You can fix splay leg, cut a thin strip of bandaid length-wise, connect the ends (adhesive side in) slide it up above the knee/mid thigh and lightly pinch everything sticky together (so the legs are where they should be naturally). If done right they will still stand and hobble along. After a day or two gently remove the bandaid (be careful with the legs) and the legs will be normal. When done early enough this method will pretty much always work.
I also use vet wrap, works wonders. Can fix curly toes with little cardboard "shoes" and a bandaid or painters tape, leave a couple days and toes are fixed.
I understand how to fix it but I have a question...so I want those genes to propagate? Would it be better to tag that bird and just let it grow up for meat?
I live in South Florida in the suburbs. My daughter and I both raise quail at each of our homes. We raise them for eggs and for meat. In fact I just culled some today. I love being able to provide protein for my family even though I'm not in the country where I would like to be. However, Nana goes where the grand-babies go at least for now.
Just put a small elastic band around the quails legs to hold them together. After about 24hrs bc they grow so fast it will correct itself. I have had to do it with everything fro quail to ducks. Works every time. As for watering the garden, I water everyday when it is dry and my roots still go so deep I can’t pull them out at the end of the season. I think it really depends on a lot of different factors. I hope to get quail again someday I love their eggs!
I have babies hatching right now! Sunday we are butchering a bunch along with teaching a ,new to quail person, how to! Love my quail and the quick turnover rate. Hatch to egg laying around 6 wks. Hatch to butcher we do 8 wks! Breeder ratio 5 hens to 1 roo, so always extra roos for butcher. Eggs and meat nutritious and delicious!
Thank you for your breakdown. I've actually gotten into quail since end of May. I bought 4 hens and 1 roo several months old, so they've been mating and laying eggs. I decided to buy a small incubator that holds 7 eggs, and only 2 hatched. The 2 hatched are 2 weeks old and I believe both girls based on speckled chest feathers. I plan to keep them for eggs and mating with their dad. So I decided to buy a bigger incubator that holds up to 24 quail eggs. I placed 15 eggs in the incubator a week after the 2 hatched girls and, and upon candling at 5 days two weren't fertile, but the other 13 are progressing fine. I plan to keep the hens and maybe 1 boy to switch with the dad and start mating with the mom's so I'll essentially have 2 breeder sets. The remaining birds I'll plan to cull (first timer here), and move forward with hatching the remaining eggs for meat. Did I mention, I'm doing this all in a 1 bedroom apt, lol. Again thank you for the breakdown of when I can expect eggs to start laying and can start pulling for butchering. I initially was feeling overwhelmed on if I wanted to keep incubating, because I don't want an apt full of birds, but with the quick turnaround to be able to butcher and freeze that makes me feel better.
I'm impressed by the temperature light! The feeder is a fantastic idea too. I need to show my little set up, because I could use some pointers as this is our first year raising quail. Ours are on week 10 and will be butchering Sunday. Great seeing Tim again. Please send them our love.
Hi Zack.. I have raised quail on and off for 40 + years.. You're right they are Protein producing Machines. I have 120 that will be hatching on the 5th.. Thanks Zack..
Good to see Tim again. Glad to see he’s doing well. We actually just ordered quail eggs to hatch. Really excited to start this venture. We are going to do a quail aviary and will use them for meat and eggs. Hopefully all goes well
Zachary, we miss you on New2Torah. We know what you’ve said what your reasons are, but you are missed and needed. You yourself have never claimed to be a guru or teacher or person to follow - you are a fellow traveler that a lot of people like to hear from. Still praying for you. I just want to encourage you. ❤
Have had quail for a few years after I developed a chicken allergy, they are great little birds and prolific. Incubating is required though so be aware that they do not go broody like other birds.
I started Qual because I'm alergic to chicken and there eggs. Developed in my early 30s. Then bout 6 years ago I ate raw quail egg on something without getting sick. Now it's smoked, fried, bufallo,etc quail.
Top Tip I saw on a Myshire Farms video The splay leg is from a lack of grip on a standard paper towel Use the blue automotive cloth towels The birds can grip it better and it solves the splay leg problem Happy birding
We’ve had chickens with spraddle leg that were cured by keeping them for a few days in an appropriately sized disposable cup. It keeps them upright until their connective tissues heal to the proper position.
just started trying to hatch quail eggs from myshire farms. first time trying but like the pickled eggs and look forward to a good hatch, or at least mediocre hatch. have the cage boards cut but not put together and the wire bought and ready. thank y'all for all the info and sharing you do. have a blessed day y'all.
Love the opening comment on taking away the incentive. I remember you mentioning about how the guy at the trout farm wanting to give your kid a fish in another video. On quail, I was told there’s two extremes on building their enclosure, you either build the ceiling no more than 12in, or you HAVE to build it more than 7ft tall, anything in between, they’ll break their necks when jumping. We’ve been wanting to raise quail because of how prolific they are for eggs and breeding. We used laser temp gauges in the navy to check all sorts of things from main bearings, to individual exhaust manifolds on the main, and aux generator engines. Handy tool! I prefer pickled quail egg over chicken eggs haha. I absolutely thing quail is a well worthwhile bird for the homestead
We also use a brooder plate for our baby chicks. It is much safer than a heat lamp and uses approximately 1/10th the power. I've been in the HVAC Industry for over 20 years. Those temperature guns are designed to check surface temperature like Tim is doing. They are not designed to check air temperature like a lot of HVAC technicians do.
You can usually fix splay leg if you can find a gentle way to hold their legs in the right position for a day or two. You have to do it soon after hatch. Try a small piece of sponge and medical tape.
Good seeing Tim again. I went quail hunting at 10yrs old with a falcon who was to catch, kill and bring them to you. The falcon was still in training, it did go as planned.
To screen the sand, I use an extra 8 frame wire base from my bee hives. Use an old hand scoop to help load it. For my sand areas takes just moments to capture poop...
I really enjoyed my quail. My problem was I was put in a position to move them in my travel bird cage and all 4 of them ended up jumping so hard they either broke their necks or knocked their heads so hard they ended up not being able to move right anymore. It was a sad experience. I look forward to building a proper cage for new ones when I move. They are make such delightful noises. It's also really funny when they look at you straight-on because it looks like they're grimacing at you like "we're doomed." 😂
Quail are a tasty bird. They are quiet compared to other birds you'd raise on a farm and that's good for city neighborhoods where you have trouble making neighbors who'd call your chickens in to the authorities. Quail take up much less space and they are easy to care for and they breed easily too. I had 20 and hatched 75 out 89 eggs from those 20 birds. With good stuff out of the way, cortunix quail are extremely messy eaters and have to have high protein diets everyday. Other than that they are easy to raise. Good luck if you raise them, they are alot of fun and they almost make music when they make noises. Beautiful birds too the kids will like. They also classified as gamebirds not poultry so the slip through the cracks of poultry laws in your local area.
You can correct straddle (or splay) leg. Use a small hair rubber band (the “ouch less” kind) and a section of a drinking straw. Tie a knot in the middle of the band and slip it through the straw. This creates a hobble. Put a loop on each leg and slide it all the way up. The hobble will hold the legs together. I saved two chicks last year with this method. One we cannot distinguish from the other hens, but the other stumbles a bit. She still lays eggs and became a pet because of her disability. She will have as happy a life as we can provide for her here until she dies naturally.
I have large lot in an old subdivision. I have been thinking about rabbits and quail. The quail for meat and eggs the rabbits for the compost pile only.
When I was younger I enjoyed going to my grandparents farm. They raised many kinds of fowls. I liked the quails because they weren't mean like some of the chickens and the turkeys. were.
I've fixed spraddle leg with a straw and a little piece of rubber band in chickens, ducks, and geese. Once he strengthens up his muscles in the right way he should walk right again. You might try it next time you get one like that.
Have you ever considered making a removable tray by making a 1x2 frame and stapling screen to the bottom of the frame. Then you could just lift the frame out to remove the waste and when you put it back in wiggle it to get the sand to come back up through the screen.
What do you feed your quail. They protein factories but they also need a lot of protein for their size. Just curious and thought your viewers may like to know if you raise any food for them or your other animals.
We are interested in quail, they are delicious. I have a question. What do you feed them? I was looking at game bird feed and I thought it was a little expensive. Our hens layer feed costs less and they get scraps and extra from my veg garden. Can quail be treated the same or do they eat strictly grain feed? Thanks in advance and thank you for the video. 😊
I haven't tried it myself cause the problem hasn't occurred yet, but I have seen where you can use a bread twist tie, make like an eight shape around its feet. They have room to walk and it holds their feet under them til they strengthen. It's worth trying!
Do you have a build video or rough schematics for your quail coops? Did you follow someone’s plan? They are really neat, and I’d like to model my new ones after yours.
My only problem is what would you feed them if you couldn't get the high protein feed from the store 🤔 I feed mine lots of comfrey and meal worms but to grow the worms are a task themselves.
I am about to start another batch of 100 in the Incubator. I can only eat and freeze dry so many eggs. Add in all the chicken and duck eggs, I get almost 50 per day.
I just attempted to hatch 30 eggs from SW game birds, 36 were shipped to my house in Florida, 35 went into the incubator because I flipped one on the floor getting it out of the foam. I also used a Nurture Right 360 incubator. Only 14 hatched, 5 had splay-leg, only one was corrected enough to survive, I do put a grip mat during lockdown. Of the ten that survived to feather sexing, I had two females. I called SW game birds about the low hatch, but they said it was my incubator. It was frustrating. Eggs on our little homestead hatch much better, 75-80%.
Easy to raise indoors if you can tolerate them for 6weeks. They are generally quiet…until the roosters start getting vocal. They have stacking cages which I use in the garage until they are big enough to move outdoors which is around 3-4 weeks. Really,the easiest bird I’ve raised. I’ve harvested around 45-50 over about 8-9 months.
Do the quail need a high protein gameboard feed? Intellectually I like the small space productivity, but are you able to feed off of the garden/ compost like chickens, or can they make weight on a usual 16% layer feed?
I’m just starting my quail adventure. I’m going with a large aviary 8 by 24 A frame. I’m also going to build a hutch for my initial group of quail and use it later as a grow out cage. I’m hoping to start with maybe 20, and hope to be harvesting 40-80 a month by fall! I’ll be building my own forced air incubator in early June! I’m mostly interested in meat production, with the eggs being a bonus!
I had a chick I hatched, and it had sprayed legs, I put a bandage on it's legs to hold them together, and it did very well. Legs were fine and is still living.
Quail require a very hogh protein diet, so Buying feed for the Quail can be cost prohibitive where I live. We are trying to raise only livestock that we can grow or forage feed for. We have thought of growing mealworms in order to feed the quail, but haven't had time to put thar together, yet , since there is only myself to do it now.
Great content! At 8:23 you show how the water runs down to waterers. Is that some type of chicken run or just dead space? I had watched a previous episode when you showed the construction, but it focused more on the lower runs.
Coturnix quail are from Japan and they only fly in short bursts. This is an anecdotal story from the Bible, not recorded in actual history books. We may disagree about the validity of the Bible as a historical document, but scientifically, they are unable to fly high enough(on their own) to land on sails. This is why we keep them in 10"-5' enclosures, more than 10 inches and less than 5 feet is enough for the quail to break their necks.
I really wanted to raise quail this year. Was to busy. I did get some infrastructure in place. I did a lot of research. What I really want to know is do you really need high tech products to raise them? Is there old school ways? My next research.
