T&J Farms - Gamebird, Miniature Horse and Exotics farm located in Lubbock, Texas, the heart of West Texas. Specilizing in ringneck pheasant, bobwhite quail, and chukar. Offering eggs, chicks and flight conditioned adults to the West Texas area for stocking, training and hunting clubs.
What's New
We are currently booking orders for the 2010 Hatch Season. Contact us now for more information about reserving your birds. |
| Biology of Bobwhite Quail |
|
he male bobwhite begins singing in early spring to attract a mate, signaling the start of the mating season, the peak of the singing occurring during May through August. Nesting occurs from May to September. Both hens and cocks (males) choose the breeding sites and collect materials for nest construction and brooding. Two or three females will share a nest if bobwhites are abundant and cover is scarce. A typical nest is a shallow, saucer-shaped depression in the ground, lined with plants and covered with grass and the previous year's dead vegetation. Clutch sizes vary from 10 to 20 eggs, with an average of 12 eggs, laid one-a-day. Incubation lasts 23 to 24 days. The downy young are rapidly mobile (precocial) and follow their parents upon hatching. They fledge in six to seven days. Bobwhites are what ecologists refer to as an r-selected species, which means they are subject to high annual mortality rates but are able to offset this mortality with high reproductive rates. Nesting loss is fairly high at 60-70%. Females will re-nest until successful or until it becomes too late in the season. With persistent nesting, 75% of females will produce young. Chick mortality is about 30%. Most deaths occur within the first two weeks of life, when the young are most vulnerable to weather. The life expectancy of the bobwhite quail is less than one year. The average annual home range size is around 40 acres but, depending on habitat quality, home range size can vary from 10 acres to more than 200 acres. Annual mortality rates may reach 70-80% depending on habitat quality, weather, predator densities, hunting pressure and other variables. Providing high quality habitat at all seasons of the year best controls predation on bobwhites. Source: quailforever.org |