If you’re interested in keeping backyard poultry, you might like the idea of owning a mix of different species. While I love my chickens, I couldn’t resist the idea of adding delightful little quail to my menagerie. But before I did that, I needed to be sure that mixing chickens and quails would not cause problems for either type of bird.
Chickens and quail do not make good companions in the coop and should rarely live together. Housing chickens and quail together raises issues such as disease, aggression, egg-eating, and improper feeding. Due to their different food and environmental requirements, they should be kept separately.
I’ve been fascinated by the tiny quail I see in aviaries, and though I already had a small flock of six chickens, I wanted to see if it was possible to keep quail with my hens. While all poultry will have similar needs, I was worried about the size difference and any specific issues the quail might have. I researched the logistics of chicken and quail living together and found it is sometimes possible.
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Can Chickens And Quails Live Together?
The short answer is no, as the birds have different requirements, and chickens are notorious for ‘hen-pecking’ birds they consider smaller and weaker. However, there is a way of keeping chickens and quail together in a limited fashion.
Chickens can be bullies to other birds, and if your chickens have access to quail, they might attack and kill them. Sadly, the idea of chickens and quail living together in a run or aviary is very much fantasy.
Another issue with keeping these birds together is the problem of diseases transmitted between the species. The primary problem disease is coryza, which is infectious and quickly passed between quail, growing chickens, and laying hens.
Coryza signs include facial swellings, smelly nasal discharge, watering eyes, breathing trouble, and anorexia. Poultry with this infectious respiratory disease needs to be treated with antibiotics. Even so, antibiotics do not eliminate the infectious bacteria in carrier birds, so the problem can re-arise.
Quail are more susceptible to coryza than chickens, so keeping them together will likely spell bad news for your quail flocks.
Unfortunately, mixing flocks is one of the most significant causes of coryza spread. For this reason alone, keeping quail and chickens together is not recommended.
Will Chickens Hurt Quail?
Another good reason chickens and quail should not live together is because chickens tend to bully and attack other birds. You can see this action within a flock of chickens, where the top hen pecks all the others, and a pecking order is established.
Quail are much smaller birds than chickens, making them targets for your chickens. Your aggressive chickens will see these tiny birds as
Chickens will also eat your quail eggs if they find them, which will be a big problem whether you raise quail for eggs or meat.
In some cases, chickens will ignore the quail and let them go about without attacking them. If your quails and chickens were hatched at the same time in the same brooder and grew up together, your chickens may ignore the quail.
If you have a large property and your birds are free-range, the chickens and quail will form separate flocks and should hopefully ignore each other.
It might not be a problem if you keep very small breeds of chicken such as bantams and silkies with your quail, but both types of birds are territorial, so I would avoid mixing even these smaller breeds with quail.
However, because quail are ground birds, you can keep them in an aviary with pigeons.
Can Chickens Mate With Quails?
Quails and chickens will not mate, and it is unnatural for them to do so. They will not produce offspring if kept together.
Even if artificial insemination is used, the fertilized eggs will not always hatch. Those that do produce chicks that are deformed and carry mutations.
There has been research into developing a chicken-quail hybrid, with little success. Due to the high egg-productivity of quails but the larger egg size of chickens, this was attempted to improve productivity in laying poultry. To this date, the project has not worked.
Living Areas For Chicken And Quail
Another reason that chicken and quail don’t mix well is because of different housing needs. Both types of birds are territorial ground birds, and while this might not be an issue in a free-range situation, it is problematic when they are in the same coop.
Even different types of quail don’t mix well; if you keep quail, I would stick to one type only. Certain species of quail, such as Gambel’s quail, are more flighty and prone to getting a fright.
Quail will need coops that give them plenty of ground space and a finer wire mesh to prevent them from slipping through. To mimic their habitat, you will need fine dry sand on the coop or aviary floor.
Quail can fly and tend to fly directly upward, so you need a cover or roof on your coop to prevent escape.
Chickens can also fly but are not as fast and agile as quail. Due to their size, you can use regular chicken mesh on their coop and run walls.
Feeding Requirements For Chicken And Quail
Another aspect to consider when keeping chickens and quail together is their different feeding needs.
Chickens are usually fed on broiler’s or layer’s pellets, while quail have specialized feeds. If you don’t house them separately, you cannot be sure they are getting the right food.
Chickens are omnivorous and will eat grains, vegetables, fruit, and small animals like mice and snakes and will eagerly consume the quail eggs and tiny young.
Apart from the occasional insect, quails are granivores, meaning they eat seeds and grains. Mixing the two birds in the same coop means you will have issues feeding them the right foods, and the chickens will likely steal the quails’ food.
How To Keep Chickens And Quails Together
If you are still keen on keeping both chickens and quails in the same coop, you must partition the coop, so the flocks stay separate. This partition will avoid the problem of chickens attacking quail and eating their food.
However, each part of the coop must be set up to adequately accommodate the different birds and ensure they cannot reach each other.
To avoid spreading disease, keep the coops clean, and don’t let the droppings from either coop mix.
Many people who keep both have their chickens in a run and coop while housing their quail, in particular hutches, which are kept separate from the chicken area.
If you have the space, you can free-range the two species, but you will have to train the quails to return at night for feeding and safety.
Conclusion
It is best if chickens and quails are not kept together as the more aggressive chickens will bully and attack the smaller quail. The problem of spreading diseases – especially respiratory illnesses like coryza — is exacerbated when chickens live with quail. It is possible in some cases to keep quail and chickens together, but both species are territorial, and problems are likely to arise.
