Which species of quail are best?

[pebojuno]

My mum would like to have some quails but we are unsure of where to start - She isn't interested in eating them (Though if they were suitable that would be fine as myself and my family would eat any excess birds

She would like some eggs and birds which don't spook too easily as she has lots of grandchildren who will be peering at them I am going to give her a covered "chicken" coop and run (with very small gauge netting!) to keep them in so what type of quail are best suited to this situation?

Nicky

 

[Cheviot]

Hi,
I'm sorry I can't help you, regarding which type of quail are best for your situation, I can only tell you about my own quail.
I have 22 ordinary japanese quail, 5 cocks the rest hens, they were sourced from two different places, most of them are incredibly friendly, you can just go into the pen and pick them up, in fact you have to be careful you don't step on them, having said that the ones that aren't friendly are really wild and flighty, these ones seem to be slightly smaller than the others, so I don't know if that is general regarding quail, or if it just the ones I have. I have only kept quail for about 4 months and I'm really enjoying them, most of them lay an egg a day.
Regards
Sue

 

[pebojuno]

Sue,
Thanks for the reply! Ar ethe japanese ones the smaller ones which come in lots of pretty colours??? They are the ones I had my eye on for mum as they are very pretty! Yours sound like they keep you in eggs so that's good! I'm thinking of hatching them myself so they are as tame as possible!
Nicky

 

[Cheviot]

Hi Nicky,
No mine are the larger ones, the ones you are thinking of are chinese painted quail, they are really small, my daughter had one, she bought it at the pet shop, but it was really wild and because it was so small it was difficult to catch, I wouldn't think that the eggs would be much use for eating, although I have never seen a chinese quail egg, my quail will be approx three times larger than the chinese quail, and the eggs they lay are about an inch in length.
Here are a couple of pics of mine to show how quite and tame they are.

 

[molliedogspabottom]

Hi

I started keeping quail last summer and it has been a learning curve ever since,I started with 7 birds 6 females and 1 male ( turned out to be 6 males and 1 female).

lesson no.1 buy from someone who knows what they are selling. Having said that they are both
chinese quail and yes they are smaller therefore the egg is slightly smaller but she makes a very pretty chirrping sound very different to the others that I have.

Having given the other 5 males to be eaten ( one weekend when I was away) I then purchased 15 females
and chose several different colours simply because I wanted a mixed bunch.

I quickly learned that they fly, they take off like harrier jets, straight up! then horizontal and into the flower bed.

I now have them in a shed with an inner cage door ( abit like an airlock,open one door ,close it ,open the scond door, this works really well as they seem to lay in wait for me to open the second door and try to make a dash for the open road only to be safely scooped up and placed back into their home.

They also now have a run attached to the shed and a little bob hole which I open every morning,It is so funny to watch they come out like a waterfall of quail,they love being out side but need some ground cover to hide under,I use branches out of the garden.


I bought a book called Keeping Quail by Katie Thear it was very helpful but this forum is brilliant and has been such a great help.

I have a mixture of Japanese, tuxedo, white and italian plus the single chinese,I can`t really say which are the best, maybe someone with more knowledge will have an opinion.

I am sure your mum will love keeping them, beware they are addictive. Good Luck and enjoy.
Kind regards Heather