Scientific Information
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Subfamily: Phasianinae
Genus: Coturnix
Species: Coturnix chinensis
Species English name: Button Quail
CITES Status: not endangered
Distribution: Extensive - China, India, Sri Lanka, Africa, & Australia
(from The Quails, Partridges, & Francolins of the World, Paul A. Johnsgard)
Description
• There are many different colour phases of the button quail. The three varietiesthat we used to raise were Normals (Chinese Painted), Silvers, & Buffs.
Diet
• We fed our breeders and young adults 20-25% starter crumble & our tinychicks 25% Turkey Starter crumble.
Breeding
• Done in pairs or trios or colonies.
• Button quail reproduce like mice. They start reproducing at a few months ofa*ge and will lay virtually year round if adequate light is provided.
• If they are put on light, they start laying eggs usually in February and will layeither every day or second day until they lay a few hundred eggs. In naturallight, they do not have a set time to start laying, as they will start laying at a fewmonths of age regardless of the light situation.
• They lay a tiny olive egg either speckled or not.
Incubation
• Eggs are collected twice a day and set daily.
• Eggs are set in a Sportsman Ratite hatcher and turned by hand 3 times a day.
• Temperature 99.8°F, humidity-wet bulb 90+ . Make sure both water trays inthe Sportsman are full because they really like humidity.
• Once the chicks are hatched, about 10-12 chicks are put in a wire mesh hatchingbasket for a minimum of 8 hours.
• Incubation for Button Quail is 16 days.
Chicks
• Chicks are the size of bumblebees after hatching. Depending on the colourphase, they can range from yellow to gold to brown with stripes.
• They start out in our round 18" brooder pen with a mixed assortment of buttonchicks. After a few days they are separated into a 2' x 4' baby pen for about aweek. They should be raised with their own kind in 2' x 6' pens for the next 7-9weeks because larger varieties of quail tend to pick on them since they aresmaller. Once we have enough of each variety (e.g. normals, silvers, or buffs),males and females are separated into different pens because the males want tobreed with the females. All of these brooding pens have wire bottoms with a heatlamp at one end and feed & water at the other end. The heat lamp is attached toa dimmer switch so we can turn down the amount of heat as the chicks get olderuntil it is turned off completely.
• After they are off of the heat for a few weeks, they are moved outside to thequail house (a free standing house with less heat than the basem*nt). Theyremain in here until they are sold. All of our breeders are also kept in thisbuilding.
• Chicks are very easy to raise together with their own kind.
Pens
• Breeding pens are 6 feet long x 2 feet wide x 1 foot high.
Behavior
• I like to call them the rats of the bird world. They are filthy, prolific, and havepretty much no personality. They are constantly making irritating noises andscuttling across the floor of the cage. After raising them for over 10 years, theonly positive thing that we can think to say about them is that they paid for atleast 1 year of my University tuition. Plus the chicks are cute for the first week. They look like tiny bumblebees.
Article By Krissy & Donna Bush
Pheasant Ridge
