Has anyone tried keeping quail in a Johnny box (aka recall pen) for the purpose of eggs and/or meat? I would like to raise quail, but I want them to be able to get out and forage and be quail-like.
In researching this, I saw the people who free range them when they are young using a chicken as surrogate mother (above), which is brilliant, but I am hoping to do something throughout their lifecycle. I also found some places in jolly old England that say they free range their quail, but apparently across the pond, "free range" means "we have a big run and we feed them pellets that say 'free range' on the bag".
It sounds like only bobwhites recall so that would be the breed for this. Let most of them out each day, with one or two kept to recall the rest, realizing that some will go missing and some eggs will be laid where I will never find them. However, having the only free range quail eggs in the area (perhaps anywhere) means I can charge a premium price.