Button/Chinese Painted Quail Help? Best answer will be given?

Question

I'm planning on getting some button/chinese painted quail for an outdoor run. It's an inclosed pen 1 metre (3 feet 4 inches) by 1.3 metres (4 feet 4 inches) by .7m (2 feet 4 inches) high with a soft weed mat roof. There's a 2 foot by 2 foot indoor hutch type thing which is 1 foot 4 inches high (60cm by 60cm by 40cm). The whole thing is enclosed with chicken wire.

Now... I wanted to know:

1. Is this suitable for some button quails?

2. How many could I fit in there?

3. What's the deal with the sexes? (1 male to 2 females?, Dominant male? etc)

4. Would quail sit and lay eggs in open top boxes?

5. Are homemade incuabtors any good?

6. If so what is the temperature and any other special things I need to know?

Thanks, all answers will be appreciated.

Answer 1

That's a lot of questions.

First of all, yes it's suitable for button quail.

I would say 1 male and 3 females max.  Do not get more than one male, though.

The three hens are necessary so he doesn't consistently chase after and harass any one single hen.

They don't need open top boxes - put some dense plants inside if you can (like a dense grass in one corner that they can get in or behind) and that is how they will be happiest.

Otherwise, you can try putting a 8x8 open front box in one corner with some shavings/down inside.  They might use that.

They're a bit tricky to breed because they really do not like artificial settings.  The more foliage you put inside, the better.

Even if you just drape fake plants on the outside of the enclosure it will help them.

I've never used a homemade incubator - I had a forced air hova-bator with an automatic egg turner, though, and I liked it a lot.  So even if you can't get your quail to sit on their own eggs, you could use something like that.  Though, I would ask.. where would you plan on keeping the young? That size enclosure is only good for max 4 quail. SImply because they can be aggressive/territorial towards one another and like any other bird they need room to run around.  Plus - not sure if you've ever owned them or not but their p**p is very, very... verrrryyy stinky if you let it build up.

Hopefully your enclosure has a way to clean out the droppings, or else move it around so they don't build up in any one place.