This is a cage I designed and built for my button quail. I found some large cookie sheets on sale. They became the dropping pans. The rest of the cage is built from 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth, clipped together with j-clips.
We now have a total of 6 button duplexes for a total of 12 "apartments".
First residents of the Button Duplex are Tater(cinnamon) and Sunny (white) on the left and Diablo (Double Factor Blue Face hen) and Rocket (Red-breasted Wildtype) on the right.
The Italian Coturnix is a Pharaoh quail with the yellow gene switched on. They are popular for their looks and for egg laying.
I have two hens and four roos. Today I moved them out of the plastic tub into two growout cages and weighed them each. Hens: 209g, 182g. Roos: 153g, 150g, 135g, 123g. I put the two hens in with the largest rooster for now. And the other roos are in their own cage.
There are more Italian eggs in the incubator, so stay tuned.
Yee-haw!!! A new batch of baby buttons arrived Wednesday night. They are a rainbow of colors! Hopefully there are plenty of hens in the bunch. In the last batch, there were only two hens, so I've got a bunch of eligible bachelors waiting around.
These white coturnix chicks are growing so fast and there are so many, I had to separate them into two brooders. They are especially sweet-natured.
At four weeks the button quail were developing colorful new feathers and personalities. They copy each other on new skills - like flying.
My quail are laying! This morning when feeding, I found the first egg lying in the pine shavings. A few hours later, I found an egg in each of the two cardboard hiding "houses". What good birds!
I was not expecting this quite yet. They are a few days short of 6 weeks, when laying usually begins. Surprising, too, that all three started laying on the same day.
We don't have a quail rooster, so these eggs are infertile and will be eaten.
Hard to believe the Pharaoh Quail are already 5 weeks old! It looks like we've got three hens, which is okay because we want the eggs. They don't need a rooster to lay non-fertile eggs for eating. So that's their next milestone.
Our little chicks have grown into really sweet birds. Peep enjoys being petted and likes to sit on top of their little box house. Princess Leia thinks the house is her personal space, but sometimes shares with Groundwalker. These two have been very close since they both hatched at the same time.
I was expecting these eggs to hatch Saturday, but the little pranksters began hatching Thursday evening, almost simultaneously. Sixteen hatched before midnight and three more just after. The last one hatched about 5:00 am.
Two days early and the mischief did not stop there:
