My button and coturnix quail have been laying well lately. Each day I collect a small bounty from the garden then stop by the quail enclosure and collect their eggs:
With the latest world events more and more people have been reaching out for advice on self-reliance and how to bring farm life into their small city spaces.
For those wanting to learn farm animal care with limited space, I recommend looking into quail. There are different species of quail of varying sizes and colors but my two favorite are Coturnix and Button. Coturnix are a larger, hardier species. Their eggs are cream colored with pronounced brown specks – see the image above with their eggs in the middle of the image. The smaller green speckled ones are Button quail eggs. I love Button quail eggs because each tiny hen lays her own color of egg. The image below shows a few colors my Button girls lay. It’s hard to tell from the picture but some are dark grey, purplish, mint green and olive green:
Quail eggs are a lot smaller than chicken eggs – it takes at least five quail eggs to equal one chicken egg.
Quail have a lot of traits similar to chickens. If you get them as babies (this is will be a different post) they are very easily tamed – but be aware – they are TINY as hatchlings. They start laying around 8 weeks old and tend to be great layers. They also come in a variety of colors. Below is an image of my temporary cage I’m using for 3 juvenile Button quail, and adult lavender (she looks white in this pic) Button quail and an adult Coturnix hen. She’s old and meek and prefers living with the smaller quail. She mothers them and it’s really sweet – but mixing the two species isn’t normal or recommended – this is a special circumstance for my older hens. Note the size difference of the two adult hens. Button quail are a little smaller than half the size of Coturnix.
These little birds are great short distance fliers but are ground dwellers. Unlike chickens, they don’t roost and don’t need a high overhead area to climb. They love to burrow in grasses and hide in vegetation. When they’re happy they make very sweet sounds – but not loud enough to disturb neighbors through thin walls.
Why do I think quail work well for city dwelling?
- Happy quail tend to be quiet enough to not disturb neighbors.
- Only require a relatively small space (think aquarium (for button quail) or a low and wide hamster cage).
- Good layers of small, colorful eggs – granted, you won’t get full off these small eggs but the point is getting livestock experience and getting used to animal care in a small package. Getting eggs from happy hens is a bonus.
- Behavior and needs that are similar to chickens – perfect for getting your feet wet in farm animal care.
The biggest things are:
- Research and choose the species that’s right for you. I recommend looking into Button quail where you can keep 3 or 4 in most apartments. For coturnix quail I recommend getting 2 hens.
- Only get females – the last thing anyone needs are issues with potentially aggressive males. Females only.
- Familiarize yourself with raising quail and their specific needs to see what works best for your circumstances.
- One thing that could be a pain is – make sure your quail don’t drink city water. Fluoride and Chlorine are bad for them so you’ll have to use bottled water.
- Like any animal species – there’s a lot to know so make sure you research their health needs and behavior before jumping in.
I’ll make follow up posts for keeping quail as my time permits. But hopefully this gives a quick overview and introduction to starting your apartment self-reliance journey.
xo