AWers with quail

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I had them as a kid; I've taken care of a neighbor's, and now, I'm thinking it's time for quail again.

I know that there are at least two others on AW who currently have quails, and a third who has raised quail in the past.

So let's see who else is Quailing.
 
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Tazlima

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*raises hand.*

Hi, I'm Tazlima, and I've been quailing for five months. I have 14 Coturnix quail and my lawn has never looked better.
 

Maryn

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Okay, I don't know a thing about quail except that there was or is a neighborhood in Austin with so many street names using Quail that police and ambulance companies pleaded with the developer to change the names. (No idea if they ever did.)

What do quail do that improves you lawn? Is it just poop? Is theirs special?

We have wild turkeys in the area, and by carefully positioning one's bird feeders, you can get turkeys to rip out crabgrass by the roots.

Maryn, who likes birds
 

Tazlima

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g
Okay, I don't know a thing about quail except that there was or is a neighborhood in Austin with so many street names using Quail that police and ambulance companies pleaded with the developer to change the names. (No idea if they ever did.)

What do quail do that improves you lawn? Is it just poop? Is theirs special?

We have wild turkeys in the area, and by carefully positioning one's bird feeders, you can get turkeys to rip out crabgrass by the roots.

Maryn, who likes birds

Quail are little feathered weed-whackers. They eat clover and dollarweed (and bugs for good measure), and leave the grass alone (at least, they do mine. I don't know if they'd eat other varieties of grass). My yard is nothing BUT clover, so I built them an open-bottom cage (mine's the pink one at the end of the article). Once or twice a week, I just move the cage to wherever the clover is thickest and they eat the weeds right down to the dirt.* It's unbelievable. I mean, I'd heard about it, but I had no idea they were so thorough.

I've actually been pondering the feasibility of renting them out. There are loads of people around here who would jump at the opportunity to have their lawn weeded without resorting to chemicals. Unfortunately, there are a lot of logistical issues as well. Transportation of course, but also possible toxins from pesticides or lead in the soil, predators, parasites, etc.

The poo is nothing special. It's similar to chicken poo in that small quantities are fine as fertilizer, but larger amounts will burn the grass and stink (unless you compost it first). After moving the cage, I rake up the bulk of the mess and hose down the area so any residue soaks into the ground.

*Note: The greens are only a supplement to their regular diet, not the main part.
 
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Maryn

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And here it is, only a little after nine in the morning, and I've already learned my new thing for the day! Interesting birds. Thanks.

Yeah, like you I'd worry about pesticides and predators, parasites and Pb. (I just liked how that worked out with all the P's.)

Maryn, thinking quail sound pretty cool
 

Devil Ledbetter

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I have wanted quail for years but alas, I've never had any. I don't know if it's feasible with my small, fenced yard in the city. Will they gobble up my honeybees?
 

mrsmig

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I would love to have quail. And bees. And I kind of want a goat, too.
 

Marlys

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Why do you raise quail? Is it for the eggs?
 

Tazlima

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Why do you raise quail? Is it for the eggs?

In my case, yes. Since I last posted here, my quail-raising has morphed from "little hobby" to "small business." There's a really trendy new restaurant in town near me. Their management is big into "farm to table," and I'm the farm. I actually had to get more birds just to keep up with their demand.

I think the neatest part so far, though, is that a picture of the dish that incorporates my eggs was included with a restaurant review by one of the larger publications in the area. My eggs are now visible on a facebook page with 120,000+ followers!
 

Marlys

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In my case, yes. Since I last posted here, my quail-raising has morphed from "little hobby" to "small business." There's a really trendy new restaurant in town near me. Their management is big into "farm to table," and I'm the farm. I actually had to get more birds just to keep up with their demand.

I think the neatest part so far, though, is that a picture of the dish that incorporates my eggs was included with a restaurant review by one of the larger publications in the area. My eggs are now visible on a facebook page with 120,000+ followers!

Very cool! Congratulations.
 

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I learned something new yesterday, and decided to share in the hopes that others will avoid a similar situation.

Warning: Sad story incoming

I have three birds that recently had issues with the other birds picking on them and pulling out their feathers, so they each had a large bald patch on their lower back.

I put them in a separate cage so the feathers could grow back, and hopefully the others will leave them alone once they look normal again (birds tend to peck at anything that looks unusual).

At the same time, I had another bird who developed a large lump high in her abdomen, halfway under the rib cage. I was first alerted to the issue by a slight prolapse in her vent, felt the lump, and figured she was eggbound (a term for when a bird has an egg that just won't come out), although the location of the egg was unusually high in her body.

Well, I've dealt with eggbound birds before, and until now, a combination of vasoline, a warm bath, calcium supplements, and (if needed) Preparation H, knocked the problem out in no time. This time, though, the doggone egg wouldn't budge. Upon researching, I thought perhaps it had broken inside her body and, since egg sticks so, had glued itself to her insides, but I really didn't know for certain.

Well, after several days of treatment, the damned egg still wouldn't move, and she developed peritonitis (an infection in the abdominal cavity). Once that happens, the odds of survival are basically nill and, sadly but unsurprisingly, she didn't make it.

Determined to learn from my mistake and not let this happen again, I steeled myself and performed an autopsy to investigate the egg that had given me such grief.

And what did I find? Not an egg at all. The "egg" I had felt was actually a dense wad of feathers that had created an egg-sized ball in her intestinal tract, corking her up tight. I've assisted in surgeries on cats and dogs to remove similar blockages, and nothing short of surgery would have saved her. If you've ever tried to pull apart an old bird's nest and been surprised at its tensile strength, you have an idea of how tightly packed and woven these feathers were.

I don't know if she was the one who plucked the feathers off her roommates, but she certainly did swallow the evidence. It never occurred to me that feather-plucking could be as big a problem for the perpetrator as for the victims.

Poor birdie. :e2bummed:
 
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mrsmig

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Weird. Like a hairball, only with feathers.

Sorry for the birdie, though.