What all can you tell me about Johnny House quail? I know very little about it besides the concept of them having shelter from predators and the elements.

I live in town but have a small place about 15 minutes from my house that I plan on setting up a Johnny House for about 2 dozen quail to train a dog on. Do I need to be letting the birds out daily after they are trained? So they are learning to fly and act somewhat like wild birds. Do you feed a certain feed to Johnny House quail? What kind of meds are necessary to keep the birds from getting sick and dying on me? Any particular watering/feeding systems I should stay away from?

When it comes to training the birds, do I feed them through the recall tube? Only let out a few birds at a time when I first get the birds?

Sorry for all of the dumb questions, I am a total rookie at this stuff. Thanks in advance!

They'll die. Simple as that. Might as well pop their heads off when you buy them.

This is great news.

Buddy that does this has some preserve permit. He also bands his birds so it is known they are from his preserve. This allows him to shoot the birds year around. He uses pigeons for the majority of training though

I am working on getting some Homing Pigeons as well. Haven't had much luck finding any yet.

On a side note, if anyone knows of any homers that are for sale I would like to talk to you about those as well.

They can live for months in a Johnny house. You don't need to band them either.

The problem I've had with a Johnny house is when I've trained too close to it. When you open the top and let some fly, they don't fly very far (they just won't). Then you bring in a young dog, and there's bird scent frickin everywhere. And the dog can hear or sometimes see the ones you have to leave in the Johnny house for recall, while you're trying to get it on point 20 yards away from the big box that smells like quail. It can be a CF deluxe.

I guess my advice is take the birds far enough away that the house itself is not a distraction. You could box a few up and take them a hundred yards away and turn them out, they might even recall?

If you have somewhere close to buy birds, just buy enough to train with and eat them when you're done. Get a bird bag and a plastic box and drive them out there with you. Or spend more money on pigeons (and a coop) and launchers.

Just feed them whatever grain you have or they probably have some kind of game bird feed at your feed store. They're quail so they're gonna die no matter what, I wouldn't give them any meds. Try to keep the feed inside only, you don't want other critters coming around.

The quail will recall?

Do they also step off on hullabaloo?

I have some DT launchers ordered, should be here middle of next week, and I am trying to find homing pigeon leftovers but haven't had any luck so far. I know I can trap feral pigeons and launch them. I was trying to find some homers so I don't have to keep trapping birds though.

Good idea about not training too close to the Johnny House, that makes a lot of sense.

San Angelo

As Panhandle mentioned above if there is a place that you can readily buy quail from (and the disposable income allows) buy birds, train your dog, eat quail for dinner that night. It's a lot easier than trying to keep birds alive, homers etc.
I did it that way and when you really started putting the numbers to it, it was cheaper for me to buy a couple birds every other day than dealing with a Johnny house and homers.

Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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I have some DT launchers ordered, should be here middle of next week, and I am trying to find homing pigeon leftovers but haven't had any luck so far. I know I can trap feral pigeons and launch them. I was trying to find some homers so I don't have to keep trapping birds though.

Good idea about not training too close to the Johnny House, that makes a lot of sense.

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The launchers are worth the $'s to help with training. I have had good luck with mine.