Thinking on getting some Nipponese q u a i l . . .

I raise quail, as do a few other folks here on the forum. They're funny little things, make a whole assortment of pleasant sounds, and the crowing is much quieter and more pleasant than a rooster. (Good thing for me. My place is squashed up next to an apartment complex, and too-loud birds would be begging for noise complaints. As it is, most of the neighbors think they're hearing some kind of weird songbird).

Personally, I leave the males in with the females, as long as you have a ratio of 3-5 females per male, they'll get along fine,* and introducing a strange bird to an established flock, even a male to a group of females, well... flocks aren't keen on strangers - they'll kill them likely as not. On those rare occasions I have to introduce new birds to an existing group, I:

1 - introduce at least two at a time - never a solo bird. That way the newbies can have each other's backs.

2 - Keep the newcomers in a small wire cage INSIDE the larger enclosure for at least a week. That way the flock can see and interact with them, but the newbies are protected from attacks until everybody's used to each other.

I've yet to see this method fail.


*Unless you have a particularly aggressive male who's beating up on the ladies (male or female, some birds are just bullies)... I know of cases where that's happened, and the owner had no choice but to maintain the male separately and allow them to interact only to breed, because they only had the one male. Personally, as I'm raising the babies, I take note of the jerks. They get eaten. I select for temperament first, and size second, so all my roos are gentlebirds.

Wow, Tazlima--I didn't know you raise quail. I suppose my experiences don't help much--I live on 13 acres in the Sierra Nevadas, and quail are part of the deal. All I do is monitor them, although I do provide water sources in the summer as well, along with the odd stale bread and birdseed treats, which the quail have to share with the wild turkeys.

Quail are fun to watch, though. And they're certainly quieter than the turkeys.

CathleenT said:

Wow, Tazlima--I didn't know you raise quail. I suppose my experiences don't help much--I live on 13 acres in the Sierra Nevadas, and quail are part of the deal. All I do is monitor them, although I do provide water sources in the summer as well, along with the odd stale bread and birdseed treats, which the quail have to share with the wild turkeys.

Quail are fun to watch, though. And they're certainly quieter than the turkeys.

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Ooh! You probably have mountail quail, right? They're so cute! We have Bobwhites wild around here.

For livestock, most people (myself included) keep Japanese quail or the closely-related-but-slightly-smaller European quail (scientific names coturnix japonica and coturnix coturnix - they're interchangeably known by the common name of "coturnix" quail, and there's little difference between them). They're not as flashy as the new world quail and the boys don't wear hats, but they've been domesticated for thousands of years and are much calmer and hardier. Plus, interesting factoid for folks who are Jewish or plan on selling the eggs - coturnix quail eggs are kosher, while eggs from other species of quail are not.

They're a wonderful choice if you want fresh eggs and don't have space for chickens. That's how I got started with them myself.

Tazlima said:

Ooh! You probably have mountail quail, right?

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Nope, we have California quail, although the cuteness remark certainly applies. I love the little hat bobbing as they scoot along.

I'd love to keep poultry--I mean, we have them wild, so that probably means we have a good spot for it. I just have to spend too much time on the road for that now. Maybe later. *files away notes on domestic quail for future reference*

My birds know my dogs and are fine with them around the cage. Training the dogs to ignore the birds was the more challenging task. If a strange dog, or a strange person for that matter, comes around, they'll flush.

As far as breeding... they have lots and lots and LOTS of sex, hence the need to have multiple females for each male. A group of males kept together turns into a very noisy orgy, while a 1-1 pairing may well result in the female being harassed to death by the unendingly horny male. However, as far as actually making a nest and raising babies? That's actually relatively uncommon, unless you have an unusually spacious and comfortable enclosure (e.g. I've heard of people keeping quail by letting them inhabit the floor of a greenhouse, which makes me really wish I had a greenhouse) where they can find a really good hidey hole and make a nice little nest for themselves. NOTE: Unlike chickens, you can't "free range" quail. Chickens tend to return to the same roost while quail sleep someplace different every night. If they're let out, they'll be gone.

For quail to raise babies, you need a female to go "broody." From the spring into the fall* a female will lay an egg a day, and generally speaking has as little interest in those eggs as they would in a turd. It's just something that comes out of them, and they kind of shrug and wander off. I've never had a quail get upset, or seem to care in any way, that I was taking its eggs.

If a bird goes broody, all that changes. The female will make a nest, and gather up the eggs carefully and defend them against all comers. (She won't generally start sitting on the eggs for a few days, because all the babies start incubation at the same time so that they all hatch at the same time, so a female will lay five or six before beginning incubation. Additionally, if other females are around and see what she's doing, they'll lay their eggs in the broody bird's nest so she can do all the work - that's why you'll sometimes see wild quail with 20+ babies at once).

While a female is sitting on a nest, she stops laying eggs, so a broody quail isn't desirable if you're trying to maximize egg production, but, as I mentioned already, this behavior is rare in coturnix. They've had a lot of these natural behaviors bred out of them. If I ever have a female go broody, I'll be tickled to leave her be and let her hatch a clutch, but I've haven't seen it happen yet. If I want babies, I just pop some eggs in the incubator (and you'll need babies periodically - quail have a fairly short lifespan).

Really, the only difference with the males in the cage is that the eggs will be fertilized, and assuming they're gathered daily and refrigerated, the two are virtually indistinguishable. (You CAN see it if you know what to look for - all eggs have a tiny white dot on the yolk. In unfertilized eggs, it's a ring, while in fertilized eggs, the circle is filled in.

*Laying is regulated by the amount of light the bird is exposed to. 14 hours/day is the magic number to get the egg rolling. Some people use artificial lights on a timer and make them lay year-round. Personally, I figure by fall they've earned a break, so my birds aren't laying at the moment.