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Picking a Species of Quail to Raise

By: Gary Ortlieb
Submitted: 2007-09-28 11:43:57
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Before you start your coop construction. You may want to decide on what specie of quail you want to start raising. Most breeders recommend and I agree, that it best to start with either the Coturnix (Japanese Quail) or the Bob White.

They both adapt well to the captive environment and both are fairly disease resistant. Your management practices will have a lot to do with controlling disease. By management practices I mean; maintaining a clean and sanitary environment. When raising quail most diseases that can effect your quail or even wipe out your whole flock are mainly caused by poor management.

The Coturnix Quail matures faster than the bob white and could be laying eggs by 50 days of age. The Coturnix will pretty much stay on the floor of the coop so it would not need to be quite as high as you would need for the Bob White. You would however need to provide some type of cushion or soft netting for their roof. The Coturnix quail when startled or spooked, have a tendency to fly straight up. If using regular wire or plywood when raising these quail the flying straight up like this could scalp them or possibly cause death. You could think about a double layer type top. The bottom layer being the soft screen type material and the top layer being your plywood. You could also just staple some type of soft cushion type material to the plywood.

The Bob White on the other hand will roost off of the floor at times, so their coops should be between 18" to 24" high. They should also have branches to roost on. The Bob White also take almost twice as long as the Coturnix to reach maturity.

Both of these breeds of quail will become very good layers if properly raised. Special care and observation should be taken during the quail breeding season. When raising these quail in a captive enclosed environment, they can become very aggressive. When raising the bobwhite quail, you may likely have to separate your breeders into pairs in breeding cages. The males if not separated will usually fight with each other during the breeding season, which could cause serious injury or death.

The Chinese Painted Quail commonly known as Button Quail is another good option for beginner's to raising quail. These quail are very small, the mature button quail is about the size of baby chickens that are sold at Easter time. There are breeder's of the button quail, that will keep them in pairs in an aquarium. Raising the Button quail can be very enjoyable, because they can be tamed, kept in the aquariums and in your home. I have heard of people raising these quail in their home and letting them run free at times. The little buttons will then follow the breeders around the house. So if just raising for fun and hobby, these little quail can be quite enjoyable.

There are many different species of Quail. But if you are just starting to raise quail. I recommend starting with one of these three. One important thing to keep in mind. Is it is Highly Recommended to never mix species.

See http://howtoraisequail.com/quail-species.html for more quail specie information.

Copyright © Gary Ortlieb

I have been raising quail for 22 years and have written an ebook on the subject: "The Beginner's Guide to Raising Quail". How to Raise Quail

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