what to put into the quail pen

[rita]

hello

not kept quails for a long time now. but I am back, hubby has built a 6 foot by 3 foot pen for my quails. I am hatching out some Mexican eggs. what does everyone put in their pens to keep them entertained, these quails will be pets and hopefully some nice eggs to eat.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Rita, good to hear from you. Will these be Chinese or Japanese (Coturnix) quails? I'm not sure what you mean by Mexicans, but presumably Coturnix as you're looking forward to eggs.
Where is the quail pen to be situated? If out of doors, you will have to think about how to keep them dry and draughtproof, as although adults can stand cold down to a degree or so of freezing, they cannot manage damp conditions from foggy weather or drizzly rain. They'll need a roof over the pen, and mine also liked a clear plastic cover over the sides and back, to protect them from wind and sideways rain. With winter coming on, this isn't actually the best time of year to be hatching, as they won't be fully grown until they're a couple of months old - I expect you have plans in place for a heated chick brooder indoors somewhere, but then it may be difficult to acclimatise them to much lower temperatures and different humidity outside in a pen. When I kept quails I brought them in to cages in a summer house between October and March, with small LED lights to keep them laying, because they won't lay unless they have 14+ hours of light. I also installed an Ecoglow infra red brooder as well, which they used a lot to snuggle under when it was chilly, kept the cage dry as well as a little bit warmer. It's much easier to get them used to living outdoors if you hatch in Spring, of course, as the sun is so good for them, and with only 6-8 weeks between hatch and first eggs, if you hatch in Spring the growing hours of daylight get them off to a good start for laying well. From an Autumn hatch you'll need lights if you want them to lay before Spring.
The run you plan is a good size, though, I used to allow 1-2 sq. ft of run space per quail, and they are such busy little birds that they don't seem to need entertainment, but they do like lots of places to hide and shelter under, such as small bushes if the run is fixed in one place, or I used those small plastic dome-shaped shelters you can buy for Guinea pigs, they liked going in those and often laid in them. Plus a nice big deep bowl for a dustbath of course.
Do let us know how you get on - they're such pretty, lively little birds. We used to have several wuail keepers on here, so it's great to hear about your project.

 

[rita]

Hi 99 thank you Margaret for your reply, I remember you giving me lots of great advice last time I had quails.
these are Mexican speckled bobwhites, I had a job to get hold of them. Yes you are right maybe not a good time to try and hatch quails through the winter. I have the pen off the ground with Perspex all around the front and sides to keep them snug, which I can remove in the summer. a nice big roof to keep them dry, I have got an igloo which my last quails had. I also have lots of hay to go into the nesting boxes.
what do you use for the quails to dust bath in?
My chickens use the soil and ash from the fire.
the quails pen is snuggled in between two big sheds.
I only hope that I will manage to hatch some.
also I will get some conifer branches for them to hide in.
can you think of anything else. I do have an outside plug so if things do get really cold I could add the inferred heat bulb. I used that for my ducklings.
thank you for your great advice.

 

[Marigold]

Bobwhites, wow, that's great! They're rather rare - I'll be very interested to hear how the hatch goes. The pen sounds fine, you've obviously remebered their needs from last time.
I used white play sand in their dustbath which they liked as its so fine. I've found wood ash rather greasy on birds' feathers but it's a matter of preference, lots of people just use dried-out crumbled earth or old compost etc. They do love a good bath, but the main thing is to get a really heavy, deep china container, so the medium doesn't get shaken out and wasted. You can of course add diatomaceous earth as well, though I never found mine were at risk from parasites.

 

[rita]

thank you Margaret, play sand not thought of that good idea.
how many quails do you keep now? also what forage food can I give them.

 

[Marigold]

I haven't got any at the moment, my last group of six girls went on laying nearly daily for over three years, then I heard of someone who wanted some as pets so I rehomed them with her.
I found mine liked any sort of salad leaves, white cabbage (the sort you use in coleslaw) more than green cabbage. I put mine in a moveable rabbit run on grass from Spring to Autumn so I expect they nibbled the weeds in the lawn as well.

 

[rita]

What do you put the sand in. You said something deep.

 

[Marigold]

I used a deep China bulb bowl, about 10-12" across and 6 ins deep. The sand also helped to keep it stable. They would get in there three at a time and have a lovely bath!
If you have a copy of Practical Quail Keeping by Sarah Barrett, you can see some pics of my quails and my setup. Excellent book.

 

[rita]

i think i will put the sand in a cardboard box so i can recycle it when it get dirty.
do you think quails will climb, i would like to add another level to their pen, so it will give them more room.

 

[Marigold]

No, they don't climb, at least Coturnix don't, they're exclusively ground-living birds and if you make another level I doubt they'll use it. They tend to just go to sleep on the open ground in their pen, they don't seem to go to roost together or perch like chickens do. Of course I don't know anything about bobwhites, except that I think they're bigger than Coturnix, is that right? So they may have different preferences and not be entirely ground-living. Maybe you could find out more about their habits and likes and dislikes from the person you got the eggs from?

 

[rita]

he said his climb up the ladders, so i will add one and see. my Coturnix i had first never did.
i would like to show you a photo of of the parents but can't seem to send one.

 

[Marigold]

Yes I wondered if they would be different. When's the hatch due? How many eggs have you set?

There's some help with posting pics in the Photos of Chickens section, here http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewforum.php?f=27
Basically you just need to use an image resizer program to reduce the pic to Medium.

 

[rita]

http://i68.tinypic.com/9k2mar.jpg

hope this works. here is the photo of the parents of my new quails, if they hatch.

 

[rita]

[attach172367125949_1[1].jpg

hope this works.

 

[rita]

cheers Margaret i think i managed the photo in the end.
the eggs have only just gone in as i was waiting for the other eggs from Ireland to turn up.
i ordered 12 from Essex and he sent 24 which was really nice of him, but i am worried that if they all hatch i will be in trouble.
also 12 from Ireland. they said that the hatch rate will be a lot lower through the winter month.
i will candle them when they are 8 days in.

 

[Marigold]

They're really beautiful parents, aren't they? How many days do they take to incubate? I know it's 16 for Coturnix. Also with Coturnix you need very low humidity and are more likely to be successful if incubating dry, i.e, no water added, just the 40%+ humidity from normal air in the UK, so I wondered if your breeders had any advice on this for bobwhites?
Do they have heavily patterned shells like Coturnix? Most Coturnix breeders don't candle because it's so difficult to see through the patterns and the eggshells are so thin and delicate compared with poultry eggs.

 

[rita]

hi Margaret they take about 23 - 24 days to hatch. i was going to hatch dry but the room is measuring 52% humidity so i set the incubator at 40.
the temp is the same though.
their shells are pure white so it will make it easy to candle. i won't do them all as i don't want to leave the incubator lid off to long so i will just do a few. hope i manage to hatch some.

 

[Marigold]

That's all very interesting. Obviously quite different from Coturnix in lots of ways, steep learning curve, I expect. Are the eggs bigger than Coturnix? Do let us know how you get on.

 

[rita]

Hi Margaret i put in 36 eggs and i candled them and only 12 are fertile, i candled them today and 3 have stopped growing for some reason, hope i don't loose any more. i wondered if they were turning ok in the incubator as they seemed stuck to one side of the egg. i am wondering if the racks were to close together.

 

[Marigold]

There are several reasons why hatch rates might be low, apart from low fertility in the parent birds. Development is best from fresh eggs, less than 7-10 days old, and as you said your supplies came from two sources, it might be that by the time they went in, some of them were too old to make it. Also, eggs by post is always a bit problematic, the inevitable shakeup doesn't help them, and if from an eBay seller who hasn't been recommended to you, that's another unknown. I don't know what's happening in your incubator but if you've thinned out the infertile ones I expect the rest will have enough space now, and so long as the temperature and humidity are correct for this species, you should be in with a chance of getting a few out of the 9 remaining good ones. Good luck, anyway - when's the big day?