How many feeding / watering stations per (coturnix) quail?

[KineticUrchin]

Hey all, I've never owned quail or other poultry before. I hope to get coturnix quail soon (for eggs). I'm in the design phase of making stacked quail cages. I'm going to go with 3 cages, approx 12" high, 24" deep, not sure on length yet (anywhere from 3-6ft.). I'd prefer longer cages, but it depends what I can find for poop trays, unfortunately all I've found so far are the 3'x2' oil trays. I will go with the 1 quail per sq ft rule, while taking into account space lost due to the food and water containers.

I've been doing a lot of reading on here, and watching youtube videos, learning about keeping coturnix as I go. I want to make a low-waste feed container, where they'd have to stick their heads in to eat, but I don't know how many feeding ports to make. Same with the watering cups. Do you all have a ratio to make sure each quail gets enough food and water? Thanks.

 

[Nabiki]

I try to make sure there are close to as many ports as there are birds. If you're going to crowd them in there, or if the cages are big, provide at least two feeders so the bullies can't keep anyone from eating.

 

[Hourman]

Hey all, I've never owned quail or other poultry before. I hope to get coturnix quail soon (for eggs). I'm in the design phase of making stacked quail cages. I'm going to go with 3 cages, approx 12" high, 24" deep, not sure on length yet (anywhere from 3-6ft.). I'd prefer longer cages, but it depends what I can find for poop trays, unfortunately all I've found so far are the 3'x2' oil trays. I will go with the 1 quail per sq ft rule, while taking into account space lost due to the food and water containers.

I've been doing a lot of reading on here, and watching youtube videos, learning about keeping coturnix as I go. I want to make a low-waste feed container, where they'd have to stick their heads in to eat, but I don't know how many feeding ports to make. Same with the watering cups. Do you all have a ratio to make sure each quail gets enough food and water? Thanks.

I will be following this thread closely because I am in the exact same position. I've been doing my research for about a year while very slowly building my setup when the budget allows. I have an incubator which I am testing, without eggs, to learn how to calibrate it and manipulate humidity. I just this weekend finished up building a brooder box. Next will be building cages. I'm designing them so that they can be subdivided with removable partitions. I envision each section to hold up to 6 birds in a 5:1 breeder set. So I am also wondering how many feed ports and how many horizontal nipples do I need in each 6 bird section?

 

[Hourman]

If you are able to design and build cages, you don't need to be limited by the available sizes of manure trays. I just finished building a brooder and used coroplast to fabricate my own trays. I repurposed old political campaign signs which can be harvesting for free on the day after election day. But this material is also available in plain white at the big box stores for about $30 for a 4'x 8' sheet.

 

[KineticUrchin]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I did see the coroplast on Home Depot's website, I want to see how sturdy or flimsy it in person first.

I've also considered for poop trays some thin plywood (for strength) with adhesive linoleum/vinyl (for easy cleaning).

 

[KineticUrchin]

Bump, is everyone here doing a 1:1 ratio of feeder ports to quail? Anything different? I'm not sure how much time they spend eating.

 

[Hourman]

I don't have the personal experience yet, but I'm also researching this topic. The answer I recieved on a different forum was that 3 ports is fine for 6 birds. We're supposed to provide food 24/7, but that doesn't mean that they must all eat at the same time. My intuition tells me that one port for every 3 birds should work, but that's only my guess.

 

[Nabiki]

One port per two birds is fine as long as they always have food available. It's still a good idea to have at least two feeding stations, though. If you get a bully, it may keep other birds from the food, but it can't guard both at the same time.