Quail.

[farthing]

You may or may not know I am a quail fan, at the moment we have 2 girls and 2 boys- boys are very frisky and should have at least 3 girls. I am always on the looked out for ex breeding birds to give a home to.
I saw some advertised in the local paper and we phoned up.
They are birds who have been bred for birds of prey to feed on, but are unwanted. I don't want to buy them, but at the same time at least these will get a chance to live a good life. It can be so hard to decide what to do for the best. I'm pretty sure they will be culled otherwise so we will end up taking them. If people think hens are kept in a bad way, they should look at quail welfare.

[dandysmom]

Bred for birds of prey to feed on? How awful, I didn't know that, thought they got mice ....

Quail are darling little birds; look forward to some pics when they come to you ... a safe happy home!

[farthing]

Quail, world wide get a horrendous deal. They are bred to feed birds of prey, they are bred for scientific research and they are factory farmed for meat and eggs.
Quail eggs cost a fortune, but quail will lay eggs 2 dys out of 3 when young, only live about 3 years and are active birds who tame quite easily.
Here are some sites to look at, if you don't want to be upset don't look.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/607/raising-japanese-quail

http://www.falconers.com/articles/quail/

http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/jpquail.pdf

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,470152,00.html

[Kazz]

Can't look at the sites you have listed. I hate that sort of thing. But I kind like quails never considered they were "kept" in residential homes like chickens....but question is will you get the birds?