Anyone raised bobwhite quail? Update page 4, roadblock

I had a buddy that raised them in a backyard pen but he gave it up because they attracted snakes and his GSP got bit by a moccasin, plus he has kids too. Guess between eggs and small birds the snakes found that pretty attractive.

Yeah, I have a 4'x 8' pen for day old chicks. It'd raise 80, 40 on each side since it's divided, for at least 6 weeks. Then they'd be feathered up good and ready for a flight pen or smaller group feed out pens for harvesting.

Clean water and appropriate feeding daily is a must. Miss one day and you'll lose a chick or two.

On the day old chicks, I kept a standard light on them and covered the front of the pen with a sheet to give them a seclusion feeling. They tend to freak out about dogs, cats or even an unexpected person rounding the corner. That can lead to injury and more quail loss.

They're fickle bastards. Last time I did it, I bought 150 day old chicks that were over-nighted to me from a hatchery. I didn't lose a single chick the first 3 weeks. Once they feathered up and got crazy it seems like I was losing them left and right. I finally slaughtered them all when I got down to 50 or so...

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I kept a standard light on them

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Like a 100wt bulb in a clip on light or something else?

I have plenty of those clip on lights. trying to thing of the most post effective container to hold them the first couple of weeks

I had a small diameter wire pen. The first few weeks I just put grass clippings down to protect their feet and toes. Changed it out every few days. They were good to go on the wire within a couple of weeks. They grow really fast.

Another tip: Put marbles in your waterer if you use this kind. The day old chicks will drown in the trough if you don't put a space filler in there. They an still get water, but they don't fit perfectly in the trough. Again, those can be removed within 2 weeks.

I bought a book from Clemson University on raising quail, and it suggested sand or pine straw.

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youll hate them once they start dropping like flies. I bought like 150 last year and didn't know that they drown easy.
round 2 was better, but then they started pecking each other....
then my wife decided to put them all together in one big cage while she cleaned the smaller ones... I got home and it looked like an episode of celebrity deathmatch

Yeah, it's brutal survival of the fittest. I raised mine with the intentions of pickling eggs, hatching more, etc. Like I said, I ended up slaughtering them after 10 or 12 weeks.

The farms I've visited with successful operations keep a cock and hen paired up alone in their own small pen for egg production. Of course they have multiple pairings going at the same time. It doesn't work as well in a free for all situation.