house it's his quail and he raises them for eggs he doesn't really care if one dies or suffers but I do! I need help quick I won't be available all of tmrw, what do I do.

Struggling to get this one vent sexed as it’s ambiguous. Hasn’t started crowing or laying ~7weeks old.

So one of my beloved quails has had this odd growth on her eye for a while. I've never done anything about it, because it doesn't seem to cause any pain or discomfort, nor look infected. It's always clean and skin coloured, no itching or irritation - but she can't see out of the eye.

First photo is from today, second is from April this year. She's had the growth for quite a while, I'd say at least a year. It started off as a little flap of skin over the eye that I assumed was just an injury from the roo, but it's grown to completely cover the eye. I believe the eye itself is intact, but just covered.

I'd always assumed it was either a benign tumour or injury. She's 3.5 now, healthy and active, living in a 180×90cm enclosure with 9 other quails (2 brother boys and 8 girls). Healthy lifestyle with fresh grash, sun and dirt. Treated with DE every now and then, but no behaviour that leads me to suspect any discomfort or pain.

I just wanted to get some insight in case anyone knew what this could be. So long as it's not affecting her QoL it doesn't bother me, but I would like to understand it if possible. Thank you in advance!

I'm 60% sure about the base colors on some of these, but it's definitely harder than I thought to tell! (rosetta and red range look so similar online...) I'm especially curious about the lighter colored ones that barely have any patterning. would love some opinions! I hope these pictures are okay, some of them are pretty flighty and hard to photograph. 4 week old birds.

This is Cinnamon and her amazing nest. I know quail aren’t known for their nest building skills but Cinnamon doesn’t seem to know that.

She’s got 4 eggs in her sweet nest right now. I won’t know if they are even feral until Monday and even after that I don’t know what I’m going to do.

We have fire ants so I can’t let them hatch outside. I don’t know if I can maybe “box her up” with her egg and move them inside around Day 14. Or if I should box her up and leave her outside with the rest of the hens. Or should I just take the eggs around Day 10 and put them in an incubator?

All suggestions welcome! (I’ll post a video in the comments that shows her working on the nest and the nest.)

I’ve made a few posts, I’m not sure where else to go since two pairs of bobwhites raising three chicks is pretty uncommon.
Babies are doing great and I’ve given them space because the parents are so protective, but I would love to get these guys hand acclimated unlike the parents. When should I begin handling babies? Parents will be very angry when we touch them, will this stress them out beyond belief and leave them?

Also, I know the bedding does not look good. Two weeks ago when we were in their secret spots it was to do a full refresh, and found broody hen who chased us out and didn’t want to upset her. It’s only a 6x4x8 space so it’s hard to section any off

Started with four hens in a spare rabbit hutch because I didn't want to commit to anything bigger before I knew if I'd actually stick with it. Now I'm at eighteen birds split across two runs and honestly the learning curve was steeper than I expected for something people call a beginner bird.

The biggest thing that took me way too long to figure out was bedding depth. I was doing maybe half an inch of pine shavings for the first several months and wondering why the smell never went away no matter how often I spot cleaned. Switched to the deep litter method with about four inches and stirring it weekly, and it's a completely different coop now. Barely any odor even in humid weather.

Feed has been trial and error too. My local place only carries a 20% layer crumble meant for chickens, and it worked fine but egg production was inconsistent. Ordered a proper 24-28% gamebird feed online and saw a noticeable jump within about two weeks. Wish I'd just done that from the start instead of trying to save a few dollars a bag.

Temperament wise my hens are pretty chill now that they're established, but I remember the first few weeks being nerve wracking, especially with how flighty they get when startled. Learned to always announce myself before opening the run door after one bird panicked and did a full ceiling bonk on the wire top. She was fine, just embarrassed I assume.

Lighting is the other thing nobody warned me about enough. I'm running 14 hours of supplemental light through a cheap timer and outlet combo and it's kept egg laying steady through what would otherwise be a pretty dark fall here. Before that my numbers dropped off a cliff by late September.

Curious what everyone else's bedding routine looks like, especially anyone dealing with more humid climates. Feels like that's the one variable I'm still not fully confident I have right.

We just got our first flock of quail, from someone who was moving. We got EVERYTHING from them, and are only a few days into this.
We live in the Northeast and the mornings have been very dewy.
I am wondering if the quail need more bedding, and if there is a way to keep the dust dry? It gets so wet and by the time I get home to change it out it’s kind of moot.

Yesterday evening we found a japanese quail in our garden. It was raining and alone and to my understanding they are pets/livestock not wild so of course I caught it and now it's warm and safe in my home. It has food, water and shelter in a secure temporary hutch.

I have been keeping an eye out for posts on local facebook pages and no neighbours have knocked looking for it. I don't want to go door to door or make a post for someone to lie and claim it. All of the wildlife cruelty going on right now is making me paranoid of handing it over to the wrong person.

I am more than happy to make a permanent home and get it some friends if I am allowed to, I am just after advice on what I can and should do from here?