Quail Pens/Housing

[rbar]

I would like to start a thread of quail pen designs, hopefully with pictures and/or links.
Everyone's needs are a bit different, so I realize that one size does not fit all when it comes to quail housing.
Still, features of different designs can be utilized in different designs.
I have used the GQF pens when indoor space was available and they are great. I have had a few out-door grow-out pens of various designs.
I offer the following points for an "ideal" quail pen and am interested how everyone has addressed the items.
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Some Quail Pen considerations:

1. Indoor or outdoor usage?
(If indoor, how are droppings addressed?)
(If outdoor, how is cover addressed? Also, predator protection?)

2. Feeders/Waterers- external (like the standard GQF) or internal?

3. Pen size? Type and size wire utilized?

4. How does the design facilitate egg gathering?

5. How does the design facilitate catching the quail when desired? (It's nice to have a lot of space, flight pens, etc., but when it comes to catching them, it can make things difficult!)

6. Maintenance issues.
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To start, here is a link of an attractive pen:

http://apfalconry.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=avianprey&action=display&thread=3031&page=1
It is an outdoor, internal feeders, wire: 1/2" x 1" floor and 1/2" and wood sides, 3'wide x 12' long, eggs roll under front wire, not sure how they catch them?
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Next, from recent posts:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=361826

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=103378&p=2

RBar

 

[jzigbe]

My quail cages!

 

[jzigbe]

My quail housing with pull-out poop trays.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:

If enough post on here i'd be happy to add this link to my educational post if you didn't care. The subject of housing always comes up so this would be really helpful!

 

[Hvacmoose]

This is my Quail Tractor. I didnt like the idea of cleaning up under them all the time or emptying trays regularly, so i thought of a chicken tractor and designed it to roll around the yard moving it every couple of days. It turned out super lightweight and easy to move.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

I purchased a commercial battery cage from a seller in Baton Rouge, LA. The cage is all stainless steel with rubber covered wire flooring. Originally 48 cages. Four tiers of 12 cages each. I modified the cages, removing every other cage partition. Now I have a battery that consists of 24 cages. 1 male to 3 females. Automatic waterers, and stainless steel feed trough. Really the best cage system I have ever had.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I purchased a commercial battery cage from a seller in Baton Rouge, LA. The cage is all stainless steel with rubber covered wire flooring. Originally 48 cages. Four tiers of 12 cages each. I modified the cages, removing every other cage partition. Now I have a battery that consists of 24 cages. 1 male to 3 females. Automatic waterers, and stainless steel feed trough. Really the best cage system I have ever had.

Chicken-Farmer

What is the manufacturer of those cages? I like them for laying cot hens are to raise up butcher birds. Next week I am getting a GQF 15 section breeder pen but I am removing the dividers to have 2 trios of snowflake bobwhite, 2 trios of valley, and a trio of gambel.

 

[Bigbuck1]

The top pic is the latest build. It's still in the works.

 

[DK newbie]

It's all preference, if you want for egg production smaller cages are better, just for easy access and cleaning, Larger cages (flight pens) are also good for meat birds. But in the end these brid's are dumb, bred stupid over the years... They don't really care, as long as there is food and water.

I can't help but wondering, do you really think that if you gave the quail the option between a small battery cage with a wire bottom and a larger flight pen with a dirt floor, hiding places and such, it would spend as much time in the wire bottom cage as in the flight pen? I have never had coturnix, but I am very convinced that even if food and water was only available in the battery cage, my buttons would spend just about every second of the day when they were not eating, in the flight pen.
Coturnix might have been bred in captivity for more than a thousand years, but they have evolved in freedom for much longer than that. You can't breed all instincts out of them just by placing them in an environment where they don't need them, for a few thousand generations. You can weaken them, sure. And the birds might be both happy and healthy in their battery cages. But unless you have given them the choice - which you might have, in which case my assumptions about the preferences of coturnix might be wrong - I don't think it's right to say they don't care..

 

[Invision]

I can't help but wondering, do you really think that if you gave the quail the option between a small battery cage with a wire bottom and a larger flight pen with a dirt floor, hiding places and such, it would spend as much time in the wire bottom cage as in the flight pen? I have never had coturnix, but I am very convinced that even if food and water was only available in the battery cage, my buttons would spend just about every second of the day when they were not eating, in the flight pen.
Coturnix might have been bred in captivity for more than a thousand years, but they have evolved in freedom for much longer than that. You can't breed all instincts out of them just by placing them in an environment where they don't need them, for a few thousand generations. You can weaken them, sure. And the birds might be both happy and healthy in their battery cages. But unless you have given them the choice - which you might have, in which case my assumptions about the preferences of coturnix might be wrong - I don't think it's right to say they don't care..

Again it's Personal preference, I have quail on the ground in big cages, I have some in battery cages, I have yet to see any change in behavior. So even were on the ground and then placed in cages. Still no change. Most people do have the space to house quail in huge flight pens, that's why COTs were used for food. They are the best with as little of space possible.

By all means, if you have the space, make them a big cage/flight pen. They are fun to watch fly around. More so if you want them as pets, but for me I keep these birds for food, eggs, and selling. So it doesn't fit my budget to house them in massive pens where I have to search for eggs all the time, with a 40-60 hour a week job, I don't have the time to deal with that. But as I stated, I would love to see huge flight pens full of cover and COTs flying everywhere. If someone is doing that they need to post some videos and pictures.