Raising Bobwhite Quail

I am thinking about raising quail to hunt, train with and possibly sell.

How many would be a good amount?

Space requirements?

Is there a market and what do they go for?

If I wanted to hunt them how many would you typically turn out?

You might try Walter. https://poetryshootingclub.com/tb/ . He also belongs to Lone Star HRC. I think he goes by shooterwalter on this forum.

I actually looked at this today in place of raising chickens. Lots of pros, downside being they’re small in comparison, 3 eggs to one chicken egg, but they mature quickly, like 6 weeks at the earliest if I recall, and obviously pretty good eating. From what I read, you’d need less space, pretty much contained vs cage free chickens, and I’d suspect they’re quieter too. Be interested to see if anyone experienced chimes in.

I raised Bob whites and love it.
The birds only need 12"x12" per bird as a space requirement. My flight pen was 12'x20'x6'6" high and I had 80 birds in there with no problem. It takes 26 weeks (6 months) for them to be fully mature, but most birds I sold for hunting/training were at 16-17 weeks old.
For me buying day old chick's worked best. You'll have to keep them in smaller pens/broader until their fully fethered before putting in flight pen.
Pm me if you have questions.

I think you're talking about Coturnix quail. Yes they mature at 8 weeks and are raised for meat & eggs, not released for hunting.
A Coturnix quail has been domesticated for 2000 years and don't fly. I also have experience raising these also.

I currently have about 20 chickens. I live on 16 acres. They free range 90% of the time.

I actually like the sounds chickens make but not nearly as much as a quail whistle.

My plan is to convert a little 4x10 barn I already have into a quail house and build a flight pen off of that.

When I was younger we had several large coveys on our property. Then they were gone. I raised Georgia Giant Bobwhite Quail. Over a three year period I turned around 2,500 loose on our ranch. Been about 10 years now and still seeing coveys. Neighbor ranches also reporting back they also see coveys. . Purchased eggs on line from two reputable companies. Delivered by USPS. Hatched them out. I released them at about nine months. Yearly report and permit through TPWD. Your final raising pen has to be long +150 feet and tall +12' for them to develop flight skills. There is a lot more, read up on them it takes space, money, time but if done right its so rewarding.

I have been reading up on them quite a bit.

I have a good space already to keep them.

Planning on getting 50-100 in May to start.

I’ll most likely use them for training and release them to hunt. I have secured several thousand acres within 20 minutes of my house to hunt them on. Maybe over the next decade of releasing them consistently it will help establish a better wild population but if not that’s ok. The ranch already has wild bobwhites just not enough to really hunt consistently.

If that's the case then I would spend my efforts on habitat improvements and predator control. There's no substitute for wild birds.

I’ve heard that pen raised birds have the potential to spread disease to wild birds.

Not my ranch, they already call the [censored] out of it for predators. I just get to hunt dove and duck out there a couple times a year I don’t have any say.

This article outlines the common diseases found in pen raised birds. It ends on the quote below. It is definitely something to consider but as long as the birds released are healthy there shouldn’t be a problem.

“However, most of the diseases mentioned in this article are only a problem while the birds are being raised in confinement. They rarely occur as outbreaks in the wild. Thus, it is my sincere belief that the threat of disease being introduced into our native population by released birds is minimal at best, but we must continue to be vigilant and take steps to keep it this way. The first step being to obtain healthy birds from a reputable supplier who implements a good health maintenance program.”

I’ve been on ranches that forbid any pen raised birds be released.

If a place had a good wild population the risk wouldn’t be worth it even if it was very minimal. No reason to release pen raised birds if you already have a good wild population.

If you don’t have much of a wild population and the birds released are healthy, the risk is minimal and there isn’t really any reason to not release pen raised quail in the absence of a healthy local population.

If I owned the ranch, maybe I would concentrate my efforts on improving habitat and increasing the wild population.

That’s just not really in the cards at this point.

Consider building a Johnny House for quail. There are lots of advantages to housing a covey on your land.

https://bootsandbriars.com/johnnys-house-a-home-on-the-range/

I’ve seen those. Might do that. I would be somewhat worried my cats would get in there.

Texas requires an annual game bird breeders license to raise bobwhites, $35.

Contact Dan Hendrickson, he’s on the north side of Abilene. He can probably help you with building, or plans for a Johnny house.

House cats are a definite quail killer.

I saw a predator proof funnel entrance that looked like it would work well.

They still might get them out in the field though. I’m still planning on keeping 100 or so in a pen but also trying to keep 25 or so in the Johnny house.