Should I get Coturnix Quail

[TurnipGreens]

Howdy y'all! On advice from a commenter from this thread, I am breaking my question up and addressing the questions about the breeds in their respective forums rather in the original conglomerate.

The relevant birds here are Coturnix quail.

The ideal bird for me would be: hardy in both North Alabama hot summers and milder (but still cold) winters, excellent brooders and mothers, excellent foragers and predator-evaders, disease resistant, quiet, high layers (including throughout the year, cold and heat), trustworthy to return to the coop nightly and lay eggs in nesting boxes, not prone to wandering too far, not dumb, amiable to other flock members, amiable to me, a breed whose males defend their females well, a good source of meat and fat (for cooking), easily culled and processed by hand by one person, not prone to destroying gardens or vehicles, not prone to pooping on houses and such, and able to keep pest levels down.

Now, as noted in the original thread, some of these are essential for all birds to have to be included in the flock, but many are either preferable but not required or required only for a few breeds out of the flock to have. If you're interested in seeing which is which you can go to the original thread, but it isn't actually necessary information for this thread. Just tell me which of these criteria whichever breed(s) you have experience with passes or fails, along with any other notes, and I'll evaluate accordingly

To be clear, quail seem to fail most of my criteria while having few redeeming qualities. I post here just to make sure I haven't picked up some wildly wrong view of them in my research haha.

 

[Nabiki]

Coturnix quail are quite hardy. They can handle below freezing temperatures quite well as long as they are dry, out of the wind, and can keep their feet warm (not on wire). Small shelters will keep them quite happy. They can handle a fair amount of heat as long as they have moving air and plenty of water.

They are not good foragers, since their dietary requirements are quite high in protein. You will need to provide a good game bird feed for them.

They are not good at evading predators. Everything likes to eat quail, so you must make sure that they are in predator proof pens. If you think they will free range and come home, they will not. If you free range them, you will probably not have any left after a week or so.

They are game birds. They are not tame and will not be unless you spend a LOT of time handling them. Males are aggressive and if you do not have enough females or have too many males, it will get bloody and deadly fast.

They will not lay in nesting boxes, they will not return to a coop at night.

The males will not defend the females.

It really sounds like you're looking for chickens, not quail. They are quite tasty and are very good egg layers, but other than that, they pretty much fail all of your requirements. Good luck in your search for the ideal poultry!

 

[Susan Skylark]

You can’t run these guys with or like chickens, we just started raising them but as stated above, they have their own unique needs, they are adorable but incredibly dumb and need you to take care of them (mine can’t find the water bottle nozzle if it’s an inch too low!).

 

[Susan Skylark]

Exhibit A: 10 day old chicks in the brooder, not sure how or why one is in the feeder but that’s typical quail right there!

 

[scyllarus]

The biggest issue is that quail do not roost and can't be depended on to return to their coop at night. You can't free-range quail unless you expect to lose a lot of them, or unless you somehow manage to set up a feral breeding population (which I think is probably a bit illegal). They're reasonably hardy birds and could probably do reasonably well in an area with good cover and forage, but...you're just never going to see them again.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Gray partridge and ring necked pheasant are now resident breeders in many parts of the US, but I think coturnix only lives feral in Hawaii(?), I wonder why they haven’t established themselves somewhere? Maybe we’ve bred broodiness out of them and they never successfully hatch or raise chicks? But yes, your local fish and game or wildlife agency would have a fit if something like that happened

 

[scyllarus]

Gray partridge and ring necked pheasant are now resident breeders in many parts of the US, but I think coturnix only lives feral in Hawaii(?), I wonder why they haven’t established themselves somewhere? Maybe we’ve bred broodiness out of them and they never successfully hatch or raise chicks? But yes, your local fish and game or wildlife agency would have a fit if something like that happened

My husband looked into it (though I believe the numbers were for bobwhites) and it was something like a thousand quail to establish a breeding population in 1 acre of land. I think quail are simply too small - they're easy prey for a lot of animals that live well in urban/suburban/semi-rural environments. A wolf or bear isn't likely to try to eat quail as they're too small to efficiently catch - but a cat or a raccoon that might have trouble taking down a chicken or partridge will. Quail cannot perch at all. Plus, quail need higher protein - which is to say, more bugs and seeds - which is harder to provide if you don't have a pretty heavily foragable area.