Caring for Quail

Newly hatched quail should be kept in a ventilated but draft free brooder. The brooders should be at 95°F and dropped 5°F weekly. Offer game bird starter feed crumbles with 28-30% protein, initially scattered on paper, and provide a shallow, non-drown able water dish. Keep the brooder clean with daily bedding changes and maintain the environment for about four weeks. At about 2 weeks they are pretty good at jumping, and the brooder will need a lid to keep them in. At 4 weeks old they no longer need heat and can be kept outside. Keep the quail on high protein diet until 8 weeks old. At 8 weeks they are mature, they can be switched to layer feed or if growing for meat they can be processed or kept on higher protein feed until processed. Provide oyster shell for hens like you would chickens. It may need to be ground more if the pieces are too big.

4 weeks and older coturnix quail should be housed in a secure pen with about 1 square ft per bird. The height of the pen should be 18 inches or less, or over 6 ft high. This is due to the quail's nature to flush or rapidly fly upward, they may injure or kill themselves if pens are not built with that in mind. They should always have access to food and water, if they run out, they will stress and possibly attack each other. They are messy eaters; there are a variety of feeders for quail that help minimize the waste of food. They are very cold hardy if kept out of the wind and moisture, a little extra bedding doesn’t hurt either. When it’s hot it’s important to keep them in the shade with plenty of water. If you can provide a fan they will appreciate it. Try extra hard not to stress them when it’s hot.

Coturnix quail hens can start laying as early as 6 weeks or as late as 10 weeks. It is recommended to keep 5-8 hens with each rooster. You can keep multiple groups roosters together if they have enough hens. If they have too much room, they will become territorial and fight but of course you don’t want them overcrowded. It takes some adjusting to find the sweet spot. Sometimes birds just have bad temperaments and ruin the peace, if they don’t seem to get along with any group and are a bully they get removed. A bird like that shouldn’t be used for breeding as it may pass on that poor temperament. If they are stressed the hens will not lay eggs. They need 14 hours of light to lay eggs consistently.