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Anonymous  
Quail #1
Does anyone on here keep them?

We're thinking of getting a few for the garden as it's about to be completely rescaped.

I've kept hens before woith no issues, are there any fundamental differences in their care?
jaspersdad jaspersdad
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Re: Quail #2
I don't know anything about them except for that a bloke I used to know who had some. He kept them in a run in the garden in the daytime and popped them into a hutch in his utility room at night and over the winter months. I remember they were very small and therefore vulnerable to preditors.

JON
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Anonymous  
Re: Quail #3
Well I got five yesterday. One male and four hens. One laid an egg just two hours after being placed in the run. If I get another 103 this week I'll be able to make an omelette. :)

I just need to get an incubator now and I should be able to breed a few.
suey2 suey2
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Re: Quail #4
You'll certainly need to breed them if you want to make an omelette, you'll need legions of them!

Sounds good, got any pics of them?
It's Not Just A Fish
Anonymous  
Re: Quail #5
I'll post some pics later.

My incubator arrived today. Not bad considering I ordered it on sunday online. :)

I've cocked up (Excuse the pun) monumentally with the colours though. The male is a white bird (recessive gene) so if I cross him with the other three colours I have I may produce some 'pied' birds which may not be sexable until 8 weeks. Due to the colouration.

Hopefully I'll have some eggs tonight to place in the incubator, so I'll take it from there.

You still fancy some chooks? I kind of miss mine, so may get a couple of maran hens or similar at some point. I could just buy hatching eggs of ebay now. :)
suey2 suey2
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Re: Quail #6
I always fancied some ex-battery hens. I saw this website here years ago, long before it became what it is today, but the house we were living in at the time had a covenant on it prohibiting keeping chickens. Now that we've moved we did consider it again but we have a resident fox and while I could build the chicken equivalent of Fort Knox I'd still be worried just in case he managed to get in somehow
It's Not Just A Fish
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Re: Quail #7
Ive got the same problem with chickens, people round here who have them in garden or allotments have electrified protection

You do know that free range quail eggs are ?1.79 for 12 at the moment if you are desperate while waiting ...
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Anonymous  
Re: Quail #8
Quote:

suey2 wrote:
I always fancied some ex-battery hens. I saw this website here years ago, long before it became what it is today, but the house we were living in at the time had a covenant on it prohibiting keeping chickens. Now that we've moved we did consider it again but we have a resident fox and while I could build the chicken equivalent of Fort Knox I'd still be worried just in case he managed to get in somehow


We had a covenant on our old house when we kept them. However I called the local council who basically said that the covenant was decades old and that they were not concerned with it. The person I spoke to basically said that private houses can keep upto 20 birds and that they would only ever get involved if they received complaints. Unsurprisingly, 99% + of their complaints were due to people complaining about the noise made by cockerals.

Fox proof wire mesh (Ironically the stuff sold as chicken wire is not fox proof) is readily available. It just needs to be 18" or so under ground to stop them digging underneath. We have a few foxes and badgers around here but have never had any issues so far. I've seen first hand new born lambs slaughtered by foxes that belonged to a farmer friend of mine. So I have made sure their enclosure is fox proof. They are relentless when they go on killing sprees. :(

No eggs today, but not a huge issue as I want to test the temperature and humidity of the incubator before I add them. After doing some research before we got them the Japanaese quail we have seem very easy to keep.
Violet Violet
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Re: Quail #9
Our local park has 'Tropical World', now don't get excited, you can walk round it in 10 mins max, basically a very big warm and humid greenhouse, lush planting, a corner sealed off for butterflies/breeding and two largish ponds with terrapins.

There's a small waterfall with plastic dinosaurs placed on a small rock, in the "back to the land of the dinosaurs" corner, so you should get my drift lol

They introduced free running quail though about 3 years ago, to deal with the spider infestation that were attacking the butterfly pupae. It's worked great and you have to be careful now not to stand on them when you as you work your way round the curling pathways. They are breeding well and the babies melt my heart. They simply look like cotton wool balls on legs - uber cute!

I've been tempted I have to say, big handbag, quick look round "ooh look, a baby quail seems to have run into my handbag"..

Pics are a must Injaf
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Anonymous  
Re: Quail #10
I went to a butterfly house last year and noticed they had quail there. I wonder if they were employed for the same job? Makes sense I suppose.

I will get pics of the adults up soon. I will also take pics of the eggs in the incubator and if successful pics of the chicks. Apparently they only take 17 days in the oven. I've got the temp set correctly so can start as soon as they lay. I suspect they may stop for a few days as the stress of moving can stress poulty. They need to establish a new pecking order too as they came from a supplier who had a couple of hundred in the aviary or so.

I'll probably only start with three or four, just to see how it goes for now.

I really shouldn't have done a search for hatching eggs on ebay though...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fro ... _sacat=See-All-Categories

I may have to build another run or two......