A book about quail

I'm making a book about quail in permaculture, and I'd love your input! I'm writing it in Polish, but I may consider translating to English and making some "print on demand" kind of thing (but I've never done that). It will be a guide about raising them, in a permaculture context, and my idea is to print a small number of copies to make a handmade limited edition, and then see if anyone is interested in publishing it on a larger scale.
One thing somewhat unusual about it, is that I want all illustrations to be my original watercolours/drawings.
I'd love to credit everyone who contributes, and I can also make a list of farms, homesteads, etc, that raise quail.
I'm looking for any tips about feeding, management, aviary or cage design, recipes, or anything you'd like to add!
Attached a picture of one bird as a chick and as an adult - I'd love to name all the colour varieties too, but I think there are too many, and some genetic varieties are unnamed...

What a fantastic project!

I wish I could be of more help, but I am not a quail keeper. I am simply curious about quail.

I'll be keeping tabs as this progresses.

Thanks! Most of it is my "notes to self" anyway :) and I still can't find motivation to make art, but illustrating something like this feels neutral enough that it's actually interesting to me. I'll also do the layout.

I only have three months of experience with quail, and so far I think they're perfect for urban homesteads - quiet and almost invisible in the garden; and great for people who aren't physically strong (like me).

I have been keeping quail only for about a year now, if that. I have definitely learned a lot. I started out working very hard on a large quail kingdom that ended up way too big and is going to end up being where the firewood lives probably. I am still using my temporary cages which were gerbil cages or something from PetsMart or some pet store. Something like 4 x 2 x 1 foot or so high. It works perfect and I have two of them so it makes cleaning the cage really easy right now because I only have 3 quail, 1 male and two females. Yes this is not ideal, but when I ordered them I was supposed to get 12 I believe and because of a delay in shipping and the weather (I live in Tucson, AZ) I got a shipment half full of dead birds and half very weak birds. One more died that night, and since then I have lost two more for ... different reasons. So here I am with 3 birds and I am waiting another few weeks as the weather is cooling off before they are willing to ship them to me. I am getting 6 celadon quail which are the same as my jumbos, same species, and so I am told they should be ok in the same cage. I am going to give the male two more females to reduce the mating pressure and then have the second cage with 4 females.

Feel free to contact me with any questions I'm happy to contribute. I have some pretty good stories I haven't shared here.

--Nichollas greeningtucson@sonoran.art

Hi Nicholas! Living in the Sonora desert must be a magical experience. When I was in Mexico I watched a movie titled "The Devil's Highway" (2018), about people who are forced to travel across Sonora desert. But we travelled to other states so I didn't get anywhere near, to see it in real life.
If you're keeping quail in that climate, I guess the heat might be the biggest challenge. You can create shaded cooler spots for them to cool down. They like to dig a hole under a little hutch like this one in the picture. It can have moist sand or soil inside and be shaded during the hot days, or have a lot of hay and straw under and over it, to keep them warm in winter. Their feet aren't as strong as chicken feet so I help them to rearrange the bedding every morning. Those gloves with claws are a perfect tool for that, in my opinion.
Shipping baby quails is also dangerous to them, and then there is stress in the new place... if you have a male and two females, I would collect hatching eggs from them and raise my own. There are incubators for just 20-30 eggs if you don't need to hatch more. They grow very fast and are super cute to watch. They will have a chance to get used to you and your environment from day one, and no shipping means much less stressful sitiuations.