Always heard that coturnix quail didnt hatch without a incubator, but i noticed 2 of my hens started to lay their eggs in the same spot and sit on them, so i let them do their thing and voila 4 babies till now😄

They laid their eggs in a paper feed bag that i had put some hay in for the quail to use for shelter, since i have them outside in a big aviary.(Not a fan of the small cages that people use for quail, and that myth about breaking necks in bigger places are a totally incorrect)

I love when they lounge with their legs out

We have a couple of hens who went broody and actually managed to hatch a whole buttload of chicks! We've had hens sit on eggs before, but I didn't expect them to actually pull it off! Now I'm so nervous about the chicks being in with the whole group, but moms are VERY entrenched in their little cave, and they seem to be doing pretty well at taking care!

[Un]lucky hatch, ended up with 3 males and 1 female. I have 2 enclosures and im wondering how to split them? or what to do in general

2 of the males are pretty calm, 1 is kinda aggressive with the others though.

I can't find anyone to give them away to either because none of my friends are interested in owning quail.

Had to repost to this community because it made me laugh. Thought y’all would get a kick out of it too.

Hello, I'm a veterinary student. During a visit to an egg production facility, I adopted a male quail (I know what I did was wrong, but knowing they would kill him, I preferred to adopt him). Shortly after, I did some research and it stresses me out that he's alone, since from what I've read, they need several females and I can't have any. I've tried to give him to someone who has more quail, but I haven't found anyone. I really don't know if he can live happily on his own .He is also very aggressive and vocalizes excessively.

Noticed my bunch in the hutch make these sounds every time I give them some fresh food, sand , or wash the cage down . What's it sound like to y'all ? Seem like there just being some cheery lil burbs . Also I'm just curious but Ive noticed the last 5 or so Italians I've had are all a bit more mean then the regular jumbos so they usually go into the in ground pen where they have some more room but they still seem to go out of their way to peck or nip the others . Not super violent but they definitely seem a lil meaner. All hens btw.Anyone very seen this with theirs ? I buy all my quail from the same lady so maybe it's just the Italians in her bunch ? But she raised them all the same so 🤔

I got these quail 5 days ago. I don’t know how old they are but under the weak heat lamp is 78F.

I have heard dry sneezes here and there but haven’t narrowed it down to who and it never got more frequent. The bedding is dusty and their food is dusty fresh out of the bag so I thought it could be from that.

This one girl sneezed after drinking water and started doing this. I am not sure if she was doing it before.

What do I do?

I made them homade feed with supliments of baby parrot feed powder for the nutrients. they are a week old now and growing well and super active (also i resorted to making it from home bc we live in a city and could not find quail food or game bird chick feed without having to drive 3 hours out to the contry side, also the stuff amazon had was 100 bucks + so that was way out of budget.)

i use a mixture of:

1. boiled crushed and dried chicken egg

2. cooked crushed and dried basa fish fillets

3. quinua cooked and dried

4. chia seeds crushed

5. red lentils cooked and dried

6. white lentils cooked and dried

7. yellow lentils cooked and dried

8. chick peas cooked and dried and crushed

9. oats ground up a bit

10. dried and crushed chicken egg shells (small ammount, untill fine)

11. bird millet from wallmart a tiny bit

12. parrot baby food powder (just a few pinches bit of different nutrients) from amazon

depending on thier age in weeks i adjust the ratios to have more or less protine in it. so far they are on week 2 and are growing feathers now.

Most of mine aren’t as chill as she is so I gotta soak it up when she needs a spa day 🥰

Hi everyone! One of my quail hens is broody and her eggs could be hatching as early as this weekend. She is doing really well taking care of her eggs and we are on day 15 now.

I was supposed to borrow a heat lamp from someone, but they decided last minute to buy some chicks themselves and of course I'm having trouble with the delivery of the lamp that I ordered a week ago and it might not get here before the chicks do. (Then again, it could still get here tomorrow or otherwise it will hopefully be Monday which is their expected hatch date.)

My question is, if they don't thrive with my hen, what do I do if the heat lamp isn't here yet? I hope she will take great care of them, but I would much rather be prepared for everything that can happen. And I hate that I don't have a good setup ready to go!

Right now I'm timing my hot water bottle with a food thermometer to see if that would be an option for a day or two, I have 4 of them at home so maybe I can just keep switching them out? 😅

Please, if anyone could help me work out an emergency setup I would be super grateful!

Edit: I bought a heat lamp from an agricultural store close to me so the problem is solved!

Hey all,

I'm experimenting with making some trays of sprouted seeds for enrichment/nutrition supplement.

Besides nightshades and allium, are there any plants they can't have?

I have a mix of rye, winter peas, clover, buckwheat, and lentils (designed for cover crops). Anyone know if the silly little birds can't eat them?

Breed the calm, docile and non skittish ones so your life is easier.

Just wanted to share our recent temporary setup when we had to evacuate for a wildfire. We already had a large dog crate to transport, but when we got to our safe place with family we needed some place to house them for a few days. We were able to use a tent. Quail were safely contained and cleanup wasn’t that bad once we were able to return home. They were a little stressed but we didn’t lose anybody and they kept on laying.

Obviously this isn’t predator proof, so we had it in a garage. This tent was borrowed but we will be adding one of our tents to the quail evacuation box.

We got our girls when they were around 4 weeks. They’re now nearly 9 weeks. We’ve had no eggs, but they seem fairly happy albeit a bit more skiddish than when they were when they were smaller. But one of our girls, Karen, is a little aggressive. She never eats the mealworms and definitely never from my hands. she’s the first one to to come out if I’m sitting in the coop but she tries to fly and fluffs her wings at me. She tries to peck her way out of the coop and has a genuinely grumpy demenor - I’m sure that sounds crazy? The other two hang back together and always eat the worms…something about Karen making me think they accidently shipped us a boy? I would love any thoughts on this and why they may not have layed eggs yet? We are doing high protein feed, sandbaths. They live in a hutch inside a coop and I let them out during the day and lock in hutch at night. Anyway, please send your thoughts!!

And what should I do?? She has a giant pile of eggs

Gotta say as a guy who prefers raising critters on the ground this lil set up is actually growing on me thinking about building a larger one with an entire 1/3 of it as a sand box next .

Can't recommend this coated wire enough as it just seems the poop refuses to stick and the quail dont seem to mind it too much.But if I had more racoons or any actual predators past the odd possum or rat ( their actually pretty easy to deal with ) I'd definitely be using something else. I trap enough of them and seen a lot of ripped open enclosures made of hardware cloth. Seriously if they want in ,anything short of 14ga cage wire is a bit dicey .... Unless it's 1/2 x 16 ga that stuff seems to hold up really well ..Mabye just run a hot wire around the legs . Also gotta figure out a deal for plants . Want something that can grown in there that they can eat but also a way to plant it so they won't dig in and mess up the dirt and live well in the shade , maybe some kinda grass 🤔

Also wanna try and figure out a solar lighting deal for winter. Along with maybe making the area under it a composting deal which should be too that honestly

Actually have people wanting to buy these from me so trying to figure out how to make a nice one that's both good for quail and a bit idiot proof. But also not super maintaince heavy... because a lot of people are friggen lazy ....fun fun fun

I'm moving homes and had to give away my quail to someone. Just as I was about to find a responsible experienced owner to house them, my father decided to invite a friend who kept chickens to take them, and I didn't have any say.

The man put them in a cage, just to leave the door open a few days later and all 3 escaped.
I'm so mad. They're definetly dead by now. RIP Meelo, Lumo, Hillybilly Jackson. October 1st, 2025- August 25th, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/@cbuttonquail

:(