I know this isn't chicken keeping but QUAILS!!!

[keelan]

does any of you have any expirience with quails at all? im just wondering because i would like to get some quails and some chickens

[jill]

i've never kept quails myself but one of our neighbours did. He had at least one in an avery with lots of other species of bird. This neighbours back garden adjoins our back gardens a few houses up from me (I hope that makes sense!).
Anyway, a couple of summers ago myself , my next door neighbours and next door but one (!), spent many anxious hours armed with torches after being convinced there was an injured animal in one of our gardens. We heard it night after night but never even caught a glimpse of it. We even had the RSPCA out looking for what we thought was a badly suffering fox cub.
The sound was very distressing for all of us. And then we found out it was a quail and not in distress at all - just bloody noisy.
We thought that we would never get another decent nights sleep again.
The problem was solved by the actions of a neighbours lad (now ex neighbour!) with a fire fetish. Lets just say that we all got a good nights sleep that night!

Chickens in the back garden are one thing but quails are only suitable if you have no near neighbours and you can cope with the agonizing sound they make.

[Allotment Lady]

I haven't a clue what was wrong with your neighbours quail, maybe because it was just one and was calling, but I can honestly say that mine are not noisy. Truly - not just saying that.

The males make a chirrup chirrup sort of noise on and off during the day - but that is not loud at all - you can't hear it away from the immediate area of the quail aviary.

The females are generally quiet. Mine sleep a lot and like my chickens, keep quiet in the night.

Generally I find, that contented poultry are fairly quiet - with the exception of the announcement some of my bantams make after laying an egg. And when I used to have a cockerel 30 years ago - that would of course crow naturally - but it didn't matter then - as most neighbours had them too.

I was just wondering - do you think that your neighbour might have had partridge? Now these are very noisy birds and are often 'mistaken' for quail as they are both small

[wendy]

I have always heard they have quite a piercing peep or similar.
Wendy