Considering getting some quail for the inccy!

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Hi, Never kept quail and know NOTHING about them sooo...some basic questions :D

1.What to feed them?
2. What do most people do with the males?
3.How do you sex them?
4.Do males crow like a cockerel would?
ummm
5. Incubation time/temp and humidity?


All I can think of for a minute! Thanks guys! :-)17
 
Hi,
1. Chick crumbs, but for a start I put some in a coffee grinder, and turn them into small crumbs/powder, the adults get layers mash.
2. Eat them.
3. Wait untill they are feathered, in the common japanese brown quail, the males have a chestnut coloured breast and the females are more spotted.
4. No, but they do make a sort of shrill noise, nowhere near as loud as a cockerel.
5. They take approx 17 days, I keep my incubator at 37.5, I never add water, just run the incubator dry from day one untill they hatch.
Good luck if you do decide to hatch some, and let us know how you get on.
Regards
Sue
 
pb632 said:
Hi, Never kept quail and know NOTHING about them sooo...some basic questions :D

1.What to feed them?
2. What do most people do with the males?
3.How do you sex them?
4.Do males crow like a cockerel would?
ummm
5. Incubation time/temp and humidity?


All I can think of for a minute! Thanks guys! :-)17
Click to expand...

1) ours are fed on normal layers pellets. and growers pellets if I've got chooks on them too.
you can get game bird feed, and they love all the extras & seeds you might give your chickens.
they also like greens.... just make sure everything is small enough for them.

2) Ive kept most of the males, or passed them on for breeding.
you can eat them (if your appetite isnt too big!) we've not have any problems keeping the boys together although before the last ones went in, some of the girls were being abit harrassed .

3) Depending on the breed, you can often sex them by the colour of their chest feathers.
females are bigger.
Vent sexing is quite easy . if you hold them "belly up" a male produces a foam from his vent and they are a different shape - the male is domed & the female's are smaller and inverted.

4) they dont "crow" but the males whistle very loudly (for such a small bird)
it is quite tuneful though!
I've found they are "dirty stop outs" and refuse to go in to bed in the summer... so males can be heard singing quite late. but they are in an enclosure so I dont shut them in the house part anyway.

5) Incubation - depends on the breed.
coturnix (Japanese) is 16-17 days, stop turning 3 days before.
chinese painted = 16 days
most others 23-25 days incubation

humidity ... erm... abit lower than a hens' will have to find my quail book for that!

they are great little birds & I know people have made them really tame.
they can be abit flighty.. to the point of suicidal. but if you keep your wits about you when you go in to them :)
and be sure the enclosure is rat / cat / fox / dog proof... as they are only small!

hope all this helps
:)
 
Cheviot ... you must type quicker than me!

(A chimp in ski gloves probably types faster than me... and makes fewer mistakes!!)
 
Aw really might get some! Will have to speak to a friend to see if they will take the males and kill them for me as im a wimp!! Ill deffinitely be up for cooking some though :D yum! Thanks again!
 
Friend has agreed to deal with any males!!

I am looking at getting some texas/texan??? JUMBO quail, white ones. (on ebay-- i know i know, not always great! but i got alot of my ducks off there which have turned out very nice ducks!)

Sooo, another question, at what age can you usually tell male from female?

Anything in particular i should know about this breed?

and i see the incubation time can vary between species, so does any body know what the inccy time for this type are?

Thanks guys, your answers are more than i can find online!!
 
as far as I understand... and I'm quite happy to be corrected ....

"Jumbo quail" are simply big Japanese quail, Coturnix japconia.
Similar to having "large fowl" compared to "bantam" chickens.


this would mean an incubation period of 17 days, give or take.

the white colour is matter of genetics.
the names also apply to colour. Coturnix are also called eg.. japanese, Italian, jumbo, goldens, range, texas, tuxedo, etc etc. but all the same "type"
and bear in mind e-bayers will name for a good sell, rather than be strictly accurate ;)
have a good google search for info (Coturnix) before you commit to buying it now, so you know what you'll be getting!


we have Japs.
their colours range form the "usual" to tuxedo (white breast, like a bird in a dinner jacket!) and range - like a reddish brown all over. their offspring are even more colours, some white with tux spots, some white with range coloured patches. the white ones are yellow as chicks, the others stripey - I love watching their feather colours develop!

As for sexing... quail are sexually mature around 5 weeks old :o though I found the boys take longer before they start "singing!"

newly hatched chicks

we found really high fertility, from just 7 birds in total .
but they arent laying now - September is Winter in my quail house! they wont lay again til about February... unless it snows like it did 2010!
I had a quick look on e-bay & was surprised by how many hatching eggs are up for sale.

(Sorry, I dont want to put you off, just make you aware :| )
 
No, i really appreciate it! Haha even though you may have got me a little confuzzled ! :? Haha but I'm sure ill figure out. I want white ones and thats what theyre advertising on ebay, but oyu are right, i have had some ducks that are not the right breed when hatched and the seller will insist they only keep the breed you 'purchased' lol buggers! But that is indeed, the risk i'm willing to take!
 
there's some good information on a site called Coturnix corner (sorry admin - remove this if I shouldnt say)

the pictures I saw on ebay looks exactly like the ones that are yello i my picture...
they have grow into white birds with patches of range (reddish brown)
their parents can only be: tuxedo, range or "ordinary" Jap colouring.

although of course, mine couldnt be classed as "Jumbo!"

Katie Thears' "Introduction to keeping quail" is a good read - although certainly my copy hasn't got very clear pictures of the variety of colours of quail ....

:-)07 :)
 
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