Facts About Quail Breeding 
stimulate the farmer’s interest, but to 
eventually give the non-shooting public 
game to eat, and plenty of it. Already 
laws have been modified in a good 
many states to permit the rearing of 
game under license, and the sale of 
such raised game under proper super¬ 
vision, but still a bitter war is being 
fought out between the two opposed 
camps of game protectors. On the 
one hand are the restrictive cranks 
who want to legislate all game and 
sport out of existence, and on the 
other hand the extreme game breeders 
who would abolish all laws except 
those covered by the Federal migratory 
statutes, and let game flow into the 
markets again. Obviously it is not 
quite time to adopt the latter course, 
but perhaps we are coming to it. 
In the meantime, then, let us see 
what may be done in a small way with 
our native bob-white. These (and 
the California quail) are the only 
members of our American gallinae, 
(barring turkeys), which have proved 
easy to rear, and the bob-white is so 
remarkably easy that the wonder is he 
has not been raised before on a large 
scale. 
Bob White and the Hen 
In Outing for October, 1915, there 
was an article devoted to quail raising 
which lauded the incubator and brooder 
methods, and dismissed the humble 
hen with scant attention. The writer is 
an advocate of the bantam method, 
and knows of many other quail farms 
that are using bantams with marked 
success. We see no disadvantage in 
using hens if they are the proper type, 
and we feel sure that natural methods 
are best for game birds whenever it is 
possible to use them. 
Suppose then, that you have your 
stock of breeding quail bought and 
paid for and wintered in a fairly large 
pen, vermin-proof. Along in April or 
early May is the time to mate up your 
birds, and this is a rather delicate 
operation, because quail are very soft 
feathered and require to be carefully 
handled. 
You have already provided your¬ 
self with mating pens, one for each 
pair. I have tried various sizes. My 
first were 3x6 feet on the bottom and 
Z x /i feet high, covered in with one- 
inch mesh, and fitted with a board 
a foot high around the bottom, and 
with a door in one end. It is a good 
thing to board up the end opposite 
the door, and also, if you want still 
snugger quarters, to attach a wooden 
box 22 inches square to the back end 
of the pen outside, with a small door 
leading into it. Then when you are 
gathering eggs or cleaning the pen, 
the birds will run into the box and hide 
until you are through. 
We have made other pens in port¬ 
able sections. They are 12 feet by 5 
on the bottom, and 4Vo feet high, but 
they cost about ten dollars each and 
have few, if any, advantages. We have 
gotten just as many eggs from the 
smaller pens, and the birds have kept 
fully as healthy, if properly fed. The 
advantage of the sectional pens is 
that they can be taken down and stored 
in piles. 
Quail placed in large runs, even with 
only one pair to a run are not apt to 
do well, in my experience. 
Placing the Pens 
The placing of your mating pens is 
very important. They should get lots 
of sun and very little, or no, shade, 
and you should avoid ground where 
the grass will grow up long and rank 
in the pens. I made a great mistake 
formerly in placing pens in the woods; 
now I put them out in the most ex¬ 
posed situations and on old worn-out 
pasture ground. We put in a couple of 
thick pine boughs for shelter, a little 
heap of sand for dusting, a little 
charcoal and shell grit to promote 
digestion and a crockery fountain for 
water. A narrow strip of wire netting 
should be pegged down to the ground 
all around the bottom of the pen to 
keep vermin from burrowing under. 
The mated birds should be disturbed 
as little as possible, and fed once a 
day only enough for their actual 
needs. Never put more than one pair 
in a pen. 
