GQF Quail pens and brooder info!

[sniper338]

Since there isnt much info here on the GQF section pens and brooders for quail im starting a thread to give anyone else info... I looked all over online and couldnt find a ton of info on good vs bad...

I got most of the stuff in today and get the rest monday...

15 section breeder pens - they all seem pretty well built, but there are some bends on them that im going to have to try to iron out on the floor wire mostly... shouldnt be too bad... they have metal ring clamps that hold them together so I will be able to take off clamps to make 2 sections into one cage to give some more space for the coturnix (1 male to 4 hens is what im doing) the doors on the cages have no latches.. so we will see how they work out... I may have to buu some little latches for them.... they come with plastic feed and water trays to clamp on the sides of the cages... all the wire is covered in a black plastic shrink wrap so there is no sharp wire anywhere or bare wire... should be much better on their feet. Each cage if left in 3 sections per cage is enough room for 2 birds from what ive experienced with coturnix quail... my birds dont fight each other at all after I got them separated with who gets along with who....

I havent set it up yet to give more info just yet... more will come...

GQF stack brooder - I got the one that has one brooder and two grow out cages that stack... they are bigger than I expected... plenty of room for quail chicks... the brooder could fit 50 chicks easy room wise.... it had two ceramic heaters and two blue light bulbs for the heater element... instructions to put their stuff together suck! So its good to know more or less how a brooder goes together... the instructions are real bad... but I got it together in about 45 min... the stack came with the roll around frame to put them on so the stack can roll around and be moved... first thing I noticed is the brooder is not built where the feed and water troughs are excessable for chick quail... the feed and water trys are too deep hanging off the side for small quail to reach... so that being said a waterer and feeder will have to be put inside the brooder... once chicks are grown out a few weeks they may be able to reach the feeder trays on the outside of the brooder... on the sidea of the brooder it has an adjustable metal piece to open or close the gap to the right width for chicks to stick their head out for the feed trays... but there is a lip on the bottom which makes it too high for baby quail to use... hince why I said you gotta put food and water trys in the brooder....

Ill post more info when I get it all set up and birds in it all... pics will follow so everyone can see what im talking about in good detail. Give me a few days to get stuff set up and figure it all out myself.... it all looks like its going to work really well though. Much cleaner set ups than most poop wise... they are all built so poop will only go into the trays and the birds cant get poop all over the floor of where they are kept... looks like it will save a lot of space too.

 

[cotquail]

I am just learning but such is my experience,
Brooders are nurseries for fledgling birds, my coturnix quail have a body temp of around 37 to 38 degrees Celsius like around 100 degrees F same as humans for the first 3 weeks they need heat because they are not fully feathered , thus the heated brooder . The brooder works best if it is able to maintain heat , IE not running full out to dispel cold. If it can maintain the 100 degrees and gradually run down to room temp over a few weeks that is good .The brooders are vented to maintain breath-ability ,dryness , thus no insulation and minimal heat storage, they radiate heat not hold it I keep the brooder in same room as incubator ,so that there are no hysterical temp swings on and off. After three weeks I put them on 20 degrees C or around 68 to 70 degrees F to acclimatise and finish feathering for two weeks . After that the grow out for me goes to 55 to 60 degrees and artificial light to promote breeding and egg laying they seem to like it temperate to maintain laying on a daily basis. They can withstand cold but its hard to get them happy and laying fertile eggs under cold stress. They will survive cold if it is dry , cold and wet , hmmmm bird flu? they can get colds , respiratory probs, best keep em cozy and dry and they will reproduce like quail. Good luck

 

[MainelyQuail]

This is the towers we use. I have 5 gqf towers but switched to these.

 

[sniper338]

I ordered this stuff from Double R supply online... took about 2 weeks to ship... it gets drop shiped from the manufacturer.... they were the best prices I found though... shipping just isnt speedy...

 

[sniper338]

While im thinking about it ill add in that with the brooder... it is PLENTY tall for quail. You do not need the extension pieces to male the roof higher.... it would fit adult quail no problem as is...

 

[sniper338]

Heres pics of what I have and am testing out here...

Brooder with two grow out pens... stack..

 

[sniper338]

15 section breeding pens

 

[sniper338]

 

[sniper338]

Well today I got the other parts in today to finish putting together this set up... growout pens/brooders with no heating element.... went together great now that we knew how to put them together... took like 5 min each to put together... then stacked them and bolted them all together on the wheel cart. Works and looks great so far. I plugged it in to get the heating element going. Im still having some trouble getting it warm enough in the brooder so I havent put chicks in it... its in the 20s tonight and the brooder wouldnt get hotter than 75 degrees whipe I was messing with it. Still havent figured out that wafer thermostat...

Which leads me to as much as I paid for this sob it should just have a digital thermostat... I mean really my incubator has one so it would make it way way better...

I got the stand for the cage set up... again GQF instructions to put things together SUCK!! Just burn the instructions and start putting it together the way you think it goes and trail and error... its easier than the instructions. It is very aggervating... but I got the stand together after a while and it works fine now... I put the cages in the stand (they hang in the stand on clips... works pretty good. Then the poop tray slides underneath. I took out a few sections to make bigger pens for my coturnix breeding coveys... then separated out some roos to ttheir own cage.. I put 3 male bobwhites in 3 separate cages and paired with a female each. We will see how they get along...
The birds were quite nervous in the new cages so hopefully by tomorrow they settle in a bit.

The sections in the cages were not that easy to separate to make bigger.. I had to cut off the wire clamps to get the divider out. Cages came from the manufacturer with some bends in the wire and some manufacturer ing defects that personally shows me GQFs quality control is crap. I was able to fix some things fine, other stuff they should not have even sold like bends in the divider and wire cut to the wrong length so the cage doesnt go together exactly correct... but what am I gonna do... I just gotta fix what I can and roll with it. Ill post pics to show yall...

Besides that though im pretty happy with the stuff... it takes up much less room and organizes the quail real well.

 

[sniper338]

The brooder comes with two blue light bulbs included... so that was nice.. kind of shows me what i need to use for the llights in there...

Like I said I still need to mess with adjusting the temp on the brooder to get it right... I havent had much time to play with it since I had to come to work tonight..

Biggest problem ive found so far is the instructions to put stuff together are horrible. My gf got so mad she wanted to call GQF and write a letter to send into them too complaining. So if you can get past having really detailed instructions your fine.

All the wire on everything is coated so that makes things nice. Cleans up easier and is better on the birds feet.

Food trays on the cages are plastic... which sucks in quality but it is what it is. They seem to good so far though for food. They are made where when the birds stick out their heads to eat when they kick food around qith their beak it keeps food from flying out. So yes the seem to work real well for food. I filled up trays on the other side with water... so we will see how that works... I may end up keeping with rabbit waterers and using the second try for oyster shell and grit. Im not sure how I like using the big ol tray full or water where they can drown theirself if they are suicidal. That is one thing im paying close attention to right now...

Call me dumb but the doors on the cages all had clips on them to keep the doors closed... well I took them off because I didnt realize how they worked... you slide the clip up and the door opens.... easy... then. The door locks **** when it is closed again... works good... I puy all the clips back on... lol...