Reviews by eggsbert

Big, slow, and pretty, but not as stupid or shy as described. Our family has mixed feeling about this particular bird.

Social Features: (4/5)
Our hen is not pushy but not a pushover either. She is a middle of the road hen, dominating over our Ameraucanas but submitting to our Australorps.
She is not aggressive in the least and has a gentler peck when hand fed than our Australorps (who will eat your hand too). Of all our hens, she is the slowest and easiest to catch, making her a better choice for holding, though she doesn't enjoy it. However, unlike our other birds, she's a little less prone to kicking to get away. She's big too, so much more cuddly.
She's a curious bird, but a bit on the skittish side (having flown the coop out of a false sense of danger).

Egg Laying Features: (1/5)
Hands down our worst layer. She gets a single point for have large to jumbo eggs, but we rarely get to see them. She started laying very late (even after our cochin) and is a strange kind of broody. She will often rush to the nest box when we are collecting eggs or just sit in empty nest boxes. But she doesn't stay there with any consistency making her a poor choice for a brood mother. With her lazy style of brooding, she can't be broken of it and lays an egg once a week maybe. We don't know what to do about this bird.

Climate Features: (3/5)
More cold hardy than heat hardy, she does decently well in Utah. She had no problems with the cold temperatures and her shorter leg feathers meant less snowballs. However, in the summer, she pants all the time and is pretty unhappy (unless given grass to eat). Her large beard is prone to getting horrendously muddy and the feathers can curl back into her eyes.
She hasn't been sick or succumbed to heatstroke or frostbite, but there are definitely better birds for all climate weather.
She's a decent forager and given the chance she will graze on grass from dusk to dawn. This helps keep her feed intake down for her size, but she still eats quite a bit.

Afterthought: Probably a better table bird than a layer, sadly enough.

We got four of these birds from a local store (commercial hatchery chicks) and ended up only keeping two. They are big birds with pushy personalities.

Social Features: (2/5)
Despite hand raising these chicks, they are not very personable and they can be quite the bullies when they want to be. They are the dominant hens of the flock, using their size to push smaller or more submissive birds out of the way to eat (which they do a lot of). However, it's worth noting they have never seriously injured any of the lower ranking birds, which is a plus. They prefer to torment one another rather than oppress other breeds.
Both birds do not like being handled or touched and are prone to pecking (hard).
Their bold personalities do have a pro. They are good foragers but decently wary of dangers without being overly skittish.

Egg Laying Features: (3/5)
We got these birds for their egg-laying potential, unfortunately they don't quite live up to it. One began laying quite early, in the dead of winter. She was a decent layer for about a month and gave up the ghost for a few months before laying again with the other australorp. When they both started up, they gave about an egg a day for 4-5 days and would take 2-3 days off.
The eggs are brown and medium to large in size.

Climate Features: (4/5)
We live in the Salt Lake Valley area in Utah and get temperatures up in the 100s and down below freezing. It snows, it gets wet and muddy, it gets dry and hot, it blows up a storm. The australorps have tolerated weather conditions nicely.
They stay clean in the mud, tolerate the heat well, and did not have hardly any problems with frostbite (except a paling of a comb tip here or there).
These greedy little pigs eat everything. They forage decently enough, but their heavy bodies require them to consume a bit more feed than a lighter variety might. That said, if you're for stewing birds, they are good size for it (about twice the size of our Ameraucanas).

Our family got three Wheaten Ameraucanas from a local hatchery. We got our birds a little late, so they were quite skittish and did not grow up with the rest of the flock (though they were introduced early enough we didn't have a problem with aggression).

Social Features: (3/5)
Our wheatens are the bottom of the pecking order and I don't believe it's necessarily their late introduction. They are smaller birds compared to Australorps and are easily pushed around; they don't seem prone to fighting back. Because of the more assertive nature of our Australorps, the wheatens did not integrate quickly with the flock, preferring to stay together and away from the other birds. They are much more likely to get along with laid back breeds, such as our Faverolles.
Whether or not they bond or want to interact with you is a coin-toss. One of our birds continues to be wary of us, while the other will literally hop on your shoulder and squawk up a storm in your ear. Neither of them peck at us and both will now feed from hand, but both are often pushed aside by the other birds.

Egg Laying Features: (3/5)
Our Ameraucanas started laying in late winter (8 or 9 months old) and initially started out as very dependable layers. They gave us an egg consistently every other day in sub-zero temperatures and snow. The eggs started of more of a seafoam green but have paled and become a bit more of a pure pastel blue over time. They are small to medium in size.
Recently, as temperatures have become more favorable (in the 60s and 70s), they have stopped laying almost all together. From the two birds we kept (one of the three was a rooster), we not get a single blue egg every 4 or 5 days. They have become our worst layers and it's rather unfortunate. Neither have shown any signs of being broody.

Climate Features: (4/5)
We live in the Salt Lake Valley area in Utah and get temperatures up in the 100s and down below freezing. It snows, it gets wet and muddy, it gets dry and hot, it blows up a storm. The wheatens have tolerated weather conditions nicely.
Clean legs mean they don't get muddied up too bad, but their muffs can get dirty from eating. They had no problems with frostbite and did not seem to mind the heat terribly.
These birds probably consume more than their fair share of food however. While they are light bodied, they have no foraging skills at all.

We recently got half a dozen of these little birds in a variety of colors to keep primarily as pets and egg layers.
Because we've seen such a huge difference in temperament depending on color, I will describe each below.

WHITES
Hands down our favorite variety. They are a good size, lay medium to large eggs, and are extremely bold and friendly. We initially got two, but both turned out to be males and we had to get a third female. All the whites are very easily handled and, when allowed out, don't try very desperately to escape our clutches. Our white female is actually very protective of her cage mate and has actually feigned injury to us to protect her (even though they are both girls).
The males we've had of this color were not male aggressive (meaning you might get away with having several males together as long as there are ladies to go around).
While not particularly important, our white male is the WORST tidbitter. He doesn't tidbit at all.

GOLDENS
In my eyes, the prettiest of the varieties. Their dark beaks and pale faces give them a hawk-like expression, which is aided by their generally bold but flighty nature. Both of goldens (one male and one female) are very watchful. Our male is tamer than the female, but neither are very suitable for holding. Their eggs are medium sized and they tend to be smaller than the other color varieties (bigger only than the wildtype color).
Males of this color can be very aggressive with other males.
Again, while not very important, I love that our golden male is obsessed with tidbitting. He does his best to look after his ladies.

TIBETAN
Our favorite egg layers. Our Tibetan was a big girl to start and lays large eggs (she has even given us several double yokers). She's a wild little thing but pretty. She shows the most potential for broodiness, which is important if you wish to have a bird raise chicks for you rather than an incubator. Our Tibetan hasn't been especially greedy with the food either, letting the male or her female cagemate eat the good tidbits.
We haven't had a male of this variety so I cannot say if they are good with other males or good with their hens.

WILDTYPE/PHAROAH
The least favorite of them all. Our normal girl is small, lays small eggs, eats all the worms (greedy), and is flighty to boot. I can think of no reason to get this color variety over any of the others, UNLESS you are getting a jumbo brown (this color variety but bigger). At which point, bigger bird, bigger eggs, and probably tamer.
We haven't had a male of this variety so I cannot say if they are good with other males or good with their hens. But again, I can't think of why you would get this variety when there are better ones out there.


OVERALL
One of the major pros of having quail is their size. Because they are small, they have smaller space requirements and can even be kept indoors. As a rule of thumb, 1sq ft per bird is acceptable but I prefer to give them 2sq ft. Even at this spacing, they are lawn killers. High ammonia in their feces combined with their tendency to scratch holes for nesting means grass will not survive unless you move their run frequently. This problem can be remedied by keeping birds in solid bottom coops raised off the ground.
If you don't clean their cages on a regular basis, be prepared for a mighty stench.

The second major pro is how fast these bird grow. They mature in about two months, so eggs and meat become available very quickly. However, this growth rate requires high protein content that is hard to find locally or even online. Wild, these birds probably eat a substantial amount of insect as part of their diet. Offering them mealworms, waxworms, crickets, etc that you can buy at the petstore not only provides interesting variety, but also essential protein to their diet. Alternatively, scrambled eggs or ground beef can help if you find your feed isn't high enough in protein.
Be sure that your feed is NON-MEDICATED!!!