I have one male button quail. We got him from the pet store because he was alone. He runs around our house like a puppy. Me and the kids hold and cuddle him. He has been such a joy to have around since we cannot have a dog or cat. I've been handling since I got him so he is very tame. I even hand feed home steamed rice. It's adorable ☺️
I just love seeing you all excited again!! I was completely gutted for you when it came to the chickens and I could see the light dimmer in your eyes after that..but the spark is back and I am so glad and happy for you! you found an excellent alternative until you find your forever piece of land and home at some point where you can expand livestock wise. They sound absolutely adorable and the eggs are so teeny!!! can't wait until we can see some babies!
I have 8 of these little cuties in the livingroom.. and I luv to hear them chatter =) And when they making that "laughing" sound.. you can't help but laugh with them.. they are just so comical =0) I'm so sorry that you had to get rid of your chickens =0( Just wait till you get your coturnix quail and the boys start hollering "look-at-me!" LOL They are a riot as well.. Good luck in your quail adventure =0) You're gonna luv it =0)
You can have my buttons, we bought some fertilised quail eggs for hatching and some turned out to be buttons. I don't know their sex but they are beautiful colours
I just got a breeding trio.. my hen laid an egg on the way home.. I need to put a small hutch in the cage for her.. need to do that tomorrow.. lovely video thanks for sharing.. very informative
Believe it or not Buttons are not actually quail! They just have quail qualities, so that's what they grouped them with. It's a hemopodge (doubt I'm spelling it right). They are so cool!
My brother raised button quail while in college. He would take the babies to the pet store for store credit for food for his other pets. One more way you could maybe profit from them. Have fun!!
I have had the same experience with pairs, I have had to separate when the female started incubating. The hens can get very aggressive with their eggs, but at the same time I have also had males sit with the hens and help incubate and raise the chicks the whole way. I think it just depends on the quail.
Here in Australia, King Quail (Chinese Painted Quail - Coturnix Chinensis) are very rarely incubated, they are bred almost solely by the hens brooding the eggs in the back corner of someones aviary. The hens are very good at it and most the time both hen and cock will raise the chicks. Some time googling their correct names will yield better search results.
Just FYI: There's other types of quail besides buttons, and some can be kept outside and used for meat as well as eggs. So any fellow homesteaders out there dealing with chicken bans, you will *usually* be able to get around city ordinances by keeping quail. Of course if you have an HOA, they might have tighter rules, so be sure to check.
Now that you have had your buttons for a while, how is that "one square foot per bird" working out? I have one couple in a small rabbit cage and it does give them at least one square foot per bird but I do not feel that is enough or they are happy. They are both nervous. The male tries to bite if I get close and the female is a nervous wreck when I get close. They crow and cry through out the night as well. I have 2 couples in larger cages and they seem happier.
I loved this video! I own 3 of these button quails, they're called King quails here in Australia and I've been searching the internet for some information on brooding. One of my females recently hatched 2 out of the 10 eggs but I ended up finding the chicks dead inside the box. I was wondering how you went on? I've read that males can end up killing the chicks but since you've separated yours you may not have run into this issue. Keep posting these videos! Much love from Australia :)
My hen stayed broody until about 3 days till it was time to hatch 😕. I put them in the incubator, they hatched and I did attempt to put mama with them at 5 days old because they didn't seem as frail. She took them, until the male started crowing. Then she flipped out and started pecking at them. So she is back with him and they are in a brooder. I'm going to let her try again but this time if she goes broody, I'm putting them far away from one another and seeing how that goes.
Thanks so much for replying so quick! I was starting to get worried. Just another question, did you notice how long it took for your quails to hatch completely out of their egg? I noticed one of mine had cracked through enough for us to see its head but it hasn't made any other progress so far and I didn't know if I needed to intervene. Thank you :)
Mine took about 15-20 mins from start to finish. If it's been longer I would take the cap off of the end of the egg and then let it come out on its own.
Hope'sHomestead New sub here. Thanks! Average low temp in my area is around 39 degrees. How do Button Quail do at that temp? I'm in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California.
Misnchince I don't put mine outside. They are meant to be kept indoors. The cone from china so I would assume that you would be ok if your temps are similar.
Wow! That egg is tiny! You'll have to show some more video of your livestock. :) Do you think you will expand to other breeds of quail, or just stay with the button?
My button quail hatched about a week ago! It was much more successful that I expected. I had 19 babies and all survived. I am do not think I will be able to keep all of them, but I am reading buttons pair off and are monogamous. I would hate to break up a couple once they pick each other out. Do you know if buttons will find another boyfriend or girlfriend of they are separated?
Hi I’m new to button quail I have a hen setting on eggs. Do they stop laying eggs while they are setting on eggs and how long after they hatch does she go back laying eggs
thanks for the detailed video. I live in South Florida condo but am interested in hatching quail I was thinking buttons may be the way to do since I am not interested in butchering something I raised from a chick and eating the eggs might be fun once and a while but not a priority for me. I mostly just want the hatching experience. I have been buying all the accessories needed to hatch and brood chicks, I just need the eggs. One of these days I will take the plunge
thanks for the reply. I am excited about starting but want to find someone in S Florida with a farm or large yard that is willing to take extras should more hatch than I can handle.
ok so I have been reading up on Coturnix mostly because they are the most common to raise in homes. Do buttons have the same incubation? Set my incubator to 37.5? Same food?
ok thanks, I guess about day 13 I will turn off the turner and set them. I just found a farmer in S Florida willing to give me a few button eggs. I will just offer back any extra birds I cannot handle or keep craigslist in mind. I see quail chicks are selling for 3 dollars in my area. I am sure I would get some takers for give a ways
I drove out to the country and met the person with button quail eggs. He kept digging more and more out of his aviary and I ended up with 41! But he had not idea how fresh they were so he told me to take them all. I incubated them and followed all the instructions and 16 days later 3 hatched. I did not want to open the incubator so I turned it down to 37.3 and let them sit. That evening we had 8 and I finally took them out and put them in a brooder. I let the rest sit, but figured they were done. The next morning another was hatching but the shell was stuck to his back. We watched him for hours but it would not shake loose. I was concerned he would die anyway so I took hold of the shell and let him pull away from it. He cam out ok but had a sore spot on his back with blood. I put him in the brooder but the others were pecking at his sore spot so I turned the incubator down to 35 and put him back in food and water. The next morning he was doing fine and had 10 more friends with him! My hatching took 36 hours. I kept the older and younger ones apart for a couple days until I saw the back on the injured one was healing nicely. I finally put them all in one box but we monitored day and night. I did not sleep much! LOL Kind of like a nervous parent! All 19 survived and by a week and a half they were big enough to fly yet small enough to fit though the cage. We had to chase several down and my GF made a cloth to cover the cage. I even had one bird show up in my shoe! Anyway, they got to be too much to manage and I was constantly cleaning the cage. I was out in the country the next week and we found a farm that was selling cheese. We told the farm girl about our button quail and she was interested in them. I sadly had to give up 12 of them but they all looked happy in their new home with a larger cage. I do not know what she will do with them, but I do know she loves animals and refuses to slaughter chickens, goats on cows. She only sells them. If she sells my buttons so be it. Anyone that pays for them will probably take care of them. My flock of 7 I still have at home is doing fine. I can control the smell now, with 19 even daily cleaning did not completely rid our apartment of odor but our 7 sit happily out on our porch. It looks like I will only need to clean the cage every 2 or 3 days and that is fine. My GF has one tamed. She named him little PIPI because he is smaller than the rest and did not look like he was going to make it. I would stand by himself and cry PEEP PEEP PEEP. My GF put him in a glove and held him, blew warm air on him and whispered to him until he would sleep and put him back when he started squirming again. He is growing now and looks like he will be fine.
I have rabbits and pine and cedar are toxic to them. The quail will be in a different cage so what do I use? I don't want the shavings to spread to the rabbits.
For me I would do the same as you would a chicken. Put the cages very close together so they can see and hear one another. Then after 4-7 days if you can get a separation for the cage put it in and add the new quail for a few days before removing it. The only other suggestion is if the it's younger quail being added in with older, put the older guys into the younger babies cage. They are territorial so taking them out of their comfort zone may help.
Females can also have beard, it really depends on gens, not gender. Young females tend to have red feathers, but so far I have not seen them stay on females.
Hey. I just got two buttons and one of them has already escaped as the slots between the bars in my aviary are to big. 😥 So now I have to keep the female in the house. She is also really shy. What do I do now?? Please help!
Ok I spoke to you several months ago I was incubating my first button quail eggs, so they hatched 35 of 48 the females are now laying a lot I've heard that they need calcium supplements, please give me some advise I don't want to risk the hens health and I cant determine who are hens and roosters some its is obvious others I cant tell and I still have them all caged together but am wanting to bring some in for pets. Please HELP?
They're small but a full-grown button quail is not the same size at all as a new chicken chick. An adult button quail is about 10x bigger than a chick.
actually females will fight over males that they like as well, they really prefer to live in pairs, also they really like to eat insects and love dust baths as well, sand made for reptile cages works best and it can be sifted and used over and over again
if their pets and you have more than one you're an outsider unless you are aware of how to create the conditions to be included... there isn't much information out there available and honestly you'd be better off not taking on board any of it anyway... every human is different as is every quail so reading and following information fed to you by others will inhibit that uniqueness giving you common general results that are average,,,,, wing it like a graceful dove... Your far better off as your learning curve will be more insightful....
I am not sure where you got your info but a lot of it don't hold water. I have my buttons in a 10 x 8 x 18 foot pen I have deep water bowls also no bedding .I have 3 times as many males as females and they do not fight.I have had them several years and no problems.
