July 24, 2025 • 36 mins
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Discover the charming world of button quail! Jennifer shares her journey raising these tiny birds, tips on brooding, feeding, housing, and how custom nutrition boosted hatch rates. Whether you're breeding or keeping them as indoor pets, this episode covers it all. In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, Carey and Jennifer dive into the care, breeding, and quirks of button quail. Learn how to brood them successfully, avoid feed pitfalls, and why these micro quail are becoming trendy indoor companions. A must-listen for quail lovers and aspiring breeders!
Button quail care
Raising button quail
Brooding button quail chicks
Button quail feed
Best feed for button quail
Button quail breeding tips
Custom quail nutrition
Indoor button quail pets
Tiny quail species
Button quail hatching guide
Button quail housing setup
How to sex button quail
Button quail for reptile shows
Button quail aviary ideas
Quail as indoor pets
Button quail behavior
Quail egg production
High hatch rate button quail
Button quail brooder setup
Game bird nutrition
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carey (00:00):
So on today's episode of the Poultry Nerds podcast we're
gonna talk about buttons.
We were trying to figure outwhat we were gonna record about
today, and.
Jennifer's been working reallyhard with her buttons lately,
and I've been trying to help herout a little bit for the 2 cents
(00:20):
that it's worth.
And we're like, have we done apodcast on buttons and felt
confident that we had, but Iactually searched and we never
talked about'em.
So today we are the cute little,full grown.
They're like the size of a.
(00:42):
Two week old Eter.
Jennifer (00:45):
Yeah, they're 50 grams when they're full size.
But is that two ounces, 50grams?
Carey (00:52):
Just under two ounces.
That two ounces would be 56.
Jennifer (00:56):
Yeah, it is.
When you hold them, it's likeholding a hummingbird.
If you've ever caught a
Carey (01:00):
hummingbird, I like to watch hummingbirds, but I never
caught one.
Jennifer (01:03):
They get in our garage.
And then we have to c Davidcatches them in his hat to help
them out because they get tiredand they can't, for whatever
reason, they can't see the bigdoors open.
They just bounce around on theceiling.
So he reaches up and catches'emin his hat.
Carey (01:21):
You should put'em some Kool-Aid in there and they can
sit with you while you'repacking eggs or something.
Jennifer (01:28):
Oh, I already have dirt, Dobbs and wasps and dogs
and I don't know, sometimes theducks find me in the garage and
I have to close the doors.
Carey (01:39):
I really think you should get one of your goats in there.
No.
I'm sorry.
I really like mine.
They're like a dog that's lessannoying.
Yeah,
Jennifer (01:51):
I'm a bit over the goats right now, so let's talk
about something else.
Carey (01:54):
Look, they will make you want to make up words that are
four letters that you should notsay while in church.
'Cause sometimes you're just,you look at'em and you're like,
you're an idiot.
But yeah.
Tell us about buttons.
When did you start working withyour buttons?
Jennifer (02:14):
So I went to visit Rebecca about two and a half
years ago.
So for those of you who don'tknow, Rebecca and I live about.
What about an hour and a halfaway from each other?
Carey (02:26):
Sounds about right.
Jennifer (02:27):
And so I was up there doing something I remember, and
I was sitting on her couch andI'm like looking, I'm like, what
is that?
And that she had an aquariumunder the window and she's those
are button quail.
I was like, oh, I need to havesome of those.
Hers wasn't laying right then,and so a couple months goes by
(02:47):
and she brings me some eggs.
None of those hatch.
And so I went on the search andanother friend of mine, about 30
minutes away, she had somebuttons from Rebecca and she
said, Hey, I've got somehatching if you want'em.
So I went up there to get'em.
(03:08):
But they had, like she took themout of the incubator and put'em
in a box and handed them to me.
They're too fragile for that, sothey didn't even make the 30
minute car ride home.
So then I went on the search andfound a guy about maybe an hour
from me, and he said, I'm overthe buttons.
(03:33):
You can have the buttons.
So I go to his farm to pick uphis buttons and he brings out a
cage and there's a hundred inthere.
Carey (03:43):
And that's like winning the farmer lottery.
Jennifer (03:45):
It was, but it was so fun to go visit his farm.
He has zebras and a camel andemus and pheasants and, oh my,
is this
Carey (03:59):
like a wildlife reserve or something?
Jennifer (04:01):
No, he just lives up in the hills and just has a
fascination with this stuff.
And so there's a lady that'slocal to us that has a
traveling, petting zoo, but whenher animals like either age out
or more or less grow out of toobig.
(04:22):
To be traveling with her to herpet zoos and stuff.
Buys'em from her and then shestarts over with younger and
they just, it's really weird tobe sitting on this guy's patio
and the zebras walk by.
Carey (04:34):
I was gonna say that's, that's next level.
Jennifer (04:38):
Yeah.
Carey (04:39):
I gotta say that's.
You don't hear that every day.
Jennifer (04:42):
We meet the best people doing this.
I just, this is my favorite partof all of this.
So anyway, so I take the buttonshome and sort them out and start
trying to figure out the colorsand learning about'em.
And honestly, I just wanted.
(05:06):
A pair to put in my living roombecause they coo and the rooster
kind of whistles a little bit,but they chatter to each other
really quietly.
And I really just wanted to putthem in my living room.
And so I sold off some of theextras and I was just trying to
(05:28):
get down to, two or four of themto put in the house and, the
oldest son was here and he's, hefell in love with them and he's
no, I don't wanna sell anymore.
Let's keep'em.
I was like, okay.
So then people started asking, Iwas gonna say
Carey (05:44):
He didn't have to ask twice, I'm sure.
Jennifer (05:46):
Oh no.
It's birds with, but anyway, sothe buttons took off and he
started actually going to thereptile shows and selling them
is how.
Is how the hatching part of itstarted, and this was all like
two years ago, and I just nowgot my pair of buttons in the
(06:10):
house like two weeks ago.
Yeah, so anyway, sometimes
Carey (06:16):
that's not a fast pro process to bring something in
the house,
Jennifer (06:20):
but I've learned a lot.
I've had to figure it out.
I've met some really nicepeople, a lot of interesting
people.
Doing buttons.
Fat Hens is on TikTok and he'smade them really popular.
And if, have you not watched himFat Hens on TikTok?
No,
Carey (06:38):
I haven't.
Jennifer (06:39):
Oh my gosh.
He's calls them and they run tohim.
Carey (06:43):
Nuh
Jennifer (06:43):
so he's the one that's made him really popular, but I
don't think he sells.
And then so anyway, we startedoffering hatching eggs two years
ago not quite two years ago.
And they just took off.
They're not the, in the offseason, they're really not the
easiest things to find, thistime of beer in the summertime,
(07:06):
everybody has eggs.
But only the breeders reallyhave'em in the winter, in the
spring.
So anyway, so I've learned howto take care of'em, and we've
learned how to be more efficientwith them and how to brew them,
hatch them, and brew themsuccessfully.
(07:27):
And then we had a feed issuebecause we couldn't find.
Feed that I was happy with.
And so you and I kinda worked onthat for several months and
we've fixed that little issue, Ithink successfully.
So here we are.
Carey (07:47):
Didn't you say your most recent hatch rate was in the
high nineties?
Jennifer (07:50):
It was, yeah.
It is the highest we've everhad.
And yeah, and mortality wassuper low.
Afterwards.
Yep.
Carey (08:03):
So how many of those do you have out in the barn?
Now
Jennifer (08:07):
We don't talk about numbers.
You never ask a lady quailkeeper her numbers.
Carey (08:13):
How many aquariums do you have in your broody or incubator
room?
Jennifer (08:20):
I have currently one brooder of quail,
Carey (08:26):
so that's what you call that room?
Jennifer (08:28):
No wait.
It's just
Carey (08:29):
one single brooder.
Jennifer (08:30):
I lied.
We have two.
There's two out there.
Carey (08:37):
So one of the things that she discovered is brooding them
in aquariums.
Jennifer (08:43):
My, my little totes Yeah.
Or
Carey (08:46):
totes is good because those little suckers.
Don't you like slow roast'em forthe first two weeks of their
life?
Jennifer (08:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You cook them.
Yeah.
But you wanna start at thebeginning with the eggs, or you
wanna start at the beginningwith the bird?
Who comes first?
Eggs.
The
Carey (09:05):
bird had to lay the egg.
Jennifer (09:07):
Okay, so you wanna start with the bird?
Okay.
So when you take it out of thehatcher, this is the best way to
brood them.
Put'em in a tote.
I would say at least 15 inchesdeep.
I use heat plates, I do not likelamps.
(09:28):
Put'em on a puppy pad and putthe food directly on the puppy
pad with a.
Water.
A very small water, which youcan side note find on my
website.
So shameless plug on my ownwebsite.
There we go.
(09:49):
For the first few days you justput the food right on the puppy
pad because.
What's happening is theirmetabolism is so fast that they
need to be immersed in the feedall the time.
They need to have it withinarm's reach, constantly, the
heat.
So
Carey (10:09):
are we talking like Wiley, Cote, and Roadrunner
Fast?
Jennifer (10:14):
Yes.
Carey (10:15):
Okay.
Jennifer (10:16):
They're crazy.
They're very tiny.
They're, I think they're likesix grams, five grams when
they're hatched.
They're very tiny.
They're smaller than, I took apicture the other day.
They're smaller than the cap ofa sharpie, stretched out.
Yeah.
(10:37):
Anyway I.
So you've got a puppy pad,you've got a brooder plate.
You're gonna, you're gonna tiltthat brooder plate.
One side's gonna be basicallydown on the puppy pad.
The other side's gonna be aboutan inch and a half up.
'cause they need to be able toduck to go under it, to hide, to
touch their backs to it.
Feed, ground feed because theyare so small.
(11:02):
Right on the puppy pad for thefirst few days.
And then warm water.
No cold water.
'cause you don't wanna chillthem and then you wanna leave
the light on them all the time.
A light in the room all thetime.
Carey (11:19):
So don't even do you pull water straight outta the tap.
Jennifer (11:25):
I do, but I have a water heater, so I give him warm
water.
Carey (11:29):
Okay, so you do use warm water.
You don't use like straight outof the hose pipe or nothing like
that?
Jennifer (11:34):
No.
Think like human baby bottlewarm.
Carey (11:40):
You're talking to a guy that fills his baby's bottles.
Outta the refrigerator door
Jennifer (11:45):
okay.
Normal mama style.
Human baby bottle.
Warm.
Carey (11:50):
Hey look, I'm just gonna say it's filtered.
And I'm not having to stopdriving down the road to find a
microwave to warm a bottle.
Jennifer (12:01):
Ugh.
Yeah.
Give them cold water, not themicrowave.
Okay, so now that you have thembrooding, you need a high.
Okay, you're gonna have to helpme here.
High protein, but it's also theamino acids and the vitamins and
all the other stuff that wedecided on, right?
Carey (12:20):
Yes.
Actually it's not overly high inprotein.
Let me actually pull that upwhile we're talking about it.
If I remember right on thatparticular formula, it's like a
24, 20 5%.
On the protein.
Just because, if you got, if youhave good like vitamins,
(12:45):
minerals, amino acids, all thatgood stuff, you don't really
need 30% protein.
A lot of people think
Jennifer (12:54):
Is it got fat in it too?
Carey (12:57):
Huh?
Jennifer (12:57):
Fat?
Is it high?
Oh
Carey (12:59):
yeah.
There is lots of that.
Let's see here.
Jennifer (13:04):
Fat is energy, right?
Carey (13:07):
It helps most definitely.
The fat and some of the otherstuff convert into the energy.
Let's see.
Here we go.
So it's, I wanna say the fat's8%, 9%, something like that.
It's pretty high and you likepulled that one outta your right
(13:30):
outta left field and hit me withthat.
So the protein on that feeds24%.
The fat is eight is what it sayson the guaranteed analysis, but
I do know it's a little closerto nine.
Because, I made it.
Calcium is between 1.2, 1.7.
(13:53):
The fiber is five.
The lysine is 1.5.
The methionine is real kicker at0.65 and vitamins A, d, and E
are pretty high.
They're.
Like higher than what you wouldwant a breeding foul to have.
(14:19):
But
Jennifer (14:19):
this is for the chicks, right?
Carey (14:21):
Yeah.
This is for the chicks.
Yeah.
Those suckers that so talkingabout the metabolism a regular
NICs according to Google, notme.
You can email, Google yourcomplaints, not me.
Their average heartbeat is 360times a minute.
Buttons are over 500.
Jennifer (14:41):
Holy moly.
Carey (14:42):
Just to put it into perspective.
So they're really fast onmetabolism and they need that,
they don't get 50, so that'sobviously not too much fat, but
they really.
You've found that it worksreally well for the chicks and
(15:04):
you have really good results outof'em.
So
Jennifer (15:06):
yeah, it really was a game changer on how many I could
successfully get to adulthood
Carey (15:13):
and as a breeder, that's key.
Jennifer (15:15):
Yes.
So after, five days or so, thenyou can start treating'em more
like regular little chicks.
Put the feed in a feeder.
You could probably start turningthe light off at night if you
wanted to.
We're not talking about like abright light, just something
that they can see to be active,can see
Carey (15:38):
their food.
Jennifer (15:38):
Yeah.
So then you're gonna leave themon that feed until, I leave them
on it until they start laying,and then probably another week
or two after that.
Carey (15:50):
See, that's another benefit of not being extremely
high with the protein, is youdon't have to worry about
wearing their kidneys out andstuff like that.
So that helps with the longevityof their life, which, people
that raise quail, they knowthat.
Anytime after a few weeks, thoseson guns can just, they're gone
for no reason.
Jennifer (16:15):
So we brewed them.
Okay, let's, let me back up forjust a minute.
So they're so fast that they canactually hop out of our
brooders, which I think are 15inches by about week two.
Wow.
So I have, oh
Carey (16:33):
wow.
Jennifer (16:33):
A window.
I use old window screens and putthat over the brooders.
So after about a week, I'll takethe puppy pad out, I'll put'em
on pellets because I like stallpellets.
No, they're less dusty, lastlonger.
And.
(16:54):
You can raise the heat at thatpoint.
'cause they really can be off ofheat by three or four weeks.
Just depends on the time of yearand yeah.
But they fly.
I had one out that got outFriday.
I caught her on Sunday.
She was loose in my incubatorroom.
But they fly like a sparrow.
(17:15):
Flies not like a Kix flies wherethey just flitter and flop
around and stuff.
If I.
If I have to move the buttonsaround, I will usually go into
my incubation room, close thedoors, because if I try to do it
in the barn, I do have to makesure my big barn doors are
closed, because otherwise theyjust go straight out the door.
(17:38):
Sometimes they fly right back.
They're like, oh no, thisworld's way too big.
We're coming right back.
Carey (17:45):
If they went out the back door and they saw one of the
pigs, they'd be running, no,don't get me.
Jennifer (17:51):
Yeah sometimes they don't come back.
But yeah they fly away.
Yeah, so they're gone.
And of course, they're so smallI can't see them, once they're
past five or six feet, I can'tsee'em without my glasses anyway
yeah, but just be mindful ofthat.
Whenever I send Quail home withanybody, I box them up and I
(18:12):
give explicit instructions.
Do not open this box untilyou're in the room with the
doors closed.
And you really need a bird net,like a butterfly net.
I have worn out more butterflynets than I ever care to think
(18:33):
about.
The one I'm currently using hasa hole in it.
I need to put some zip ties onit,
Carey (18:45):
so you just get.
Nets off of from Dollar Tree orsomething and scoop'em up.
Jennifer (18:54):
No, you go to bryant re.com and you get them.
Carey (19:00):
Why didn't I think about that?
Jennifer (19:01):
I know we've got this like whole story now.
Wait I forget.
Carey (19:07):
But so it's the thing because we were both at one
time, had problem out of ourincubators, the little switch.
And you can't find them.
That's definitely not a go toWalmart and get and the only
place that I could find them wason the other side of the pond,
and I think I had to order like50 of'em.
Jennifer (19:29):
Yeah.
So what you're getting at is aswe've grown, then we've had to
fix.
Supply issues and basically webuilt our stores back.
Carey (19:40):
Sometimes we have a little extras laying around.
Jennifer (19:42):
Yeah.
So we built still brand
Carey (19:43):
new
Jennifer (19:45):
so they don't have button quail stores like on the
corner, like Dollar Generals ohmy
Carey (19:52):
gosh.
Could you imagine if there waslike a Quail store or even a
chicken store where you couldjust go in and pick up that kind
of stuff?
Like you would go to TractorSupply?
Oh, that'd be awesome.
It would for us, but for ourspouses, they'd be like, have
you lost your mind?
Jennifer (20:15):
Okay, once they are done brooding, which for me is
when they're ready to startlaying eggs, that is when they
go into their permanent housing.
Now there's a lot of controversyon social media, on what is
acceptable.
(20:36):
Permanent housing.
This is what I'm going to sayabout that.
These are birds that were bornin captivity.
They don't know anythingdifferent than what you were
providing for them.
Now, their basic needs is foodand water and ventilation.
But other than that.
(20:58):
What you do is you farm yourrules.
That's right.
So there are people that havethese elaborate aviaries, which
I think are just awesome.
But
Carey (21:12):
who remind me to, to tell you about that.
Jennifer (21:14):
Impractical for me.
I keep mine on wire.
They have plenty of room.
They have desk baths, they havewater cups.
They have.
Feed cups, they have nest boxesthey have wire walls, so they
(21:35):
have lots of ventilation.
I feel like they don't know anydifferent.
They can't reason so they can'tsay, Hey, my ancestors, grew up
in the rainforest.
Why can't I grow up there?
They don't think like that
Carey (21:49):
for real.
Jennifer (21:50):
On the flip side of that, I am a hundred percent
against taking an animal out ofthe wild and caging it.
So that's my caveat to that.
If something is born incaptivity, hatched in captivity,
they don't have reasoning skillsto know any different.
So just keep that in mind.
They don't have human emotions.
Carey (22:12):
Okay so my silkies don't have human emotions.
Jennifer (22:18):
We don't talk about, I don't have some silkies on the
show.
Carey (22:20):
I don't have silkies.
Jennifer (22:23):
Sorry.
So for my purposes, I have'em onwire because I'm working through
the colors and breeding thecolors.
True.
So I have a plan, I have areason for doing what I'm doing
now.
For doing that.
The birds really like to bemonogamous.
(22:44):
Like I do have one trio, butthey've always been together.
The rest of my breeders aremonogamous, meaning one-on-one.
I do have two group cages thatare much bigger.
But they all grew up to witheach other, so there's not
(23:06):
really a set ratio like there iswith chickens or NICs.
What I would recommend, ifyou're going to do a group.
Mating situation.
Group pen is if they all getalong, then just leave them
alone.
(23:27):
If you are having issues withpicking or fighting, or they're
not laying, then sit down andjust watch'em.
Somebody's being a bully, sopull the bully, which is
probably a dominant male.
Pull him and then give itseveral days to regroup.
(23:48):
And see if you have harmony.
If you still don't have harmony,pull the next dominant male
until, and you just keep doingthat until you have harmony in
your group mating.
Carey (24:01):
So you just get rid of the jerks
Jennifer (24:03):
basically.
Okay.
Usually when people message me,this is the problem, they
haven't re gotten any eggs.
See, the hen should be laying ateight to 10 weeks.
Carey (24:16):
Okay, so like a, when it comes to laying and that kind of
stuff, they are like regularquail?
Jennifer (24:22):
Yes.
Carey (24:23):
Okay.
Jennifer (24:24):
And they still need the light.
All of that other stuff is true.
Like the other birds.
Carey (24:29):
Okay.
Jennifer (24:30):
But.
Too many males or a jerk malecan keep them from laying or if
they're stressed, they're,they're feathers picking and
that kinda stuff.
Observation is really thebiggest what's the word, the
biggest tool in your toolboxwith buttons.
(24:52):
So just, and they're fun towatch.
They're twitchy, they're reallybusy.
Mine in the house will sing tome, talk to me, whistle back to
me.
Carey (25:00):
That's cool.
Jennifer (25:01):
Yeah, it is.
It's fun.
We'll actually pause the TV andwhistle to'em, talk to them and
then they stretch up and look atus and, we just kind of mess
with'em.
So they're real interactive.
They're more like like aparakeet versus necessarily
quail as far as keeping themlike pets.
But I don't know if you let themloose, would they come back to
(25:24):
their cage?
I haven't let mine loose yet.
Of course, Teddy's in the houseand I think he would try to eat
them, so we just leave them inthe, in their cage, enclosure in
the house.
So anyway, observation is forHarmony is the best tool in your
toolbox as far as I'm concerned.
(25:47):
And then the adults, wedeveloped a breeder feed that
has really stepped up thenutrition on my adult birds.
I was having trouble, they justdidn't look right.
I had'em on Gaer feed and Idon't feed mine cheap feed
(26:07):
anyway.
But the game bird feed, it wassustaining life, but they didn't
look right.
They were dingy.
They just didn't look healthy.
And, and I wasn't getting greatfertility and wasn't getting
great survivability from theones who did hatch.
And so you and I discussed itand we worked on some breeder
(26:31):
formulas and I started usingthat with about six months ago
now.
Carey (26:38):
Probably somewhere around there.
Yeah.
Jennifer (26:40):
Yeah.
And I am up, I would say in the90%.
Hatch right now.
And the birds, there's no baldspots on their backs anymore.
Nobody's picking anymore.
Now it, it is a mash, so it hasall the seeds and all that, it
looks like real food.
(27:01):
And I wasn't sold on it when hefirst sent it to me or brought
it up here.
I, I, each one of my pens hastwo cage cups.
There's two birds, so they havetwo cage cups.
So I filled one cage cup withtheir old game bird layer feed
and one with the new stuff.
And I sent you a video that day.
(27:21):
I remember that
Carey (27:24):
was when you sent me that video, I just died laughing.
Jennifer (27:29):
They were just devouring the new stuff.
So they have never,
Carey (27:34):
They wanted to leave the other for the peasants.
Jennifer (27:37):
They've never had the other stuff since actually had
bought a whole nother bag and itis still sitting there unopened.
I don't, maybe he goats willlike it.
The pig will eat it.
Carey (27:50):
Pigs or goes, they'll love them.
Oh,
Jennifer (27:53):
so I've totally switched them over.
So a pair of buttons, those cagecups, I think hold four ounces
and I fill them twice a week.
So each bird eats about fourounces of feed a week.
Carey (28:10):
That's nothing.
Jennifer (28:12):
No, it's nothing.
Yeah.
They don't eat very much of it.
Whereas the other ones, I wasfilling'em like three times a
week and they didn't look good.
So anyway, so I think we've got,I think you and I worked out the
nutrition and I think thatthey're doing good now.
Carey (28:33):
So with your buttons like.
I'm trying to get Bob Wattsinside my house.
I like the whistle
Jennifer (28:41):
Uhhuh.
Carey (28:42):
Now Tamara is warming up to the whistle.
She actually likes it.
She admitted that.
We haven't gotten to the pointwhere they're okay in the house.
But, I might be close.
Jennifer (28:53):
If one just got loose in the house and you couldn't
find it for a while, would thatbe okay?
Carey (28:58):
So I have contemplated bringing one of the males in
because the only dog in thehouse is like a 12-year-old
oodle.
It is not chasing down a quail.
I have thought about that, butI've also wondered if I would
get in trouble.
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaking of houses and elaboratehouses, I was on Facebook the
(29:21):
other day and I saw one thatlooked like a cathedral
Jennifer (29:27):
for birds, and it was
Carey (29:28):
real like, it was really nice.
Jennifer (29:33):
Like for birds.
An aviator?
Yes,
Carey (29:36):
it was.
It was a chicken coop.
Jennifer (29:39):
Oh, don't get me started on those.
Carey (29:41):
This thing is probably a 15,$20,000 chicken coop.
It was nice.
Jennifer (29:49):
You gonna live in it, you might be living in one.
If you put a bob light in thehouse, Tam gets mad.
Carey (29:56):
Okay.
That'd be the only reason I'dget one of those suckers.
Whew.
But you know your farm, yourrules,
Jennifer (30:04):
yep.
Carey (30:06):
Is there anything else that we have that we could tell
folks about the buttons?
Jennifer (30:11):
Sexing them?
Probably.
How do you do that?
So males have red feathersaround their vents, tail between
their legs.
Somewhere on their body theyhave red feathers except for
white birds.
White birds are just solidwhite, so you have two sex.
Them behaviorally would be thebetter way to do it, especially
(30:36):
if you're inexperienced.
Don't try to vent sex them.
Carey (30:41):
I don't, I don't recommend folks to try that out
as a newbie.
Because you squeeze just alittle too hard and you got a
big mess on your hands
Jennifer (30:52):
if you, that the bird won't
Carey (30:53):
recuperate from.
Jennifer (30:55):
If you are comfortable handling the birds, which you
and I both are very comfortablehandling birds and you could
take one that you knew was amale, let's just say that you've
got a wild type.
And so he is got the red allover him and you know it's a
male and you flip him over andyou look at his vent.
(31:16):
Then you could probably look atthe whites and compare the two
at that point now.
Buttons are different than otherbirds because first of all,
they're so small that you canliterally squeeze them too hard
and hurt them.
They are game birds, which meanswhen they are stressed, they let
(31:37):
their feathers go and that couldfreak some people out.
So just be aware that.
When they're stressed, they'lllet their feathers go.
Just don't let go of them andthey'll hurt themselves even
more.
Carey (31:51):
That reminds me of the first time I processed a Turkey.
Jennifer (31:58):
When game birds are stressed, they let their
feathers go.
There's useful points to that.
Carey (32:03):
I was like, yeah, I understand now why people pluck
these things.
Jennifer (32:07):
Yeah.
Carey (32:07):
I thought that'd take a lot, but.
Jennifer (32:10):
I just don't want it to freak people out.
They get one, they pick it up,and then there's feathers all
over the place, but that'swhat's going on.
They just, they're stressed.
They let their feathers go.
And but white ones, you'll haveto behaviorally sex.
While I find that slightlyannoying just because I'm on
the, a bigger scale here thewhite ones are so pretty.
(32:36):
They're just, they're like dovesalmost.
They're really pretty to lookat.
Honestly, the silvers are myfavorite.
They're gray, silvery.
Those are my favorite.
They're very dainty looking.
Their heads are very, I don'tknow, porcelain looking almost.
(32:58):
The, those are my favorites.
I have more silvers thananything else, just because I
tend that way, but it's my farmand that's how I like it.
But they still get pinkish redfeathers around their vents in
the silver, the gray color.
The males too.
Yep.
It's just the white ones and youcan put little tiny zip ties on
'em.
So I have some white ones withlittle tiny pink zip ties on her
(33:21):
ankles.
You gotta get the smallest onesand you probably need help
because they're tiny.
The zip ties are tiny and youhave to cut that tab.
But once you do sex em, I wouldmark them somehow so you don't
have to keep doing it.
Carey (33:40):
Sure.
Jennifer (33:41):
But I think that's it.
Other than that, it's justcolors.
If you, there's not a lot ofbooks out there on button
colors, but Gary Landry has abook you can buy on.
His website has a lot of thecolors in them.
He was one of the originalimporters of the colors.
Carey (33:59):
Is, has he got anything coming up in February where he
talks about'em?
Jennifer (34:05):
He might just become a nerd.
He might be a nerd.
Such a nice guy.
Carey (34:15):
Yeah, that
Jennifer (34:15):
I learned a lot from him.
How about that?
Carey (34:17):
That's awesome.
All right until next week.
See y'all later.
Jennifer (34:24):
Yep.
So on today's episode of the Poultry Nerds podcast we're
gonna talk about buttons.
We were trying to figure outwhat we were gonna record about
today, and.
Jennifer's been working reallyhard with her buttons lately,
and I've been trying to help herout a little bit for the 2 cents
(00:20):
that it's worth.
And we're like, have we done apodcast on buttons and felt
confident that we had, but Iactually searched and we never
talked about'em.
So today we are the cute little,full grown.
They're like the size of a.
(00:42):
Two week old Eter.
Jennifer (00:45):
Yeah, they're 50 grams when they're full size.
But is that two ounces, 50grams?
Carey (00:52):
Just under two ounces.
That two ounces would be 56.
Jennifer (00:56):
Yeah, it is.
When you hold them, it's likeholding a hummingbird.
If you've ever caught a
Carey (01:00):
hummingbird, I like to watch hummingbirds, but I never
caught one.
Jennifer (01:03):
They get in our garage.
And then we have to c Davidcatches them in his hat to help
them out because they get tiredand they can't, for whatever
reason, they can't see the bigdoors open.
They just bounce around on theceiling.
So he reaches up and catches'emin his hat.
Carey (01:21):
You should put'em some Kool-Aid in there and they can
sit with you while you'repacking eggs or something.
Jennifer (01:28):
Oh, I already have dirt, Dobbs and wasps and dogs
and I don't know, sometimes theducks find me in the garage and
I have to close the doors.
Carey (01:39):
I really think you should get one of your goats in there.
No.
I'm sorry.
I really like mine.
They're like a dog that's lessannoying.
Yeah,
Jennifer (01:51):
I'm a bit over the goats right now, so let's talk
about something else.
Carey (01:54):
Look, they will make you want to make up words that are
four letters that you should notsay while in church.
'Cause sometimes you're just,you look at'em and you're like,
you're an idiot.
But yeah.
Tell us about buttons.
When did you start working withyour buttons?
Jennifer (02:14):
So I went to visit Rebecca about two and a half
years ago.
So for those of you who don'tknow, Rebecca and I live about.
What about an hour and a halfaway from each other?
Carey (02:26):
Sounds about right.
Jennifer (02:27):
And so I was up there doing something I remember, and
I was sitting on her couch andI'm like looking, I'm like, what
is that?
And that she had an aquariumunder the window and she's those
are button quail.
I was like, oh, I need to havesome of those.
Hers wasn't laying right then,and so a couple months goes by
(02:47):
and she brings me some eggs.
None of those hatch.
And so I went on the search andanother friend of mine, about 30
minutes away, she had somebuttons from Rebecca and she
said, Hey, I've got somehatching if you want'em.
So I went up there to get'em.
(03:08):
But they had, like she took themout of the incubator and put'em
in a box and handed them to me.
They're too fragile for that, sothey didn't even make the 30
minute car ride home.
So then I went on the search andfound a guy about maybe an hour
from me, and he said, I'm overthe buttons.
(03:33):
You can have the buttons.
So I go to his farm to pick uphis buttons and he brings out a
cage and there's a hundred inthere.
Carey (03:43):
And that's like winning the farmer lottery.
Jennifer (03:45):
It was, but it was so fun to go visit his farm.
He has zebras and a camel andemus and pheasants and, oh my,
is this
Carey (03:59):
like a wildlife reserve or something?
Jennifer (04:01):
No, he just lives up in the hills and just has a
fascination with this stuff.
And so there's a lady that'slocal to us that has a
traveling, petting zoo, but whenher animals like either age out
or more or less grow out of toobig.
(04:22):
To be traveling with her to herpet zoos and stuff.
Buys'em from her and then shestarts over with younger and
they just, it's really weird tobe sitting on this guy's patio
and the zebras walk by.
Carey (04:34):
I was gonna say that's, that's next level.
Jennifer (04:38):
Yeah.
Carey (04:39):
I gotta say that's.
You don't hear that every day.
Jennifer (04:42):
We meet the best people doing this.
I just, this is my favorite partof all of this.
So anyway, so I take the buttonshome and sort them out and start
trying to figure out the colorsand learning about'em.
And honestly, I just wanted.
(05:06):
A pair to put in my living roombecause they coo and the rooster
kind of whistles a little bit,but they chatter to each other
really quietly.
And I really just wanted to putthem in my living room.
And so I sold off some of theextras and I was just trying to
(05:28):
get down to, two or four of themto put in the house and, the
oldest son was here and he's, hefell in love with them and he's
no, I don't wanna sell anymore.
Let's keep'em.
I was like, okay.
So then people started asking, Iwas gonna say
Carey (05:44):
He didn't have to ask twice, I'm sure.
Jennifer (05:46):
Oh no.
It's birds with, but anyway, sothe buttons took off and he
started actually going to thereptile shows and selling them
is how.
Is how the hatching part of itstarted, and this was all like
two years ago, and I just nowgot my pair of buttons in the
(06:10):
house like two weeks ago.
Yeah, so anyway, sometimes
Carey (06:16):
that's not a fast pro process to bring something in
the house,
Jennifer (06:20):
but I've learned a lot.
I've had to figure it out.
I've met some really nicepeople, a lot of interesting
people.
Doing buttons.
Fat Hens is on TikTok and he'smade them really popular.
And if, have you not watched himFat Hens on TikTok?
No,
Carey (06:38):
I haven't.
Jennifer (06:39):
Oh my gosh.
He's calls them and they run tohim.
Carey (06:43):
Nuh
Jennifer (06:43):
so he's the one that's made him really popular, but I
don't think he sells.
And then so anyway, we startedoffering hatching eggs two years
ago not quite two years ago.
And they just took off.
They're not the, in the offseason, they're really not the
easiest things to find, thistime of beer in the summertime,
(07:06):
everybody has eggs.
But only the breeders reallyhave'em in the winter, in the
spring.
So anyway, so I've learned howto take care of'em, and we've
learned how to be more efficientwith them and how to brew them,
hatch them, and brew themsuccessfully.
(07:27):
And then we had a feed issuebecause we couldn't find.
Feed that I was happy with.
And so you and I kinda worked onthat for several months and
we've fixed that little issue, Ithink successfully.
So here we are.
Carey (07:47):
Didn't you say your most recent hatch rate was in the
high nineties?
Jennifer (07:50):
It was, yeah.
It is the highest we've everhad.
And yeah, and mortality wassuper low.
Afterwards.
Yep.
Carey (08:03):
So how many of those do you have out in the barn?
Now
Jennifer (08:07):
We don't talk about numbers.
You never ask a lady quailkeeper her numbers.
Carey (08:13):
How many aquariums do you have in your broody or incubator
room?
Jennifer (08:20):
I have currently one brooder of quail,
Carey (08:26):
so that's what you call that room?
Jennifer (08:28):
No wait.
It's just
Carey (08:29):
one single brooder.
Jennifer (08:30):
I lied.
We have two.
There's two out there.
Carey (08:37):
So one of the things that she discovered is brooding them
in aquariums.
Jennifer (08:43):
My, my little totes Yeah.
Or
Carey (08:46):
totes is good because those little suckers.
Don't you like slow roast'em forthe first two weeks of their
life?
Jennifer (08:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You cook them.
Yeah.
But you wanna start at thebeginning with the eggs, or you
wanna start at the beginningwith the bird?
Who comes first?
Eggs.
The
Carey (09:05):
bird had to lay the egg.
Jennifer (09:07):
Okay, so you wanna start with the bird?
Okay.
So when you take it out of thehatcher, this is the best way to
brood them.
Put'em in a tote.
I would say at least 15 inchesdeep.
I use heat plates, I do not likelamps.
(09:28):
Put'em on a puppy pad and putthe food directly on the puppy
pad with a.
Water.
A very small water, which youcan side note find on my
website.
So shameless plug on my ownwebsite.
There we go.
(09:49):
For the first few days you justput the food right on the puppy
pad because.
What's happening is theirmetabolism is so fast that they
need to be immersed in the feedall the time.
They need to have it withinarm's reach, constantly, the
heat.
So
Carey (10:09):
are we talking like Wiley, Cote, and Roadrunner
Fast?
Jennifer (10:14):
Yes.
Carey (10:15):
Okay.
Jennifer (10:16):
They're crazy.
They're very tiny.
They're, I think they're likesix grams, five grams when
they're hatched.
They're very tiny.
They're smaller than, I took apicture the other day.
They're smaller than the cap ofa sharpie, stretched out.
Yeah.
(10:37):
Anyway I.
So you've got a puppy pad,you've got a brooder plate.
You're gonna, you're gonna tiltthat brooder plate.
One side's gonna be basicallydown on the puppy pad.
The other side's gonna be aboutan inch and a half up.
'cause they need to be able toduck to go under it, to hide, to
touch their backs to it.
Feed, ground feed because theyare so small.
(11:02):
Right on the puppy pad for thefirst few days.
And then warm water.
No cold water.
'cause you don't wanna chillthem and then you wanna leave
the light on them all the time.
A light in the room all thetime.
Carey (11:19):
So don't even do you pull water straight outta the tap.
Jennifer (11:25):
I do, but I have a water heater, so I give him warm
water.
Carey (11:29):
Okay, so you do use warm water.
You don't use like straight outof the hose pipe or nothing like
that?
Jennifer (11:34):
No.
Think like human baby bottlewarm.
Carey (11:40):
You're talking to a guy that fills his baby's bottles.
Outta the refrigerator door
Jennifer (11:45):
okay.
Normal mama style.
Human baby bottle.
Warm.
Carey (11:50):
Hey look, I'm just gonna say it's filtered.
And I'm not having to stopdriving down the road to find a
microwave to warm a bottle.
Jennifer (12:01):
Ugh.
Yeah.
Give them cold water, not themicrowave.
Okay, so now that you have thembrooding, you need a high.
Okay, you're gonna have to helpme here.
High protein, but it's also theamino acids and the vitamins and
all the other stuff that wedecided on, right?
Carey (12:20):
Yes.
Actually it's not overly high inprotein.
Let me actually pull that upwhile we're talking about it.
If I remember right on thatparticular formula, it's like a
24, 20 5%.
On the protein.
Just because, if you got, if youhave good like vitamins,
(12:45):
minerals, amino acids, all thatgood stuff, you don't really
need 30% protein.
A lot of people think
Jennifer (12:54):
Is it got fat in it too?
Carey (12:57):
Huh?
Jennifer (12:57):
Fat?
Is it high?
Oh
Carey (12:59):
yeah.
There is lots of that.
Let's see here.
Jennifer (13:04):
Fat is energy, right?
Carey (13:07):
It helps most definitely.
The fat and some of the otherstuff convert into the energy.
Let's see.
Here we go.
So it's, I wanna say the fat's8%, 9%, something like that.
It's pretty high and you likepulled that one outta your right
(13:30):
outta left field and hit me withthat.
So the protein on that feeds24%.
The fat is eight is what it sayson the guaranteed analysis, but
I do know it's a little closerto nine.
Because, I made it.
Calcium is between 1.2, 1.7.
(13:53):
The fiber is five.
The lysine is 1.5.
The methionine is real kicker at0.65 and vitamins A, d, and E
are pretty high.
They're.
Like higher than what you wouldwant a breeding foul to have.
(14:19):
But
Jennifer (14:19):
this is for the chicks, right?
Carey (14:21):
Yeah.
This is for the chicks.
Yeah.
Those suckers that so talkingabout the metabolism a regular
NICs according to Google, notme.
You can email, Google yourcomplaints, not me.
Their average heartbeat is 360times a minute.
Buttons are over 500.
Jennifer (14:41):
Holy moly.
Carey (14:42):
Just to put it into perspective.
So they're really fast onmetabolism and they need that,
they don't get 50, so that'sobviously not too much fat, but
they really.
You've found that it worksreally well for the chicks and
(15:04):
you have really good results outof'em.
So
Jennifer (15:06):
yeah, it really was a game changer on how many I could
successfully get to adulthood
Carey (15:13):
and as a breeder, that's key.
Jennifer (15:15):
Yes.
So after, five days or so, thenyou can start treating'em more
like regular little chicks.
Put the feed in a feeder.
You could probably start turningthe light off at night if you
wanted to.
We're not talking about like abright light, just something
that they can see to be active,can see
Carey (15:38):
their food.
Jennifer (15:38):
Yeah.
So then you're gonna leave themon that feed until, I leave them
on it until they start laying,and then probably another week
or two after that.
Carey (15:50):
See, that's another benefit of not being extremely
high with the protein, is youdon't have to worry about
wearing their kidneys out andstuff like that.
So that helps with the longevityof their life, which, people
that raise quail, they knowthat.
Anytime after a few weeks, thoseson guns can just, they're gone
for no reason.
Jennifer (16:15):
So we brewed them.
Okay, let's, let me back up forjust a minute.
So they're so fast that they canactually hop out of our
brooders, which I think are 15inches by about week two.
Wow.
So I have, oh
Carey (16:33):
wow.
Jennifer (16:33):
A window.
I use old window screens and putthat over the brooders.
So after about a week, I'll takethe puppy pad out, I'll put'em
on pellets because I like stallpellets.
No, they're less dusty, lastlonger.
And.
(16:54):
You can raise the heat at thatpoint.
'cause they really can be off ofheat by three or four weeks.
Just depends on the time of yearand yeah.
But they fly.
I had one out that got outFriday.
I caught her on Sunday.
She was loose in my incubatorroom.
But they fly like a sparrow.
(17:15):
Flies not like a Kix flies wherethey just flitter and flop
around and stuff.
If I.
If I have to move the buttonsaround, I will usually go into
my incubation room, close thedoors, because if I try to do it
in the barn, I do have to makesure my big barn doors are
closed, because otherwise theyjust go straight out the door.
(17:38):
Sometimes they fly right back.
They're like, oh no, thisworld's way too big.
We're coming right back.
Carey (17:45):
If they went out the back door and they saw one of the
pigs, they'd be running, no,don't get me.
Jennifer (17:51):
Yeah sometimes they don't come back.
But yeah they fly away.
Yeah, so they're gone.
And of course, they're so smallI can't see them, once they're
past five or six feet, I can'tsee'em without my glasses anyway
yeah, but just be mindful ofthat.
Whenever I send Quail home withanybody, I box them up and I
(18:12):
give explicit instructions.
Do not open this box untilyou're in the room with the
doors closed.
And you really need a bird net,like a butterfly net.
I have worn out more butterflynets than I ever care to think
(18:33):
about.
The one I'm currently using hasa hole in it.
I need to put some zip ties onit,
Carey (18:45):
so you just get.
Nets off of from Dollar Tree orsomething and scoop'em up.
Jennifer (18:54):
No, you go to bryant re.com and you get them.
Carey (19:00):
Why didn't I think about that?
Jennifer (19:01):
I know we've got this like whole story now.
Wait I forget.
Carey (19:07):
But so it's the thing because we were both at one
time, had problem out of ourincubators, the little switch.
And you can't find them.
That's definitely not a go toWalmart and get and the only
place that I could find them wason the other side of the pond,
and I think I had to order like50 of'em.
Jennifer (19:29):
Yeah.
So what you're getting at is aswe've grown, then we've had to
fix.
Supply issues and basically webuilt our stores back.
Carey (19:40):
Sometimes we have a little extras laying around.
Jennifer (19:42):
Yeah.
So we built still brand
Carey (19:43):
new
Jennifer (19:45):
so they don't have button quail stores like on the
corner, like Dollar Generals ohmy
Carey (19:52):
gosh.
Could you imagine if there waslike a Quail store or even a
chicken store where you couldjust go in and pick up that kind
of stuff?
Like you would go to TractorSupply?
Oh, that'd be awesome.
It would for us, but for ourspouses, they'd be like, have
you lost your mind?
Jennifer (20:15):
Okay, once they are done brooding, which for me is
when they're ready to startlaying eggs, that is when they
go into their permanent housing.
Now there's a lot of controversyon social media, on what is
acceptable.
(20:36):
Permanent housing.
This is what I'm going to sayabout that.
These are birds that were bornin captivity.
They don't know anythingdifferent than what you were
providing for them.
Now, their basic needs is foodand water and ventilation.
But other than that.
(20:58):
What you do is you farm yourrules.
That's right.
So there are people that havethese elaborate aviaries, which
I think are just awesome.
But
Carey (21:12):
who remind me to, to tell you about that.
Jennifer (21:14):
Impractical for me.
I keep mine on wire.
They have plenty of room.
They have desk baths, they havewater cups.
They have.
Feed cups, they have nest boxesthey have wire walls, so they
(21:35):
have lots of ventilation.
I feel like they don't know anydifferent.
They can't reason so they can'tsay, Hey, my ancestors, grew up
in the rainforest.
Why can't I grow up there?
They don't think like that
Carey (21:49):
for real.
Jennifer (21:50):
On the flip side of that, I am a hundred percent
against taking an animal out ofthe wild and caging it.
So that's my caveat to that.
If something is born incaptivity, hatched in captivity,
they don't have reasoning skillsto know any different.
So just keep that in mind.
They don't have human emotions.
Carey (22:12):
Okay so my silkies don't have human emotions.
Jennifer (22:18):
We don't talk about, I don't have some silkies on the
show.
Carey (22:20):
I don't have silkies.
Jennifer (22:23):
Sorry.
So for my purposes, I have'em onwire because I'm working through
the colors and breeding thecolors.
True.
So I have a plan, I have areason for doing what I'm doing
now.
For doing that.
The birds really like to bemonogamous.
(22:44):
Like I do have one trio, butthey've always been together.
The rest of my breeders aremonogamous, meaning one-on-one.
I do have two group cages thatare much bigger.
But they all grew up to witheach other, so there's not
(23:06):
really a set ratio like there iswith chickens or NICs.
What I would recommend, ifyou're going to do a group.
Mating situation.
Group pen is if they all getalong, then just leave them
alone.
(23:27):
If you are having issues withpicking or fighting, or they're
not laying, then sit down andjust watch'em.
Somebody's being a bully, sopull the bully, which is
probably a dominant male.
Pull him and then give itseveral days to regroup.
(23:48):
And see if you have harmony.
If you still don't have harmony,pull the next dominant male
until, and you just keep doingthat until you have harmony in
your group mating.
Carey (24:01):
So you just get rid of the jerks
Jennifer (24:03):
basically.
Okay.
Usually when people message me,this is the problem, they
haven't re gotten any eggs.
See, the hen should be laying ateight to 10 weeks.
Carey (24:16):
Okay, so like a, when it comes to laying and that kind of
stuff, they are like regularquail?
Jennifer (24:22):
Yes.
Carey (24:23):
Okay.
Jennifer (24:24):
And they still need the light.
All of that other stuff is true.
Like the other birds.
Carey (24:29):
Okay.
Jennifer (24:30):
But.
Too many males or a jerk malecan keep them from laying or if
they're stressed, they're,they're feathers picking and
that kinda stuff.
Observation is really thebiggest what's the word, the
biggest tool in your toolboxwith buttons.
(24:52):
So just, and they're fun towatch.
They're twitchy, they're reallybusy.
Mine in the house will sing tome, talk to me, whistle back to
me.
Carey (25:00):
That's cool.
Jennifer (25:01):
Yeah, it is.
It's fun.
We'll actually pause the TV andwhistle to'em, talk to them and
then they stretch up and look atus and, we just kind of mess
with'em.
So they're real interactive.
They're more like like aparakeet versus necessarily
quail as far as keeping themlike pets.
But I don't know if you let themloose, would they come back to
(25:24):
their cage?
I haven't let mine loose yet.
Of course, Teddy's in the houseand I think he would try to eat
them, so we just leave them inthe, in their cage, enclosure in
the house.
So anyway, observation is forHarmony is the best tool in your
toolbox as far as I'm concerned.
(25:47):
And then the adults, wedeveloped a breeder feed that
has really stepped up thenutrition on my adult birds.
I was having trouble, they justdidn't look right.
I had'em on Gaer feed and Idon't feed mine cheap feed
(26:07):
anyway.
But the game bird feed, it wassustaining life, but they didn't
look right.
They were dingy.
They just didn't look healthy.
And, and I wasn't getting greatfertility and wasn't getting
great survivability from theones who did hatch.
And so you and I discussed itand we worked on some breeder
(26:31):
formulas and I started usingthat with about six months ago
now.
Carey (26:38):
Probably somewhere around there.
Yeah.
Jennifer (26:40):
Yeah.
And I am up, I would say in the90%.
Hatch right now.
And the birds, there's no baldspots on their backs anymore.
Nobody's picking anymore.
Now it, it is a mash, so it hasall the seeds and all that, it
looks like real food.
(27:01):
And I wasn't sold on it when hefirst sent it to me or brought
it up here.
I, I, each one of my pens hastwo cage cups.
There's two birds, so they havetwo cage cups.
So I filled one cage cup withtheir old game bird layer feed
and one with the new stuff.
And I sent you a video that day.
(27:21):
I remember that
Carey (27:24):
was when you sent me that video, I just died laughing.
Jennifer (27:29):
They were just devouring the new stuff.
So they have never,
Carey (27:34):
They wanted to leave the other for the peasants.
Jennifer (27:37):
They've never had the other stuff since actually had
bought a whole nother bag and itis still sitting there unopened.
I don't, maybe he goats willlike it.
The pig will eat it.
Carey (27:50):
Pigs or goes, they'll love them.
Oh,
Jennifer (27:53):
so I've totally switched them over.
So a pair of buttons, those cagecups, I think hold four ounces
and I fill them twice a week.
So each bird eats about fourounces of feed a week.
Carey (28:10):
That's nothing.
Jennifer (28:12):
No, it's nothing.
Yeah.
They don't eat very much of it.
Whereas the other ones, I wasfilling'em like three times a
week and they didn't look good.
So anyway, so I think we've got,I think you and I worked out the
nutrition and I think thatthey're doing good now.
Carey (28:33):
So with your buttons like.
I'm trying to get Bob Wattsinside my house.
I like the whistle
Jennifer (28:41):
Uhhuh.
Carey (28:42):
Now Tamara is warming up to the whistle.
She actually likes it.
She admitted that.
We haven't gotten to the pointwhere they're okay in the house.
But, I might be close.
Jennifer (28:53):
If one just got loose in the house and you couldn't
find it for a while, would thatbe okay?
Carey (28:58):
So I have contemplated bringing one of the males in
because the only dog in thehouse is like a 12-year-old
oodle.
It is not chasing down a quail.
I have thought about that, butI've also wondered if I would
get in trouble.
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaking of houses and elaboratehouses, I was on Facebook the
(29:21):
other day and I saw one thatlooked like a cathedral
Jennifer (29:27):
for birds, and it was
Carey (29:28):
real like, it was really nice.
Jennifer (29:33):
Like for birds.
An aviator?
Yes,
Carey (29:36):
it was.
It was a chicken coop.
Jennifer (29:39):
Oh, don't get me started on those.
Carey (29:41):
This thing is probably a 15,$20,000 chicken coop.
It was nice.
Jennifer (29:49):
You gonna live in it, you might be living in one.
If you put a bob light in thehouse, Tam gets mad.
Carey (29:56):
Okay.
That'd be the only reason I'dget one of those suckers.
Whew.
But you know your farm, yourrules,
Jennifer (30:04):
yep.
Carey (30:06):
Is there anything else that we have that we could tell
folks about the buttons?
Jennifer (30:11):
Sexing them?
Probably.
How do you do that?
So males have red feathersaround their vents, tail between
their legs.
Somewhere on their body theyhave red feathers except for
white birds.
White birds are just solidwhite, so you have two sex.
Them behaviorally would be thebetter way to do it, especially
(30:36):
if you're inexperienced.
Don't try to vent sex them.
Carey (30:41):
I don't, I don't recommend folks to try that out
as a newbie.
Because you squeeze just alittle too hard and you got a
big mess on your hands
Jennifer (30:52):
if you, that the bird won't
Carey (30:53):
recuperate from.
Jennifer (30:55):
If you are comfortable handling the birds, which you
and I both are very comfortablehandling birds and you could
take one that you knew was amale, let's just say that you've
got a wild type.
And so he is got the red allover him and you know it's a
male and you flip him over andyou look at his vent.
(31:16):
Then you could probably look atthe whites and compare the two
at that point now.
Buttons are different than otherbirds because first of all,
they're so small that you canliterally squeeze them too hard
and hurt them.
They are game birds, which meanswhen they are stressed, they let
(31:37):
their feathers go and that couldfreak some people out.
So just be aware that.
When they're stressed, they'lllet their feathers go.
Just don't let go of them andthey'll hurt themselves even
more.
Carey (31:51):
That reminds me of the first time I processed a Turkey.
Jennifer (31:58):
When game birds are stressed, they let their
feathers go.
There's useful points to that.
Carey (32:03):
I was like, yeah, I understand now why people pluck
these things.
Jennifer (32:07):
Yeah.
Carey (32:07):
I thought that'd take a lot, but.
Jennifer (32:10):
I just don't want it to freak people out.
They get one, they pick it up,and then there's feathers all
over the place, but that'swhat's going on.
They just, they're stressed.
They let their feathers go.
And but white ones, you'll haveto behaviorally sex.
While I find that slightlyannoying just because I'm on
the, a bigger scale here thewhite ones are so pretty.
(32:36):
They're just, they're like dovesalmost.
They're really pretty to lookat.
Honestly, the silvers are myfavorite.
They're gray, silvery.
Those are my favorite.
They're very dainty looking.
Their heads are very, I don'tknow, porcelain looking almost.
(32:58):
The, those are my favorites.
I have more silvers thananything else, just because I
tend that way, but it's my farmand that's how I like it.
But they still get pinkish redfeathers around their vents in
the silver, the gray color.
The males too.
Yep.
It's just the white ones and youcan put little tiny zip ties on
'em.
So I have some white ones withlittle tiny pink zip ties on her
(33:21):
ankles.
You gotta get the smallest onesand you probably need help
because they're tiny.
The zip ties are tiny and youhave to cut that tab.
But once you do sex em, I wouldmark them somehow so you don't
have to keep doing it.
Carey (33:40):
Sure.
Jennifer (33:41):
But I think that's it.
Other than that, it's justcolors.
If you, there's not a lot ofbooks out there on button
colors, but Gary Landry has abook you can buy on.
His website has a lot of thecolors in them.
He was one of the originalimporters of the colors.
Carey (33:59):
Is, has he got anything coming up in February where he
talks about'em?
Jennifer (34:05):
He might just become a nerd.
He might be a nerd.
Such a nice guy.
Carey (34:15):
Yeah, that
Jennifer (34:15):
I learned a lot from him.
How about that?
Carey (34:17):
That's awesome.
All right until next week.
See y'all later.
Jennifer (34:24):
Yep.
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