Raising Quail and game birds?

[aylaschamp]

I'm fairly new to this forum so excuse me if this topic has come up before. I'm sick of paying out the rear for training birds and trying to find deals for our trials. Who knows the best place to find info on raising quail out there? I've found a incubator for $500 that rotates the eggs. I work for a fence company so materials shouldn't be too much of a problem. If any of you have experience that your willing to share I'd appreciate it. Book suggestions as well. Have you had success or catastrophic failure?

[topher40]

There is tons of info on here concerning raising birds. If you want to raise birds you have to consider your time is worth something and in my opinion you have to raise a LOT of birds to make up the difference. If you have any questions feel free to PM me or call. Good luck!

[h20fwlkillr]

I've found a incubator for $500 that rotates the eggs

Unless you are planning on raising a ton of birds, the expensive incubators are over kill. You can get a little giant or a hovabator with egg turners and fans for about $150. You can hatch about 75 quail at a time with them, or 50 pheasants.

[tfbirddog2]

You might try calling a hatchery and buy so many birds or chicks from them and they might cut deal for you.

[Ruffshooter]

I have had nothing but problems with the little Giant incubators. The best and easiest way is to buy a bunch of chicks, figuing you will loose about 1/3 of them. Once they get to 4 weeks old or so they are easier to care for. I raise em on wire just to reduce the desease opportuinty and strengthens the legs. Once they are 6 weeks you can have them in outside pens exposed to the weather with covey houses. Being exposed to the weather seems to help them with the preening and general health. I alos put a dusting bin in the pen. Chuckars are also better training birds as far as game birds go. They are much tougher and fly much better and further. Keep fresh water all the time.

I am no expert but am one that got frustrated with the lack of birds locally a few years back and a few times have tried hatching eggs, never been successful with little giant. Mainly because it is hard to control the humidity. I like going the chick route.

If you get an incubator make sure you run it for a week before you put eggs in it. Make sure it is disinfected

[PointingGunDogs]

I prefer the day-old chicks as well. I raised 500 chukar last year and ended up selling most of them for hunting, trialing, hunt tests, etc. The ones that were left over were handy to have for training my own dogs. Chukar are pretty hardy birds and good flyers. I raise pigeons too for dog training purposes, homers are nice (you can recycle). This year I am raising 1000 pheasant chicks. Picking them up tomorrow from a hatchery in Green River, UT. They do cut you a deal when you buy quantity.

Others prefer to buy adult birds as needed. This is more expensive but a lot less time consuming. I guess it just depends on how much you value your time. In Utah you can find adult birds (Quail, Chukar, Pheasant) for sale almost year round for dog training. I usually find them on the local online classifieds at KSl.com.

I enjoy raising the birds and don't mind the extra time/money spent doing so. I would like to try incubating my own eggs sometime, but the added expense is somewhat prohibitive.

Chicks are pretty easy, just keep them warm and fed.

By the way, the folks at That Quail Place forums are great to offer advice on raising gamebirds.

[kninebirddog]

The sportmens 1200 series is a decent incubator
humidty and temp is CRUCIAL

Quail and chukar when raise 50-100 or so is one thing most people do fine with
get to serious amounts then the stroy changes and quickly
they are looking for a place to die

Pheasant are the hardiest but are not the greatest for training

Gro Gel in the first 72 hours after they are born or when you get them in helps a BUNCH

Start off with day olds save yourself the headache

they are a bit more but when messing with incubators and loosing a few batches because of one stupid little thing after another you'll be a head of the game

temp humidity water and food

temp humidty water and food

temp humidty water and food

the when you put all your time and effort you'll see that the cost of an adult bird isn't far off

Oh PS forget anything else ...specially when they are chicks cause if YOU don't stay on top of what is going on ...you will get higher die off ....and yes as chicks since we raise in the thousands over the summer your best checking them at night also

here we have to cool down during the day heat up at night check to see they don't get to cool or the pile up and die to hot they pile up and die leave the radio on thunderstorms come they freak pile up and die

block corners great place for them to pile up and die faster

once you have a routine and a method worked out it does get better but one thing out of kilter ...

to close they peck each other
not enough food or the right kind of food they peck each other

if you don't keep the wire from getting poop build up it burns the feed
too rich a feed can burn he feet

moldy food or bad food will kill them off

Good Luck

[SportDog77]

I would suggest you visit www.thatquailplace.com to read up on raising game birds.

Hummidity and Temp is highly important and must be watched very closely to ensure a good hatch rate.

I use a little giant with egg turner and get about 90% hatches. They work great(regardless of what others are saying) They must be getting bad eggs(non vertile) If you learn the variables that can affect hatch rates you will be fine.

I would suggest getting one that does more than 110 eggs.(which is what the little giant does) so that you only have to do it once.
In other words if you want to end up with 400-450 birds, you need to incubate about 500 or so.(if you have a good egg source) more if not.
If you get a big incubator you only have to incubate and brood ONCE. For me to end up with 500 birds I have to incubate and brood 5 batches. That in itself is a lot of wasted time.. Takes roughly 23 days to incubate(BW quail) and a minimum of 4-5 weeks to brood.

Good luck.

[Meller]

Just something you all might want to try, that worked for me to almost eliminate loss.
I built a brooder box to start my day old chicks in, I built it with a plywood floor and covered it with a bowt a half an inch of sand, this seemed to hold a more even heat and helped with spradel leg's, and gave the little one grit Just something to try.
Wish you Good Luck

[aylaschamp]

all of your suggestions are great to hear. I'm still in the reading about it stage. I'm thinking of taking it small to begin with and setting up with room to grow. Learning from others mistakes and advice helps allot. Thanks to all of you and please keep it coming.

[Ruffshooter]

Regardless of what others say about the little giant. I have had a thermostat with too much temp variance. One that the egg turner froze up and the heater not working after 10 days into the incubation. Each in its first year of use. Did not know about other brands at the time. Sorry for having bad experiences with it.

[h20fwlkillr]

Regardless of what others say about the little giant. I have had a thermostat with too much temp variance. One that the egg turner froze up and the heater not working after 10 days into the incubation. Each in its first year of use. Did not know about other brands at the time. Sorry for having bad experiences with it.

My first Little Giant had some problems. After talking to the manufacturer, I learned that I should have followed the directions and had it on a surge protector. The other 4 I have I've had on surge protectors and no more problems. I get 85-95% hatch rates out of them depending on what species I'm incubating. It can be tough to keep humidity up on them, but a damp sponge takes care of that.

[Ruffshooter]

Yup done that, did that.

[aylaschamp]

I found out a bit more info on the incubator but still don't know the brand name. It has a 1600 egg capacity and is fully automatic. It runs on 220 and the guy says it costs about $100 to hatch out a batch. What size flight pens do you all suggest? I was figuring on 30' by 70'. Planning on keeping about 2000 birds at a time? I also was figuring on two 10x10 brooders for that many?

[h20fwlkillr]

What size flight pens do you all suggest? I was figuring on 30' by 70'.

You need a minimum of .70 square feet per bird. So, you could hold ~1470 birds in a 30x70', maybe a few more if there is sufficient cover provided. Keep them too tight and cannabilism will be a problem. If I were you, I would try to hold the #'s down to 1000 and build 2 pens if you want to keep 2000 birds.

I also was figuring on two 10x10 brooders for that many?

You can run about 10 chicks per square foot in a brooder, so you would should be fine with 2 10x10's.

[kninebirddog]

The more space you can give the better for multitudes of reason specially if your thinking about raising more then 100 birds so for a 10 x 10 area for any duration 100 quail would be max unless your moving them fast

1 foot per bird minimum

2 foot per bird is better for over all movement health and other





to close they will peck and fight and be more canibalistic ....so when you see this two things it is the feed or lack of or being to crowded

[Kory]

Where in Texas are you located? Always looking for a good source for birds.

[aylaschamp]

Just a bit west of Houston. I finally got my kennels up today so looks like the next project is a flight pen. I'm pretty proud of the kennels but didn't get any pics. I'll try to get a few on Sun and post them. I've just been reading all I can on what to expect with the birds so I'm prepared.