Just wanting to share a few solutions I've come up with to help with some issues I've encountered with raising quail in a garage.
So my set up is shown below. I'm working on adding a third stack of cages, and each cage has access to its own dust bath.
The birds love using the dust baths, but...
... there is a problem. Since it's where they spend a lot of time, and they poop where ever they are, the dust baths can become trays filled with poop. So either I need to just dump out the sand baths and add in fresh new sand every time, or I have to sift out the poop from the sand, like a kitty litter box. I used a wire mesh flower sifter from Walmart, and it was working, but it would take for ever. I asked my kids to help, but that was more of a chore than just doing it myself.
Something had to change. Either I had to get rid of the dust baths, which was not a favorable option, just use fresh sand every time, also not favorable as I don't have a ready supply of sand or dirt, or come up with another means of sifting the poop out of the sand.
I came up with this thing:
A barrel sieve made from a 5gal bucket and plastic canvas. some wood 1x2 slats mount the plastic canvas to the sides, and then I used wire to be the support spokes to the center axel made from all thread. I have bearings inside the wood blocks at each end, but that might be a bit of over kill.
Here's a picture of the back side:
I found that the back side needs to have a bit of a lip so that when the dirt gets dumped in it doesn't back flow into the already sifted dirt.
The poopy sand gets dumped into the back side, and the handle turns the barrel. Clean sand falls through the plastic canvas, and I have a bag acting as a funnel into a bucket below. The barrel is angled so that as it rotates the sand inside rolls down towards the front. A second bad funnels the waste (poop, rocks, feathers...) into a second bucket. The result is sifted sand that's ready to be used, and a bucket of waste that can go to the compost.
It works wonderfully. I can do all the dust baths in about 15 minutes, and its so easy even my 4yr old kid can do it.
So my set up is shown below. I'm working on adding a third stack of cages, and each cage has access to its own dust bath.
The birds love using the dust baths, but...
... there is a problem. Since it's where they spend a lot of time, and they poop where ever they are, the dust baths can become trays filled with poop. So either I need to just dump out the sand baths and add in fresh new sand every time, or I have to sift out the poop from the sand, like a kitty litter box. I used a wire mesh flower sifter from Walmart, and it was working, but it would take for ever. I asked my kids to help, but that was more of a chore than just doing it myself.
Something had to change. Either I had to get rid of the dust baths, which was not a favorable option, just use fresh sand every time, also not favorable as I don't have a ready supply of sand or dirt, or come up with another means of sifting the poop out of the sand.
I came up with this thing:
A barrel sieve made from a 5gal bucket and plastic canvas. some wood 1x2 slats mount the plastic canvas to the sides, and then I used wire to be the support spokes to the center axel made from all thread. I have bearings inside the wood blocks at each end, but that might be a bit of over kill.
Here's a picture of the back side:
I found that the back side needs to have a bit of a lip so that when the dirt gets dumped in it doesn't back flow into the already sifted dirt.
The poopy sand gets dumped into the back side, and the handle turns the barrel. Clean sand falls through the plastic canvas, and I have a bag acting as a funnel into a bucket below. The barrel is angled so that as it rotates the sand inside rolls down towards the front. A second bad funnels the waste (poop, rocks, feathers...) into a second bucket. The result is sifted sand that's ready to be used, and a bucket of waste that can go to the compost.
It works wonderfully. I can do all the dust baths in about 15 minutes, and its so easy even my 4yr old kid can do it.
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