Teens or kids?

[squirrelhunter]

hey, how many of you on here are kids or teens? I'm 14 and have been raising bobwhites for three years, along with homing and facny pigeons. I'm attempting California valley quail this spring. I'd be interested to know how many other kids are into this stuff.

[quailer370]

what kinds of fancy pigeons do you raise?  i've seen pictures of breeds such as tumblers and fantails, what are yours like?

-quailer370

[squirrelhunter]

they're old German owls.

[quailer370]

i had to google them to get a picture...their eyes are pretty big for pigeons. :shock:

i have been previously advised to not reveal my age online, so in answer to your question: no, im not old.  :lol:

-quailer370

[squirrelhunter]

Yes, large eyes, hence the name owls. Round heads also. Very small birds, roughly the size of or smaller than a bobwhite.

[quailer370]

iv'e heard you say (many times) that you have a natural aviary, do you raise the quail and pigeons in the same setting? that would be kind of cool  quail underfoot and pigeons overhead.  myself, i've been raising for two years.  i used to have twelve quail when i started out but then five of them came down with some mysterious disease-in retrospect i think it might have been pneumonia or some other respitory illness.  to top it all off, my family and i went on a week-long trip and left the house- and my quail!-in the hands of people-who i didnt know!-that were supposed to take care of them.   when we got back, three of them had died because the people didnt feed them properly. so long story short....ive got three.   but im planning on getting more once i get new cages built. im also getting chickens.   i live in CA so i see california quail a lot.  get this-they take dust baths in my mom's garden!

good luck with your quail

-quailer370

[squirrelhunter]

Yes, I have the quail on the ground and the pigeons overhead. I have been down as low as you before, bird farming certainly has its ups and downs. Your not keeping the chickens with the quail are you? I tried that last year and it was disastrous, the chickens had to be butchered for killing quail. As nice as chickens are I think that if you have noted a quail's intelligence you will find a chickens intellect to be quite disappointing. Are you getting bantams? I had them, and I must say that the silkies are by far the best choice, calm, tame, lets you pick them up. very nice. I had two of them out of my six chickens, they were out of the quail pen enjoying free roam. A fox came in the night and killed only those two and left all the nasty ones alone. Then i got rid of the other chickens. Good luck with your birds.

[quailer370]

nah im not keeping the chickens with the quail.  i have heard, besides the rivalry, that there can be transfer of diseases too.

im thinking about getting bantams but i really love barred rocks.  although i suppose i could get the bantams to set on my quail eggs, iv'e heard they're good at that.  the trouble is i have to acquire any future birds as chicks, not eggs (my parents cant put up with another incubator in the house :roll: ) so ill have to take what i can get at my local feed store, which sells chickens in the spring.

-quailer370

[Fivehollers]

I think it is great that you are so intrested in raising birds at your age's. My daughter is 13 and she has 8 rabbits (we raise them for meat) and she also helps her dad with the quail and in the spring she helps me with the incubation and brooding of the chicks. When the chicks have spraddle leg she takes them in her room with a heat lamp and teaches them how to walk, it has worked in all but one case, the little guy just grew wrong. anyway, you are the future of this hobby/business. Keep up the good work.

by the way I am "14" also  :roll:  (well okay 41 backwards   )

Lori Pike
Fiveholler Gamebird's

[squirrelhunter]

Wow, thats a lot of success with the spraddle legged birds. I haven't pulled off saving them that many times. I have become pretty good at raising birds that hatched prematurely. You must exercise them by rolling them about, careful not to break the yolk sac, until energy is burnt trying to right themselves and the yolk sac is involuted.

[squirrelhunter]

nah im not keeping the chickens with the quail.  i have heard, besides the rivalry, that there can be transfer of diseases too.

im thinking about getting bantams but i really love barred rocks.  although i suppose i could get the bantams to set on my quail eggs, iv'e heard they're good at that.  the trouble is i have to acquire any future birds as chicks, not eggs (my parents cant put up with another incubator in the house :roll: ) so ill have to take what i can get at my local feed store, which sells chickens in the spring.

-quailer370

You can order your choice of birds from McMurray hatchery and have them delivered to the feed mill. Then you can have your choice. Otherwise I actually found my birds in the classifieds in the newspaper.

[quailer370]

classifieds, hm? thats an interesting way to find your birds.  id be lucky if the person selling the birds lived near me anyway   good idea though.

i might end up ordering an adult bantam hen online, i just want her to be broody so she can set on my quail eggs! my females wont set at ALL it is so very frustrating.  in fact i have to move the eggs out of the cage so they wont get broken by being stepped on all the time!  do you think a regular, smallish chicken would incubate them?  :P  i really want to start hatching out quail again, and since i cant use an electrical incubator this time around (parents  :roll: )...what species of chicken would get the job done? and how would i go about sending an order of chicks to my feed store?? (geez too many quetions...sorry)

-quailer370

[squirrelhunter]

Bantams will certainly do the job.
getting bobwhites to brood in captivity is a challenge the gamebird farmer must work at for years to perfect.

[animal_lover1920]

Well- I am just starting off with a couple of Bobwhite quail. I am really getting into this!! Its quite fun, actually!  :) I am 12, and have had many animals before, but not quail.  Anyways, heres a list of my animals:

1 Appaloosa Horse
1 Chocolate Lb. Dog
1 Fawn Color Pug
1 fancy rat
2 male dwarf hamsters
4 rohde island red chickens
5 spanish goats (Our doe just had a baby girl!!!   )
1 male scrub cat
1 outside koi pond
14 inside fish taks (SLAM FULL, My mom breeds them.)
 

  I THINK thats it...  :) He he. Well, Gotta go,


Rachel

[quailer370]

Bantams will certainly do the job.
getting bobwhites to brood in captivity is a challenge the gamebird farmer must work at for years to perfect.

any particularly broody breed of bantam? (wow...alliterations-AHH no! school word!)  im thinking about black silkies now that you mentioned them, but am also looking into clean-legged varieties since they will probably be kept outside.

also a question, though the answer may be obvious: can bantams and standard breed chickens peacefully coexist?

-quailer370