They Are Looking Like Quail

[airedale]

Went from little bumble bee size two legged fuzz balls to Quail in about 4 weeks, these Butler Bobwhites are already close to the size of regular Bobwhites, more tame and not as flighty, they will eat out of my hand like chickens. Just hatched out 10 french red leg Partridge chicks, they are doing good so far.

Al

[Doewhacker]

How many weeks old will the Quail have to be to be ready to use?

[Curmudgeon]

What are they for?

[Doewhacker]

16 minutes ago, Curmudgeon said:

What are they for?

Pointing dog training, as far as I know Airedale has a pup to train.

[airedale]

1 hour ago, Doewhacker said:

How many weeks old will the Quail have to be to be ready to use?

15 weeks and on is generally the age they can fly well enough and will recall to a johnny house, They will be used to train my Setter pup to hold point,  like chickens I just like messing around with them for something to do. They are fairly easy to take care of and like chickens they make good pets and watching them go about their business is entertaining.

Al

Edited June 26, 2017 by airedale

[Doewhacker]

4 minutes ago, airedale said:

15 weeks is generally the age they can fly well enough and will recall to a johnny house, They will be used to train my Setter pup to hold point,  like chickens I just like messing around with them for something to do. They are fairly easy to take care of and like chickens they make good pets and watching them go about their business is entertaining.

Al

I want to do Quail next year, I like the little suckers and their calls.

 

[moog5050]

Pretty neat

[dbHunterNY]

probably not much different than raising pheasants.  done that but being most of our habitat for them is hay fields that get cut each year in mass they never did well.

[Pygmy]

One of the things I miss the most about living in the country...I love chickens as well as other types of poultry and gamebirds..

A friend gave me a bunch of bobwhite eggs once and I put them under a setting banty hen.. She hatched a bunch of them and I had them in  coop with a run and a lift up cover...The wind blew off the lid on the coop and the quail scattered..I saw and heard several of them around the house through that summer, but come fall they were gone..

[airedale]

The three Quail in line in the middle of the photo with the gray coloring are California Valley Quail, they are the size of regular Bobwhites and are about half the size of these Butlers. I have four in all and as the saying goes 'birds of a feather flock together" the Valley Quail are always in close proximity to each other among the 30 Bobwhites. They are just getting some length on their top knot feathers which stand at attention when they are on alert. They are flighty compared to the Butlers and will not take any food from my hand yet but will sit at my feet and wait for me to drop something down to them. They are runners and if they were  chicken size I bet they could hit 60 miles an hour.

Al

[Pygmy]

Bobwhite quail are the most delicious upland game birds I have ever eaten....

The only game birds that taste better ( to me)  are teal .....Mallards and blacks that have been on a vegetarian diet are a close second...

I like pheasant and grouse, but in my opinion they pale in comparison to quail...