7 
Facts About Quail Breeding 
the coop at night and then can be 
closed in with the young brood. They 
are let out again about half-past six 
or seven o’clock in the morning. 
1 he only objection to the cellar 
wire yard is its expense, but you only 
have to leave it on for about a week 
or ten days, and can then use it for 
other broods. It keeps the different 
sizes of quail apart until they get large 
enough to look out for themselves, 
and also keeps out vermin to a certain 
extent. The cellar wire ought to be 
removed at the latest when the young 
birds begin to fly over it, for they often 
get out, and are unable to get back. 
After the wire is taken up, the young 
quail tend to pack together in large 
bunches, followed by several bantams, 
and then you run great danger from 
hawks, cats, etc. The free range 
system demands very careful attention 
to vermin trapping, although quail are 
less liable to attack from vermin than 
pheasants are, in my opinion. If the 
weather be very bad, with long storms, 
the quail will have to be kept longer 
under the guard, and even at times 
protected by old glass windows and 
shelters, covering over the guard or 
the ground in front of the coop. The 
ground must not be allowed to get wet 
under the coops, and the coops should be 
moved every other day to fresh ground. 
Under the best conditions, some 
hens are sure to kill young quail, 
usually by scratching about on the 
floor of the coops, but sometimes by 
direct attacks. If the trouble is of the 
former kind, place a burlap on the 
ground under the coop; and if the 
latter, remove the hen as soon as 
possible, and distribute the chicks 
among other hens. 
I have found it a good plan to sow 
a strip of oats along one side of the 
rearing field. This provides dense 
shade in July and good food in August 
and September, and even much later. 
The young quail will, under the 
conditions of hand-rearing, or rather 
hen-rearing, tend to pack together so 
that as a sporting proposition they 
cannot be said to amount to much the 
first season, at least not till late in the 
autumn. 
In my experience the bantams 
should be removed as soon as possible, 
for they only attract hawks, and other 
robbers, and tend to keep the quail too 
tame. Most of the bantams can be 
taken away at the end of about eight 
weeks. Bantams will usually bring the 
quail back to the brooder coops each 
evening and about dark they can all 
be closed in. When the birds are 
about two-thirds grown, they begin to 
sit out at night and are by then well 
able to look out for themselves. 
Quail should not be caught up for 
confinement until they are full grown. 
It would be best to trap them in 
November, December, or January, 
having previously fed them at certain 
spots so that they come regularly to 
these places morning and afternoon. 
By catching your birds late, you run 
much less risk of disease and have 
larger and stronger stock for breeders 
another year. 
The great trouble for the beginner 
has been in getting stock. The laws 
make the shipment of quail extremely 
difficult, and the prices have risen 
accordingly. At one time they cost 
three or four dollars a dozen; now 
they bring from $22 to $35 a dozen. 
I have been asked whether quail 
breeding could be made profitable. It 
is too early to answer that question 
because nobody has handled the birds 
yet in very large numbers, and we do 
not know how much we could crowd 
them, or how long the land would last 
before diseases made a change to fresh 
ground necessary. Undoubtedly the 
price of adult birds would have to be 
high, at least $4 or $5 a pair, and there 
would have to be a good market for 
eggs. As far as breeding for preserves 
goes, the thing is perfectly practicable, 
and the sale of spare eggs and birds 
would greatly curtail the expenses of 
such an undertaking. 
Hand-reared birds have a great 
advantage over wild birds in winter, 
because you can teach them where to 
get their food, and so keep them from 
starvation in the severest weather. 
You will begin to coax them to a few 
good feeding-places before the coops 
are all taken up, and the coop-feeding 
