Tractoring quail

[malignstar]

Has anybody ever attempted tractoring/pasturing coturnix quail? I would love for mine to have fresh air, bugs and seeds to eat and room to move around instead of living on wire and eating a commercial mix. Being new to this endeavor, and actually not having started it yet, I've been rolling around ideas on how to reduce food costs but also to create healthier, pastured animals that provide more nutritious meat and eggs. To take care of predators I have looked into ElectroNet- a portable electric fence that's 3 ft tall to enclose the tractor pens to keep out predators. The fence will just move when the tractors are moved. I'd like to have some chicken wire on the bottom of the pens wide enough so the birds can still eat bugs, seeds and grasses but small enough to hopefully keep rats from digging into them and having a killing spree. Of course, the babies will need to eat commercial food while growing but I'm hoping to finish them out in outdoor pens. Does any of this sound feasible? I have never raised anything before and fear that I have a totally unrealistic view of it all.

[Emma]

Hi Malignstar. In the UK, we tend not to keep our birds on wire as seems common in the US - so they are definitely fine put straight onto grass. As most of us only have small gardens, we tend not to move the pens around though. I am sure it would be feasable! I think they will need commercial feed available all through their lives though, as they have higher protein needs than chickens. Apart from that I think it is a totally realistic view

[malignstar]

Hi Emma! Thank you for the reply. How should I go about the commercial feed if they are supplementing their diet with insects, grasses, seeds, etc? Will they naturally eat less feed and more natural foods? I was also reading about keeping them on wire/in hutches reduces the chances of parasites. Should I expect my pastured quail to have mites/lice/etc?

[Emma]

They'll probably pick them up - but you can use louse powder in a tray of sand/wood shavings so they can bathe themselves to kill the parasites. They'll also need worming (in the UK there's something called vermx which is natural, no idea if that's globally available).

My birds have constant access to pellets, and daily they're given some sort of greens. They root in the substrate (I use bark chippings, as they killed grass so quickly) and eat bugs when they find them.