All Bobs are gone!!

[CharlieHorse]

$^%&^$^%$##!!!

I had just gotten back from a 300 mile trip last night about 9:30pm. I went out to check on quail and to make sure water and food was filled, for I had to work today and won't be back home until tomorrow morning. When I approached the pen, I noticed that door wasn't latched, but yet it was closed. It will close and stay closed on it's own even without being latched. I walked in the pen and didn't here the normal noises that they make and thought... uh-oh! I took flashlight and looked around and the only quail in there was one of my 2 year old males!  I had about 25 all together including this years males and females I kept that were about do to start laying next month. I was sick, but that's just life. I knew that they were probably close, but didn't have time before leaving for work this morning to try to catch any. I did see a few before leaving. I have 2 dogs and a cat running around too. The one is calling, so that recall funnel that I was always going to put in and never did, would be handy now!! Hopefully when I get home in the morning, I may be able to corral some back into the pen. I do have 14 that are a few days old in the brooder, but I was going to release those as they are all siblings. I have no idea how the door got unlatched and even if I left it unlatched, the wind or someone would have had to held it open in order for all of them to get out. No time to hatch anymore until end of July because of vacations scheduled, etc. Sure put the hurts on any egg production this year. I'll just have to mark this one as a "unscheduled release"!

[gsc]

I feel for you!  I got home tonight, and 30 2 week old butler bobs were missing.  The good news, they are in a garage and the 5 that were still in the pen were calling the others back.  Found them all with the help of my partner/grandson and back in the pen no worse for the wear.  Hope yours find their way back home to.

[aKirA]

Sorry to hear bud. Im sure some will come back. good luck.

[Reeves]

opps !

[CharlieHorse]

I'll have to say that I have accomplished something from this happening..........I've got all kinds of quail running around. The lone male that is still in the pen is getting "horse" from hollering all day. I can hear the others calling back all around, all day long! Haven't seen any birds or feathers in the yard yet from my dogs or cat catching any of them either. I was going to let the male that is still in flight pen loose too, but he is one of the first birds that I hatched (almost 3 years old) and hate to loose him, although he's pretty lonely, other than he does have the "wild ones" to talk to. I'll start over at the end of July with a new batch when I get back from the beach!!  Look at all the feed I'm saving!

[Fivehollers]

I am sorry to hear of the loss and I feel for you. We lost 30 of our 60 breeders due to predation. We have since added another row of electric fence, purchased rat and conibear traps, along with a live trap, and Friday night the hubby hunted down 3 coons, one small, one medium,  the female was the largest racoon I have ever seen. Some of the birds flew out of the pen through the hole created in the wire and we can hear them calling in the garden and can flush them easily but have yet to get them back. The others, well, they are in the great quail heaven.
thankfully our hatching season went very well and we have over 1000 babies. The last hatch was Sunday and I have wee ones to take out of the hatcher. The rest of the eggs we have been collecting are now pickled and yummy. Hopefully the male will call his girls home.

Lori

[CharlieHorse]

Thanks for the comments everyone. If anyone wants to send me flowers, just PM me and I'll give you my address.  LOL!  j/k!   

  At least they just got out and it wasn't a predator problem like some of you have or have had. I have never had a predator problem yet as far as my penned birds are concerned. So, I feel for those who do.

  This will be a good time for my flight pens to get a break and I can rework the soil and make a few changes on some things while they are empty.

[mainequail]

Three years ago,  I walked into a pen and found 16 dead adult Bobwhite scattered around the pen and inside the coop. A weasel had killed EVERY bird.
It was like a bad dream, just didn't seem real.

It lives about twenty miles away now, on the other side of a big river. It was too small to trip a conibear 110, but did go into a live trap.

Several times I have had quail get out (neighbors dog tore hole in pen, left door open through sheer stupidity, etc.) The majority have always come back in two to three days. I have a  "portable funnel" I can attach to any pen. I also have enough pens that I can borrow a lonesome male from.

I had one group of 30 stay out for a week, then one afternoon they all just piled back into the pen (minus 3-4 that never came back) so have hope!!!

[CharlieHorse]

One of the 3 year old males (the brother to the one in pen) has been hanging real close to pen. He got inside the fence around the garden and I surprised him and caught him. So I put him back in flight pen and the other one chased him all around nonstop. He was tearing at his head, etc. Blood was starting to flow. So I closed the door that seperates pen down the middle to separate them and stop the violence. I should have known better, I knew that you can't seperate bobs for even a day and then put them back together without them fighting. Vicious little critters!

[CharlieHorse]

One of the 3 year old males (the brother to the one in pen) has been hanging real close to pen. He got inside the fence around the garden and I surprised him and caught him. So I put him back in flight pen and the other one chased him all around nonstop. He was tearing at his head, etc. Blood was starting to flow. So I closed the door that seperates pen down the middle in order to separate them and stop the violence. I should have known better, I knew that you can't separate bobs for even a day and then put them back together without them fighting. Vicious little critters!

Well, he must have pecked at him enough in the short period they were together, 'cause I found the one I had caught and put back in pen dead yesterday morning, even though I had seperated them. Should have let him run free!