I used to raise quail

[Milton C Starr]

I found this old photo of one of my birds that I raised I just thought I would share . When I was about 15 or 16 I worked for my neighbor on his quail farm . He taught me how to run things so he didnt have to be there . Needless to say raising quail , you have to keep a eye on them pretty regularly .

The first 3 days is the hardest part when we got them some still had the shells on their heads . We pretty much would stay with them the first 3 days straight .

[Buddy Harrison]

That must have been a strong flying strain of quail if you had to chain him to that board to keep him from flying off.

[Reggie B]

If I had a dollar for everyone of those I have missed I could buy a nice Parker! The wild variety that is!

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Milton C Starr

... some still had the shells on their heads.

That explains why as a teenager in the 60s I could not kill them. Almost all of the ones I shot at seemed to have a shell on their heads.

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Reggie Bishop

If I had a dollar for everyone of those I have missed I could buy a nice Parker! The wild variety that is!

haha they are the wild variety that is what our motto was anyhow

Farming pretty much destroys most of the quail habit here .
Our plantation was 3,800 acres until a farmer bought it , bulldozed everything and planted corn .

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Jerry Harlow

That explains why as a teenager in the 60s I could not kill them. Almost all of the ones I shot at seemed to have a shell on their heads.

Not much meat on them when they are that size

we occasionally had them get loose and they would breed out in the woods and some survived as you can see them in the autumn still about .

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Buddy Harrison

That must have been a strong flying strain of quail if you had to chain him to that board to keep him from flying off.

That wasnt a full grown one either , they can get much larger depends on their diet .

Usually they dont get to the point of laying eggs but we put them on vitamins and they ended up getting quite larger than they had previous seasons and we had so many birds left over they started to lay eggs . We had flight pens full of quail eggs that season .

[Buddy Harrison]

Thanks Milton for your post. This is why I love the PGCA and this post in particular. In addition to getting interesting information, occasionally you can have a little fun with it.

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Buddy Harrison

Thanks Milton for your post. This is why I love the PGCA and this post in particular. In addition to getting interesting information, occasionally you can have a little fun with it.

As 15 year old kid I was proud of the birds I raised .
Then after that I eventually went to work for the plantation itself driving the horse carriage and I got to handle and shoot some fine shotguns like that 20g Purdey .

[Buddy Harrison]

I am envious of your plantation experiences. I too grew up when quail were plentiful and had good dogs at that time. What joyous days afield we had. As a high schooler my whole year was aimed at November 20 (the opening day of quail season in Georgia at that time). Maybe in another life we can relive those days.