Will Quails Fly Away? Facts & Solutions

The most challenging bit of keeping quails is that these birds are flighty. They are ever ready to fly away when they get a chance. Because quails aren’t like other birds with a homing instinct, they will never return to their owners once they fly away.

Therefore, you should keep your quails enclosed if you don’t want them to fly away. It’s best to put some measures to ensure your birds don’t fly away if you’re going to keep free-range quails.

How Long and How High Can Quails Fly?

Quails are flighty and can fly for a distance of up to 100 yards. They can also fly over 100 hundred yards high. However, quails don’t have strong wings like other flighty birds such as ducks. Therefore, they can’t fly for long distances.

Neither can these birds fly too high. Quails can, however, fly long and high enough from your yard.

Will Quails Return to Coop If They Fly Away?

Chances are high your quails won’t return to the coop at night if they fly away. That’s why free-ranging quails is risky because you might lose a huge flock in a day. Quails aren’t likely to return to the coop after flying away because these birds aren’t like chickens with a homing instinct.

How do You Keep Quails Outside?

Most quail farmers insist that keeping quails free-range isn’t a great idea. After all, why keep your birds outside while their chances of flying away and never returning to the coop are pretty high?

Fortunately, as risky as free-ranging quails is, you can still keep your birds outside without them flying away. These insights will help you keep your quails outside.

Deal With Predators

The riskiest part of free-ranging quails is that they are highly susceptible to predators such as feral dogs, cats, and hawks. Your birds may not necessarily fly away from your home if you keep them outside.

However, there are pretty good chances they will encounter a predator attack at some point. That’s why those free-ranging their quails should first deal with potential predators before letting their quails outside.

Giving your quails natural protection is the perfect solution to protecting the little birds from predators. For instance, have some shrubs and bushes around to protect the quails from predator birds such as eagles and crows. Bushes and shrubs will provide the birds with a place to hide when predator birds come to prey on them.

Trees in your backyard will also help you deal with predators while keeping quails outside. Trees will provide the quails with a place to run to when some ground predators such as raccoons come to attack the quails.

Because quails are flight, they will fly and perch on the nearby trees when a predator tries to attack them. Besides planting trees in your yard to give your quails a safe hideout, you should keep feral dogs and cats daily with a sturdy fence. These two predators are notorious for attacking free-range quails.

Supplement Feed

It’s tempting to assume that your free-range quails will have plenty of food out there. Nonetheless, free-range quails may not meet their dietary needs while foraging. Furthermore, free-range quails are likely to fly away from their owners if they lack food.

Provide your free-range quails with quality game feed to meet their dietary needs and ensure they have an additional food source other than what they can forage outside. With enough food, your free-range quails are less likely to fly away to search for food.

Teach your Quails to Recall Home

Quails are pretty different from chickens because they need more time to comprehend where their homes are. Quail owners must train their birds to recall home before free-ranging the quails.

To train your quails to return home, keep them in their coop for a couple of weeks before letting the birds free-range. Taking some time before allowing the birds to free-range helps familiarize them with their coop.

Continue training your quails until they can recall their home.

Reduce Their Exposure to Diseases

Keeping free-range quails can expose them to diseases. When raising quails outside, it’s good to be mindful of the potential illnesses they can get out there. Farmers who raise free-range chickens and quails together shouldn’t allow their quails to remain outside for long.

Chickens carry diseases that can easily spread to free-range quails. Apart from chickens, ensure your quails aren’t interacting with wild birds because such birds have illnesses that they can pass on to the quails.

Consider the possibility of your quails getting diseases before allowing the tiny birds to free-range.

Be Wary of The Weather

Quails are extremely vulnerable to harsh weather conditions. Keeping your quails outside when the weather is unfavorable can be disastrous to your birds.

For instance, free-range quails risk freezing and dying in the winter. Furthermore, free-range quails can easily succumb to excessive heat when the weather is too hot for these birds.

Therefore, it helps to consider the weather conditions before allowing your little birds to free-range.

Clip the Wings

Clipping the wings is crucial for quail keepers who keep their birds outside. Clipping makes the quails unable to maintain balance after taking flight. Therefore, clipping will stop your free-range quails from flying away.

Can Quails with Clipped Wings Still Fly?

No, quails with clipped wings can’t fly. Clipping wings is essential because it helps the quail lose balance during flight. Hence they can’t fly away. However, you need to clip both wings because your quails can fly if you clip only one wing.

Are There Any Quails That Don’t Fly?

No, there are no quail species that don’t fly. All species have wings and small stature, making them potential excellent fliers. Nonetheless, quails prefer to stay on the ground, and they will only fly when threatened or moving from one place to the other, especially in search of food and mates.

Conclusion

Quails are known to fly away even when their owners least expect these birds to fly away. You must be careful while free-ranging your quails because they will fly away at some point.

Fortunately, you can do a few simple things, such as protecting your quails from predators and clipping their wings to prevent them from flying away.

avatar James
Hey, I'm James, a hardworking homesteader for more than 30 years. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that comes from tending my flock. I've raised chickens and ducks for eggs and meat for many years. I also have experience with other poultry too. Learn more

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