Grow Your Own Magazine

I have been offered a male chinese painted quail and I think he looks like a lovely little bird and I'm keen but what I need to know is:

Will he fertilise my birds causing cross breeding?
Is he big enough to do the business with my girls? (I've been told he's about half the size of them)
Will they pick on the poor chap?

Ta very much
Kirsty

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I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

You could try and put him in the same run but be prepared to move him out if he gets picked on.

I dont think thet he will fertilize the hens. I used to keep chickens and ordinary pheasants in the same run with no problems but the top had to be netted to stop the pheasants flying out.

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

I have mixed types of quails in teh same pen. No sign of interbreeding at all...

Thanks guys, I've been told he's slightly smaller than a bantam, so should be able to run fast if the girls get stroppy!! If he gets lonely I'll get him a little girlfriend which will give me tha added bonus of quail eggs now and again.
Going to build him a little hidey-hole so that he can get away from the chooks, some quail sites I've been visiting suggested it.

__________________
I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008