Q&A for How to Raise Quail

The answer to your question is unfortunately no. Quails are hard birds to breed, which many people believe is due to the ''years of domestication''. There have been occurrences of quails hatching their own chicks and it can be done. But keep in mind the best way to trigger a quails broodiness is to set them in a natural habitat with nesting material and plenty of hiding spots. There are other methods you can take to hatch some quail chicks. If you have a male quail and female quail together, you'll get some fertile eggs. Collect these and you can incubate them, which will guarantee a hatch. Alternatively, you can set some fertile eggs under a broody bantam hen.

It sounds like you have a bully in the flock. Quails peck/pluck at feathers to show dominance. If the pecking is severe you most likely have more than one male quail in the flock. Males should be separated to avoid conflict. Another reason is a lack of nutrients in their feed if you truly think there is no conflict between them.

If it is too hot, then yes, and also if it is on all night and day. Telling the temperature of your quail is easy. If your quail is cold, it will be huddled in a corner and puffed up or right in the middle of the heat lamp. If the quail is too hot, it will move away from the heat lamp and pant its beak. Also, leaving the light on all night and day will cause stress. Turn off the heat lamp during the day or just before/after the quail huddle up to sleep.

Quails don't need a change of feed when sitting on eggs, the usual feed will do perfectly. Be sure they're getting a supplement of calcium and protein to stay healthy!

Almost anything! Quail are just like chickens so can eat any of your usual table scraps. Don't worry about 'unhealthy' foods for quail - anything that's bad for them they wont go near. Foods that you should avoid giving them are avocado, sugary or salty foods, chocolate, caffeine, potato peels, tomato stems, etc.

The largest quail is the Jumbo Coturnix quail, you cannot get any quail larger. These quails are your best bet if you want to keep quail for egg or meat. They are a dual-purpose breed and produce good, large eggs and will supply you with extra meat over and above your normal Coturnix quail. These are the quails to keep if you want some meat and eggs.

Quails do not bath in water like some birds. Like chickens, quails bath in fine dry dirt. You can provide a container with either fine dry non sandy dirt (preferably brown or black) or fine saw dust for the quails to clean themselves.

The fertile eggs can be stored for up to a week before putting them into the incubator, after then their hatching rate goes down. It's best to collect a full clutch of eggs so that they don't hatch at different rates. The eggs should be kept in average room temperature and placed the point side down.

The screen wire is to allow the quail droppings to fall through to the bottom. It's a way of preventing contamination and disease, but can cause discomfort or even leg or foot injury if the gaps in the wiring are too wide. If you wish to house your quails in a different way, you can, but be aware much more frequent cleaning will need to be done.

Not exactly. Although button quails are quails, their behavior and needs differ. Button quail cannot be tamed or kept for meat/eggs. They are best kept in a smaller cage and used for company rather than production.

You can definitely try, but whether the outcome will be successful or not is very uncertain. If the quails are raised untamed with little human interaction and kept in a more natural habitat, then they might have a shot. But once they're let loose, you probably won't know what happens to them afterwards.

Follow the article above or you can take a look at our many other articles on caring for your new pet quail. They need a small, secure house, high protein food (similar to chicken crumbles), fresh water and some bedding.

Mix both grit and oyster shell in with their regular food to ensure that they get a little bit of everything in their diet.

About 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Lower the temperature by 5 degrees each week.

The temperature of your quails' drinking water should be average room temperature.

Yes, they are friendly birds. Quail aren't aggressive, but females can become more protective during the brooding season. Quails are not aggressive towards humans unless the hen is disturbed when she is nesting her eggs.

Once the chicks have dried and received all their fluff, they can be moved from the incubator and into the brooder.

It won't directly kill them, but it can create stress, which shortens their life span. Quail are best in pairs, trios or a small flock.

Button quails are the smallest breeds of quail every known. They're also called King quails (although not very large) and/or Chinese painted quails. These breeds of quails can be bought as pets and usually serve the purpose of cleaning the leftover seed that falls to the bottom of the bird aviary. Females are commonly brown all-over and males are a beautiful multi-color of blue, black, white and red. They're very skittish and don't make the greatest of pets as they are hard to tame, but they are very fun to watch.

No, fertile eggs can remain at room temperature because there is no chick inside it. When you incubate it through warm temperatures, the chick's body will begin to develop.

Quails can not be sexed at a young age. Unfortunately, you have to wait until the quails are at least 6 weeks old until you can tell the difference between male and female.

You should never keep quail with chickens. Chickens are known to be aggressive towards smaller birds, like quail. Chickens can bully the quail by pecking at them and quail can contract diseases from chickens.

Quail generally like all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Depending on your breed of quail they might be a bit fussy towards what you give them unfortunately. The only type of vegetables you want to avoid is avocado, raw potato peels and stems off of tomato plants.

Yes, quails are very much like chickens! They'll nest like them, lay eggs like them, dust bathe like them, eat like them and act like them. Think of quail as miniature chickens except they cannot free-range.

Quail should be at least six weeks old if you're going to butcher them, making them popular meat birds due to the quick growing process.

On average, quails live 3-7 years in captivity if you look after them properly. Lots of factors, such as constant artificial light, health problems, malnutrition and stress, can reduce the life span of a quail to as little as a year.

Quails will lay their eggs for 2+ years if kept and maintained properly.

Yes. If it sells farming equipment and the like, then it's on the list.

Yes. But sometimes the male will join with the female to nest on the eggs.

It depends on the breed. King quails are quite easy to tell. Males have a red and blue chest and body, while females are completely brown. If your king quail is a white/silver pair, the male will have a little stripy pattern below its beak. Coturnix quails are more difficult. A common sign is that the male is more aggressive and crows, unlike the females. California male quails have plumage on their head, which is simply a little feather.