Removing some of the males has really helped. We have two males and nine females outside right now. I’d heard the male crowing described as the loudness of a cat’s meow, but I’d really put it at somewhere between meowing and the barking of a small dog. They seem to get into fits of crowing 2-3 times, and then quieting for 20 minutes-an hour.
This would normally be ok, except for two things. One, our neighborhood is very very quiet. It’s one of the things I noticed when we were looking at houses. Like a graveyard. Two, I like to sleep with the window open and I am a light sleeper. No one else has complained, but it bothers me.
We have a space between our cabinets in the garage. I think it’d make a great area for a pen. This will also allow me to do some selective breeding instead of relying on colony breeding.
Right now I’m in the process of designing an easy-to-construct, attractive pen with a couple features that will reduce mess and clean-up time. It will be divided into 2’x2′ sections (large enough for 4 quail each) where I can do some selective breeding. My little hobby will be to breed as large a coturnix quail as possible.
Hopefully this will also provide a nice reference for those people who would like to keep their quail indoors!
Coming soon…more natural home cleaning solutions. We are also working on a larger project – brewing our own sake!