How many quail?

[kingfisherjr]

I just built a quail pen and was wondering about how many birds I could comfortably and safely put in my pen. The pen is 9x5x4 and I plan to get either Texas A&M Whites or jumbo coturnix quail. Is there a square foot per bird rule of thumb or male to female ratio rule? I am totally new to raising quail so I know pretty much nothing about it except what I have read. I attached a picture of the pen I built if that helps any.

 

[kingfisherjr]

 

[Graphite91]

Beautiful pen! is the floor 9x5 or 9x4? Also, you may want to cover up the back or maybe hang a tarp if it gets cold at night where you live to shelter your birds from drafts.

 

[kingfisherjr]

Thanks. I covered one side of it and I was thinking about just covering half of the back and leaving half open.. Do you think it would be better to cover the whole back of the pen or just half, for a little weather protection? I live a south of Houston so it doesn't get cold very often. The pen is 9 FT long by almost 5 FT wide by 4 FT tall.

 

[Graphite91]

It depends where you are putting the pen really, if it's up against a building it should be ok with one side covered. According to the 1 bird per square foot rule, you can have 45 birds in there, but I like to do a little less than the max.

 

[rlphtvr]

Awesome pen! Are u gonna have something to catch the droppings under it?

 

[sniper338]

Personally I'm not too excited about it... it'd work great for rabbits... but not quail imo... quail get flighty... If the jump up and fly up this cage is too tall... The gain too much speed and hit their head and kill their self or brain damage theirself... quail need pens that are a foot tall at most.

If your raising them for meat... how are you gonna grab Em out of that cage... they will run off...

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

An easy solution to your headroom problem would be to loosely hang a tarp or fabric about 18" up. When the birds flush they won't get the momentum to hurt themselves. Or build your pen as a double decker. Splitting the cage horizontally into two separate cages. You would double your capacity and provide protection for your birds. You would need a droppings tray system so that the birds underneath didn't get pooped on.
When I built my first set of pens I made them 6'x3' the problem was when I went to remove birds my arm could not reach all the way to the back of the cage. Where do you think the last few birds would always run to? My second set of cages were 2' wide and made it much easier to remove birds.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[kingfisherjr]

When I built it I just went off other pictures on google I saw and kinda winged it. I'm totally open to some constructive criticism, I didn't even think about it being to tall.. I had chickens ,turkeys, pigs, and cows when I was younger but this is the first time I have tried to raise birds myself so any help is greatly appreciated. I like the idea about making it two levels, but idk how to catch the droppings from the top section? I put doors on each side and both ends so I was hoping that would help me in catching the birds. I really enjoy doing stuff like this so the more help and better I can get my setup the happier I am. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[James the Bald]

I'd hate to have to clean it. If you did have 45 quail like someone else suggested, where would you put them while you clean your cage? I do find it strange that you did a google search to build a quail pen, and it didn't take you to this forum, or even this thread. Just me, but any cage higher than 12" is just wasting material and inviting quail to get airborn long enough to bonk it's head or damage it's wing and become dinner. I will congratulate you for the hard work you put into it.
Just from what I can see: kudos for having a locking hasp to keep the curious kids from accessing it

; that thing must weigh 2 -300 pounds, which is good for the hurricane season in your neck of the woods.

There is a lot of great information on the internet (google) about quail, but no google search will answer questions that will arise from time to time. Here is some suggested reading: hatching eggs, processing quail, quail basics. I have found that some questions get asked so often, that 9 chances out of 10, somebody has already asked the question before, so you can use this advanced search (most new members ignore the encouragement to review certiain links from Nifty Chicken and start posting right away).

Welcome to the quail forum on BYC,
James