RE: Pen Raised Quail
Habitat is important with any game except deer they seem to adapt just fine to neighborhoods and golf courses.
Pen raised quail will survive in the wild if they are healthy, have been weather conditioned. and have all the necesarythings.
Habitat, Water supply, and feed. pen birds need supplemental feeding. very few of them can survive and find food on there own no matter how much is available.
There are only certain types of feed that quail (wild or released) can survive on during a hard winter. feeds with a high protein and or fat content.Peas, lesbadeza, begger lice, ragweed, acorns are some of the wild or natural feeds.
Soybeans seem to be one of the onlyagricultural food sorces that quail can use.
A quial can actually sit on top of a pile of wheat and starve to death during a hard winter. it just does not have enough digestable protein.
Feed in the pen is different. all feeds are made from corn and wheat and have protein contents that are much lower than what is needed.
The difference is thatthis food is milled, extruded,and crushed. Much more of it can be digested in a shorter amount of time than having to procees whole seeds with grit in their craw.
Predators are bad on quailespeciallypen raised birds. They have never seen anything wanting to eat them before. Red tails normally don't hunt wild quail because they are too slow. but, red tails can catch pen raised quail with no problem. they will continue to hunt them untill they are all gone or get faster and wiser.
Pen raised birds will pair off in the spring and mate just like wild birds. Sometimes they even make nests and sit on eggs for a few days.
I don't know theexactstatistic of 1 in how many will raise a clutch ofchicks. But each hen will have a better chance of winning the lottery
I wonder if it is more of an evironmental issue rather than natural instinct.
Do quail have to beincubated and brooded by a mother hen in order to care for eggs and chicks?