We wrote these quail keeping guidelines for just some who find quail keeping as a hobby or q even small scale quail farmers who keep quail to supply eggs and/or meat because of their family or maybe commercial purposes. The quail arises from a wild environment as any other domesticated animal and it's related to chicken.
We should try to allow them to have back at least some what we have taken from them regarding their lifestyle. They can obviously not care for themselves locked up so additionally, firm abs minimum that we should give the quail is food, water and a healthy environment. The quail’s lifestyle is related to chicken’s. The quail likes warm weather conditions and they’re (the majority) migratory birds within the wild. If we have the particular facilities, it’s a good practice to get a winter and a summer place for that quails and move them twice 1 year. The quails will find this very exciting this also stimulation will even encourage nesting. Because of their winter accommodation we should move the quails to some light, dry, ventilated but not necessarily draughty place. Heating is not necessary unless temperatures fall under -5˚c. In the summer is best to keep the quail outside but again, the they must have access to a dry, drought free location and shade. Obviously you will have to make certain your enclosure or aviary can be safe that no predator can get to your quails. Don’t worry if you can’t provide your quails a different summer and winter place, they're going to feel just fine at a permanent place if you make that comfortable enough on their behalf.
Keeping quail in cages
For the quail cage, a quail requires no less than ½ sqft of floor area. There are not many specific quail cages around to buy, we make our own design for our layers and breeding stock. Some quail keepers use a rabbit hatch for keeping their quail in but you need to realise that while the rabbit likes shady dark environment the quail needs a lot more light to feel good, so the rabbit hutch is not the best option to use as a quail parrot cage. What you can do though, if you intend to keep quails indoors (shed, barn) it is possible to transform a rabbit hutch in a quail cage. What you carry out is this: remove the rear panel and replace it along with welded wire mesh. This way you'll provide your current quails as much light as humanly possible. If your rabbit hatch features a separated (nest) area, get lessen it, your Japanese (coturnix) quails won't require it. An average rabbit hatch is all about 4' x 2' (120mm times 60mm). This allows you maintain to12 Japanese (coturnix) quails for each tier. On a hobby scale, if you want to supply the most possible comfort for your current quails, then you put 6-8 quails in a cage of this size. For egg production this would be 6 hens and only two cock quail. The “furnishing” on the quail cage should be as follows:
Litter/Bedding – We believe essentially the most practical bedding for quails is okay wood shavings. The quail loves to have a dust bath which they do within the wood shavings but if you actually want to please them put some dry sand in a suitable tray or container, they’ll like it.
Feeder – the quail feeder could be a small pet bowl, small chicken feeder or possibly a through feeder. If you will use bawl for feeding it is best to put at least 2 in the cage and in the case of using a through feeder a little 250-300mm (10”-12”) feeder would become sufficient. It’s also practical to place the feeder outside the cage to save more space for that quail and to prevent the feed contamination from the quails messing on it. You can get feeders that you hang onto the wire mesh on the cage. Hang it from the outside the cage and make cut outs about the mesh to allow the quail in order to push their heads through to get at it (width-1 ½”, height-2”). Your pet bowl is the least useful solution for hygienic reasons. If you need to place the feed inside the cage use a chicken feeder or a by way of feeder.
Drinker – again, the quail drinker could be a small pet bowl, small chicken drinker or if you need to keep the water cleaner, you're able to do the same as with the particular feeder, get one that hangs onto the wire mesh from your outside. Obviously make some cut outs as described within the feeder section above.
Make sure that your quails possess always dry litter and use of feed and drink continually.
Another important condition for good quail egg production is to provide the quails with ample light. A layer quail needs 14 hours of light per day for optimal egg production. If you keep your quails within a place where there is enough natural light you should have no problems during the summer period but if you would like the quails to keep laying eggs within the winter period as well, you have got to fit a light near the cage to replace the short daylight. The light doesn’t have to be strong, an energy saving lamp would do. The same applies if you keep your quails in a dark place as being a garage without windows, dark steady, etc. The best practice is to plug in an automatic timer switch for that light, this way you won’t forget to turn it on / off on time. Warning: DON'T work with strong light! If you keep more quail cocks than one within a same cage strong light will make them aggressive and they will start to fight with each other. To read more info on quail cages in order to get free building plans for just a low budget simple quail parrot cage.
source