Coturnix Japanese feral Quail

[rkappes]

Anyone use these for training?

[birddog1968]

Nope and wouldn't personally.

[bb560m]

Nope and wouldn't personally.

Why not?

[Dirtysailor]

Used a few to start 4 week old pups once. Imagine a B52 flying needs a long run way to get started. Only this one doesn't stay airborn long. They aren't real hardy either.

[DonF]

Yep. They are a disaster looking for a place to happen. But I know a guy here in Oregon that used to raise Bob White's for NSTRA clubs that has gone to coturnix for himself and he claims it's how they are raised. He claims his fly every bit as goog as Bob White's. I know the guy and would not doubt his word but I have no idea how he does it. I have been to his place and have seen his set up. He has a rather large building for brooding the birds and then a fenced in raceway to his flight pen. In the flight pen, he till's it and plant's it every year before he let's the bitds in. You look in it and you have to look real good to see birds in there thru the cover.

But that aside, I would not try them again for any reason.

[kninebirddog]

basically They are bred for dinner not for flying

There is a very small window when they will fly OK but after that they are only good for the skillet

[Ralph Ford]

I have used them before. They seem to require a large flight pen to be worthwhile fliers. Talk about egg layers though. Wow!

[mcbosco]

Feral? I doubt they would survive long.

[kninebirddog]

Feral? I doubt they would survive long.

I think Feral was mistaken for the word Pharaoh Quail

[rkappes]

Shucks! I was hoping they would work. I found some close, readily available, and fairly cheap. I don’t know a ton about quail. I asked the gentleman on the phone to spell out the type of quail he had so I could check them out and he spelled out ‘Coturnix Japanese feral Quail’ I even questioned ‘feral’ meaning ‘pharoah’ but he was pretty persistent it was ‘feral’. Sooo who knows I guess.

[kninebirddog]

Shucks! I was hoping they would work. I found some close, readily available, and fairly cheap. I don’t know a ton about quail. I asked the gentleman on the phone to spell out the type of quail he had so I could check them out and he spelled out ‘Coturnix Japanese feral Quail’ I even questioned ‘feral’ meaning ‘pharoah’ but he was pretty persistent it was ‘feral’. Sooo who knows I guess.

Maybe feral to him as they are not on the dinner plate yet

[Chukar12]

I had a great uncle who went by the name Ferrel, however, in reality he was definetely Feral...it is an easy term to confuse.

[Ron R]

I had a great uncle who went by the name Ferrel, however, in reality he was definetely Feral...it is an easy term to confuse.

That is so stupid that it's funny . No offence . I can't stop smilin' and shaking my head.

[Sharon]

Shucks! I was hoping they would work. I found some close, readily available, and fairly cheap. I don’t know a ton about quail. I asked the gentleman on the phone to spell out the type of quail he had so I could check them out and he spelled out ‘Coturnix Japanese feral Quail’ I even questioned ‘feral’ meaning ‘pharoah’ but he was pretty persistent it was ‘feral’. Sooo who knows I guess.

I've used them when desperate. They are allowed in ON where as bobwhites can not be bought except for game farms. I only used them with a mature dog for fun and a little practice.

[Ken Lynch]

Have a friend who uses them to steady his broke dog for hunt test or field trials. He will plant the bird and let the dog go on point. He then gets bird to walk away of do one of its poor flight. He then blanks the bird and heels the dog off. After putting dog away he goes back and picks up the bird for use another day.

[Hookadooka BirdDogs]

Coturnix came in to use years ago because they are supposed to give off more scent than a Bob White even though much smaller. They fly like the Wright Brother's first plane for sure.

[Fester]

they are ready to eat in under 10 weeks thats the only good thing about them and they also reach sexual maturity in that time and start laying if you want meat thats your bird
fester

[ezzy333]

Think I will stick with Rock Cornish. They hit 5 pounds in 6 weeks and are about the best there is on the dinner table.

Ezzy

[Fester]

I'll take rock cornish LOL
Fester

[hustonmc]

Coturnix came in to use years ago because they are supposed to give off more scent than a Bob White even though much smaller. They fly like the Wright Brother's first plane for sure.

I'm not ragging on you Hooka, your just posting a theory., But, these always get me.........How can anyone make a claim that one species puts off more scent then another. There is no scientific methid I can think of. I have seen left over training coturnix finally pointed in the 7th brace, with the Bobs cleaned out every run, so makes for an interesting argument.

I am one of those god awful people that use these worthless birds for training, with much success. I also happen to be training, hunting, field trailing, bird raising, whiskey drinking partners with the gentleman DonF speaks of in the above post. I'll tell you this for a fact, belive me or not. But these worthless coturnix will flat fly out of site. There are about as many different strains or lines of coturnix as there is in Setters. Some coturnix are just flat worthless, most of them are. We get ours from Georgia Quail farm. Can get 600 eggs for $180 and there are mature and ready to use in 6 weeks. When we have about 200 left we collect another 600 eggs, and hatch out some more. 1200 birds for $180, I'll stick with coturnix. Now like DonF mentioned, we are NOT greedy with room, flight pens are 150x50 and more natural habitat then most shooting preserves.

Hey Don, Tom says your also welcome to come up if you want to see these little boogers fly for your own eyes.

[Grousewing]

I raise, sell and train with coturnix quail. They mature around 6 weeks and start laying eggs around 8 weeks. I have had great flying birds after they have been in the flight pen for 3-4 weeks.

[Munster]

I think at this point take what you can get. I have been looking for quail for a month now. Finally found a guy that had 30 Vally,scaled and gambels quail. I dont know a thing about these other then it says "quail" at the end! We shall see how it goes!

[gotpointers]

I think at this point take what you can get. I have been looking for quail for a month now. Finally found a guy that had 30 Vally,scaled and gambels quail. I dont know a thing about these other then it says "quail" at the end! We shall see how it goes!

The gambels and scaled quail are what we have here in NM. They are spooky and will not calm down when raised in captivity. I have raised bobs, and the pharoh quail also. The bobs calm down but still work well. the pharohs is the most domesticated quail. I have seen them have zero fear of predators. They have to be motivated to fly and when they do they may just fly straight to the dog. I will stick to bobwhites.

[Hookadooka BirdDogs]

Coturnix came in to use years ago because they are supposed to give off more scent than a Bob White even though much smaller. They fly like the Wright Brother's first plane for sure.

I'm not ragging on you Hooka, your just posting a theory., But, these always get me.........How can anyone make a claim that one species puts off more scent then another. There is no scientific methid I can think of. I have seen left over training coturnix finally pointed in the 7th brace, with the Bobs cleaned out every run, so makes for an interesting argument.

I am one of those god awful people that use these worthless birds for training, with much success. I also happen to be training, hunting, field trailing, bird raising, whiskey drinking partners with the gentleman DonF speaks of in the above post. I'll tell you this for a fact, belive me or not. But these worthless coturnix will flat fly out of site. There are about as many different strains or lines of coturnix as there is in Setters. Some coturnix are just flat worthless, most of them are. We get ours from Georgia Quail farm. Can get 600 eggs for $180 and there are mature and ready to use in 6 weeks. When we have about 200 left we collect another 600 eggs, and hatch out some more. 1200 birds for $180, I'll stick with coturnix. Now like DonF mentioned, we are NOT greedy with room, flight pens are 150x50 and more natural habitat then most shooting preserves.

Hey Don, Tom says your also welcome to come up if you want to see these little boogers fly for your own eyes.

Hustonmc,
The operative word in my post was "supposed" to have more scent. Not my theory. Just what has been written in several books and used by retailers at fowl shows at fair grounds to push their Coturnix.
I found the rest of your post very interesting and am never too old to learn something new. At what age do you release the chicks into the flight pen with the more mature birds?

[ultracarry]

I think at this point take what you can get. I have been looking for quail for a month now. Finally found a guy that had 30 Vally,scaled and gambels quail. I dont know a thing about these other then it says "quail" at the end! We shall see how it goes!

Valley, scaled, and gambles...... You might need to use a string and piece of pvc to drag them down after a flight. Spookey birds for sure.

[hustonmc]

I got ya Hooka, I knew where you were coming from.

We release the first group at about 5 weeks because it's still cool outside. The 2nd batch at 4 weeks. Any younger and they'll fly straight through the netting. No issues with canabalism but not many older ones left by that point.

[gotpointers]

I do miss having these quail maybe not so much for.training but eating. I bought over 500 of these eggs the year before last from two sellers off ebay. Really poor hatches lots of clear eggs. When i had my own birds going strong years back, i was having each hen lay an egg almost daily. The short incubation time and the hardiness was unmatched. I may try buying another batch of eggs from the supplier mentioned in an earlier post. I will also try the flight pen.

[Hattrick]

any of you guys use those georgia gaints for training? I'm hatching abunch out now they are about 1 third larger than bobwhites or corntixs. I have used corntixs before with no problem. Bad flying is actullay good for steadying a dog, BUT not good for puppies. I hate not being able to fine planted birds with them a being so small and buring in the grass. That why i'm trying the giants

[sckwest1]

I purchased the coturnix quail and used them in launchers with good success. I was training with a blank gun and was able to work the dogs for a couple days on these birds as they survived in the wild for a few days and flushed good for me. I have by far heard many more horror stories than I have success stories with these birds. Goodluck, SCK

[rkappes]

used them in launchers with good success.

I was thinking a launcher might work well, maybe I'll have to buy one, the DT launchers seam reasonably priced at $279. I'm getting a few of these quail and we're going to give them a try this Saturday. We have some bird boxes we use for planting birds so we'll give those a go. Like mentioned above probably just blank the birds and heel the dogs off. We'll see how it goes.