Quail Breeder Cages

[Dustin]

got my quail breeder cages done the other day. Check it out at my site avatarofshibby.awardspace.com/falconryQauil.htm

[Weasel]

Looks good to me, But I know nothing about breeding quail....Let us know how it goes.

[Dustin]

I will. I plan to put on the page how I go about it and keep the numbers up for eggs/hatched/matured.

[titaniumtalons]

Hey Dustin,

I raise Bob White and I know they are a different type of quail they still act the same in some regards.
Looks like you put a lot of work into those cages and they look real good!

Just a couple things I do that make life with quail easier:
1. I keep the food and water on the outside of the cage, just cut a 1"x1" hole so that one bird can stick it's head out to eat/drink at a time.
2. I make the doors to open out and I install a "curtain" between the birds and run it in front of the door on the inside.

Good luck with your birds, quail can be a lot of fun ....... sometimes.

[Dustin]

The food kept in the lil troughs on the outside in a seperate lil box. It's not 1" by 1" but they're not able to stick any thing more than there head thought it

What your reason for the curtain, is that supose to set the mood or some thing? ;D

Thanks for the feed back

[titaniumtalons]

shibby said:

Whats your reason for the curtain, is that supose to set the mood or some thing? ;D

Thanks for the feed back

Bob White males fight like roosters so I keep them from seeing each other. They also explode out the doors so I keep the "curtain" in front of the door too and just reach under it to catch them. I never go in the cage except to catch a bird.

I like the Bob White the best to train hawks with because even a pen raised bird is good for one explosive flight, I always feed live too ....

[Dustin]

Only thing I don't like about Bob White is they take sooooo long to mature, with cornix that's not a problem. I don't plan to train a hawk with them though, they're just feeders.

That curtain does make good since. Thanks!

[ccrobbins]

Michael, how bad of an odor do you have to deal with? How many birds do you keep?

[titaniumtalons]

ccrobbins said:

Michael, how bad of an odor do you have to deal with? How many birds do you keep?

Depends on how dry you keep the droppings. I have mine in a barn and the dropping are pretty dry and don't smell. The quail farm I get mine from the most has them out side and the dropping are wet from rain and such and they smell a little, nothing like rats and mice but a bit of a smell.

I keep 20-50 quail around, freinds come over for a eat and the number goes down accordingly ........ ;D

[Dustin]

Got my quail today. Had three eggs in the box when I went to take them out lol.

[Weasel]

I am interested in doing this as well. What do I need to do to get started? Can I do it in suburbia? How much room do they need?etc, etc....

[Dustin]

it kinda depends on how much room you have around, is your suburbia the kinda were you can open your window and slap your neighbor in his house, and your back yard you can jump from the door to the back fence? I live in the city, but it's not a suburbia, we also have a very big yard.
You'd need to clean up their crap a lot if you have neighbors pretty close by, or they'll start complaining about the smell. There's some kind of spray that you can get that breaks down the ammonia to get rid of the smell, but I've never used it.
You're going to need to get an incubator. I'd suggest the hova-bator forced air, with an auto-turner. Costed me $109. I can get you the link of were I bought mine if you want. You really need the forced air though, and the auto-turner just makes it a lot easier than turning them all yourself. You'll also need to buy an extra thermometer with humidity on it also ($5 at Lows).
You're going to need some kind of cage to keep your first batch of mature quail in (I'd suggest buying fully grown ones to start on, incubation can prove to be quite tricky at first.) You can go to my website and click on quail on the left menu to see my cages.
For the young ones I have a 20 gallon fish tank with Kentucky Kumfort shavings in the bottom. You could easily just use a cardboard box with shavings in the bottom. Gotta keep a light on them during the nights right now, during the day right now it's plenty hot.
The biggest problem for you would be finding a feed store, to get your food and shavings. I guess you could pick up the shavings in a pet store, but I'd bet it'd be cheaper to get the bran I listed above in a feed store. You're defiantly not going to find game bird feed in any normal pet store.
I'd be worried about the smell also your neighbors might not like that at all.

incubator stuff- $114
quail cage- $50
quail - $30
food - $14
shavings - $7

So total cost would be around $200 to start up

If you'd still be intrested there's some more stuff to know. Like what kinda of quail to get, and the diffrent kinds of feed, stuff like that.

[LeeSlikkers]

Hey guys, I’ve been involved with a thread on one of the other Lists concerning quail breeding/raising, etc and the topic switched into the merits of buying/raising day old cockerel chicks…they feed them a high protein grower feed until the age of 3-5 weeks and then dispatch them. They claim the nutrition is just about the same (feeding a varied diet is always best) and this method is far cheaper than raising or purchasing Quail…

Just a thought and a possible 2nd alternative to quail production.

Lee

[wilded]

Lee, I have raised both and think the quail are better food and cleaner to raise. They seem to put on weight faster for the amount of food purchased. To each his own. JMHO ET

[wilded]

I have a once used Hovabator Incubator that holds 200 quail eggs. I would sell it for $35.00 plus shipping. All you need is a thermometer and eggs. Here is a site that sells them new.
www.bigappleherp.com/Reptile_Supplies/Product/Hovabator_Incubator_THERMAL_AIR_Flow_Model_752106P.html

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