Quail farming

[chickenfan]

Compassion in World Farming are having a publicity campaign on quail farming, which is unregulated in EU law. It seems they are factory farmed in an area no bigger than a beer mat in appalling conditions:

I will never forget the first quail I saw hobbling agonisingly over jagged wire mesh, or panting in its desperately full shed. I watched in horror when I saw a bird leap up and bash its head on the ceiling of its cage, time after time. Sadly, I went on to see this happen again and again in every farm I visited.



There was no enrichment, nowhere for the birds to dustbathe and absolutely nowhere for the quail to hide. This must be torture for an animal that would naturally seek cover in undergrowth, forage for insects and dustbathe regularly to keep their feathers in good condition.

 

[Marigold]

I totally agree, having seen some pics of a Japanese quail farm, with the birds in shallow trays on top of each other, piled right up to head height, and crammed in.
Given decent conditions and enough space they're lovely little birds and very rewarding to keep, they go on and on laying beautiful eggs for as long as hens do. I gave my six girls a 4 ft by 4 ft run on grass in summer, and in the winter I put three to a cage 3 ft by 2 ft, with an Ecoglow to snuggle under, and a little LED light on a time switch to keep them laying. I did have a lot of trouble with the males I hatched, fighting each other and injuring the females by hanging on to their heads with their beaks when raping them, and tearing chunks out when they were shaken off by the female. In the end I culled all the boys and then the females lived peacefully and productively together. These were Coturnix, but I think the Chinese button quail males are less aggressive and more family-centred, from what people on here have reported, but of course they only lay tiny little eggs.
They do pong much more than chickens, and as it's just little sticky droppings you have to clean out the bedding completely every week, I found, and in the end I had to give mine away because the dust and feather scales in the bedding was affecting my asthma. Goodness knows what an industrial unit full of them must smell like.
Have you got a link to the CWF site? Maybe there's a petition we could sign and circulate.

 

[chickenfan]

Compassion in World Farming's website is http://www.ciwf.org.uk/ and a quail petition comes up on the first page.