Gun Dog Forum

New to Bob raising. A friend says they will get fat and lazy as they get older and get tow here they won't fly well. They are in a 10x10x20 flight pen and their food and water is on a platform 6 ft high.

I think it is up to you to control the getting fat, not sure about the lazy though. I know I sure have gotten lazy. About a year is getting old for a quail though some will live longer in captivity.

sure you feed them a high proten wild bird food & have as little contact with them . They can fly great But will wont to run . I just killed my last 3 birds almost a year old 2 flushed great the third one just wonted to run which was hard on my dogs but they just keep repionting tell I killed it so with young dogs you might take a little extra control of the dog not to break & catch bird

Thanks all. All bobs shot in training. The last were more apt to run at 24 weeks old. Starting over with chukars !5 at 4 week old and 15 6 week old. wish I had 50 of each. Still learning.

Chukars are awesome but they are also nasty nasty birds (tempermental)

I don't personally raise birds beyond pigeons for training but have been given some pearls of wisdom from guys that know. Your flight pen is good and feeding them on the platform seems to make sense.

Moulders Farm gave some very good advice that is consistent with the key to good birds as relayed to me from a fella who has fantastic Chukars. He keeps them in a 20 x 40'ish flight pen on wire. He has it located far away from his operation and away from daily activity. He told me the key in unison with that is to feed them only at night and deliberately avoid contact to the best of his ability. Can't say for sure that this is his entire recipe but what I can say is he consistently has very strong flying, healthy, and spooky Chukars so take it for what it's worth. If I get birds from him I do not have near the capacity he does so they are in a small cage awaiting you know what (poor friggin' birds). I've gotten lazy at times with a few leftovers and having kept them for 2-3 weeks..my laziness seems to rub off on them and then it's a crap shoot as to how well they will do while training - I try to avoid that.