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As a person with a deep connection to the past, Barry Hartman made a home on his grandmother’s farm in Stoneville when he retired from the Air Force in 1996.

“As a kid, I grew up in this old house,” said Hartman, who’s 51. “We hunted rabbits, quail, squirrels, anything we could eat.”

For the past five years, instead of hunting quails, he has been raising them to turn loose on the farm.

He recalls in his childhood that “old Mr. Webster of Mottsinger Road, now Webster Road, used to buy quails and turn them loose.”

Hartman began his avian hobby in a traditional way by raising chickens. Although he eats eggs and occasionally puts a 4- or 5-year-old chicken in the stew pot, he mainly just likes having them around.

After he got the chickens, one thing led to another and he was soon getting quails by mail order.

“I got to thinking about giving things back. Everybody I see is trying to take something away. Raising quails is my way of giving back,” he said.

The quail population is declining in North Carolina and in most states across the United States. Biologists say the loss of habitat is a major factor.

Family farms used to support quails but more efficient land use and loss of farm land has led to a decline in the species.

 Experts say that leaving 15-foot grassy borders around farm fields results in twice the number of quails and is an easy and cost-effective way for farmers to help to increase the quail population. 

Hartman keeps 5 acres behind his home uncut to give the birds cover and food.

The first year he raised 40.  Now he raises about 100 each year.

He pays $1 each plus shipping and handling for day-old birds. But the initial cost is just the beginning. It costs $50 to $75 each month to feed his quails and chickens. 

Hartman has built a pentagon-shaped cage  with a roof on it. He also has three stages the quails go through before they are allowed in the large cage.

He incubates the eggs in one end of his set-up, has a brooder box in the middle, and another cage on the end where he keeps larger youngsters.

When the birds are about 8 weeks old, he puts them in the pentagon-shaped cage.

All the cages are connected by doors so he doesn’t have to catch and move the birds, resulting in less stress on them. 

The quails begin reproducing in March and continue until mid-July. When the birds reach adulthood, Hartman turns them loose on the farm.

They will hang around for a day or two, scurrying around with his chickens, before they disappear into the meadow behind the house.

The quails move farther away from the house as they age and grow wilder.

The Dan River is a half-mile away, and Hartman tracks the quails’ progress by how close to the river they have moved. In the fall, they group into coveys.

Hartman has modified a deer feeder to feed his birds, quails and chickens alike.

On summer evenings, he often sits outside and calls the birds up to the feeder. Within 2 or 3 minutes, he can usually get a couple to come up to the feeder. 

“I just like to hear them at night and in the day,” he said. “What I’m doing is right.”

Sunday morning, I heard the familiar call “Bob White” outside my window.

I couldn’t help but think of Hartman and his hobby. It reminds me that there is a lot about the past that I sure would miss if it were gone.

Joni Carter lives in the Bethany community. Contact her at writetojonicarter@gmail.com