Show me your quail pens!!!

[Em Ty]

I lost 5 chickens last year to a raccoon. It waited outside my automatic door until it opened and then went in and made me sad. They are not my favourite animals.

 

[texan4ut]

Retooled by brooder pen. The way I had it was it was up high with doors on the side, slide out poop tray closed on 3 sides and light mounted inside. Worked ok, however sometimes I would open the side door and quail would fly out while changing water/feed.
I have now cut it down so it is lower and lighter, put it on wheels so I can move it. Here is what I have now
The white bucket will hold the water that will flow to the drink cups

Going to make a lamp holder that will allow me to raise and lower the lamp so I can adjust the heat.

 

[paneubert]

Finished (well...is it ever really finished??? Hahaha!) the aviary today. If this is your first time seeing my posts, this aviary is built under our second story deck on our house. A good percentage of the framing and the entire roof is actually our deck. Photo dump time...

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This is from the back corner. 8 by 12 inch pavers with normal bricks just inside that. Hardware cloth about 2 feet out from wood. Gravel on top. About an inch deep now, but I might fill it in deeper to be more level with the bricks.



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Inside front corner. I tossed in some recently trimmed branches. We will see if that was a good idea or not when the quail get in there.



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Shot of the door from the inside looking out. Those are 16 by 16 pavers on the outside and 8 by 16 on the inside. I did not run any hardware cloth under the door, so these are all I have for keeping predators from digging under. But I think it will be ok.... The door closes below and against that 2 by 6 you see, so there is no gap for an animal to get in unless they chew thru the wood.


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Outside front corner looking at the pavers and gravel. I graveled in between the pavers and the framing wherever there was a gap. Figure it will help with drainage and deter diggers a little bit. There is about 2 feet of hardware cloth coming out from between the corner post and the door frame, but there is none coming out in front of the door. So this short side of the aviary has some protection via hardware cloth from diggers, but the door is just protected by the 16 by 16 pavers in front of it.


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Shot of my ugly paving work. That giant rock made things interesting.....I had to work around it. There is about 8 inches of hardware cloth coming out this side of the aviary. So I have the pavers about halfway on and halfway off the cloth to extend the predator protection a little farther from the wood framing. As I said in an earlier photo caption, I think I might fill in with more gravel up to the top of the bricks.


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Looking in the aviary from the door. This was before I put the evergreen branches in the front corner. You can see the giant buried rock, the gravel area I made, the black plastic house I am going to try out, as well as the sand box I made for them.


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Just another shot looking in the door.


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Another shot from the door.


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In this one you can sort of see that I screwed in some tinted UV resistant plastic roofing panels. I tried my best to slope them towards the far end of the coop. They start right at the door, but are about a foot short of the far end of the coop. That is part of the reason I put a ton of gravel over on the far end of the coop. I want the rain to drain over there and not make a muddy mess.


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Another shot from the back side.


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Better shot of the roof panels I put in. I just screwed them right to the joist for the deck above the aviary on the near/door side, and then I screwed in a 2 by 6 to the joist at the far end. Then screwed the far end of the panels to that 2 by 6 that is "hanging" from the far joist. So I should have a good angle that will drain properly. We will seer when it rains!


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Shot of the sandbox. That is an entire 80 pound bag of sand.


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Shot of the house and the sandbox.


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Funny how the site uploads photos in a weird order. This is another shot of the tree branch corner and giant half buried boulder.


Well.....that is it for now. 21 quail will be moving in on Wednesday.

 

[horsekeeper]

That looks like a lot of thought and work put into your project. I don't have quail yet, so can't give you an expert opinion, but it looks really nice to me. Good job.

 

[paneubert]

That looks like a lot of thought and work put into your project. I don't have quail yet, so can't give you an expert opinion, but it looks really nice to me. Good job.

Thanks. I still have a few things I am thinking about doing, such as adding a couple bags of sand to the floor all over the coop. The current floor is a layer of woody mulch that retains moisture as soon as you dig down about half an inch. Below the mulch (about an inch or two down), it is just sandy/clay/dirt. I am thinking if I add in a thin layer of sand on top, then it will eventually incorporate with the mulch and help it to not become muddy. Nothing thick, just toss a couple 80 pound bags evenly over the 50'ish square feet of the coop. Might not even be noticeable if I did it. Although now that I added the roofing panels things should dry out a little more than they did in the past. I am not going to have an easy time cleaning this coop no matter what I do since I am starting with such a weird mulchy ground. But I am hoping that things work out and that we don't end up with a smelly mess. If they do, I will have to either try the deep litter method or go full on thick sand so I can sift it for poop easier.

 

[horsekeeper]

I have a 6X16 coop that has two 6X6 pens with a feed area in between. One has bantams and the other has standard size cochins, and too many in each pen. They are able to go out in a large run all day, but in the winter it gets kind of close. I put in 2X wooden floors and a deep layer of shavings and it stayed dry all winter. Easy to scrape up with a small square shovel or a metal dustpan. Don't know if that would work with quail. Sounds like they need a giant kitty litter pan.

 

[paneubert]

I still have a few things I am thinking about doing, such as adding a couple bags of sand to the floor all over the coop. The current floor is a layer of woody mulch that retains moisture as soon as you dig down about half an inch. Below the mulch (about an inch or two down), it is just sandy/clay/dirt. I am thinking if I add in a thin layer of sand on top, then it will eventually incorporate with the mulch and help it to not become muddy.

I got antsy sitting on the couch, so I went back out to the coop and sprinkled a really thin layer of sand all over. It is barely more than a dusting, maybe 1/8 inch thick. Probably about 30 pounds of sand. I am going to see how long (or if) the quail turn it over into the mulch. Science experiment! I know chickens would have it turned in no time, but I am not sure about quail.

 

[Sill]

I got antsy sitting on the couch, so I went back out to the coop and sprinkled a really thin layer of sand all over. It is barely more than a dusting, maybe 1/8 inch thick. Probably about 30 pounds of sand. I am going to see how long (or if) the quail turn it over into the mulch. Science experiment! I know chickens would have it turned in no time, but I am not sure about quail.

Nice set up! Quail are every bit as good as chickens when it comes to earth moving. They'll have that sand and mulch mixed in no time. If you put the water up on a layer or two of bricks it will stay cleaner and they can still reach it. You might want higher sides on your sand box, they'll get that tossed out in a hurry. Or even put the plastic house over the sand box? That would keep the sand in and they would have a dry area for sure. Can you put a gutter at the end of the panels to drain the rain out of the pen? I'd be afraid it will turn into a soupy mess once the quail get the mulch and sand thrown over the gravel. They are going to love the branches to hide and play in. What do you have in the plastic house? Can't wait to see this with quail in it. What kind are you getting?

 

[paneubert]

Nice set up! Quail are every bit as good as chickens when it comes to earth moving. They'll have that sand and mulch mixed in no time. If you put the water up on a layer or two of bricks it will stay cleaner and they can still reach it. You might want higher sides on your sand box, they'll get that tossed out in a hurry. Or even put the plastic house over the sand box? That would keep the sand in and they would have a dry area for sure. Can you put a gutter at the end of the panels to drain the rain out of the pen? I'd be afraid it will turn into a soupy mess once the quail get the mulch and sand thrown over the gravel. They are going to love the branches to hide and play in. What do you have in the plastic house? Can't wait to see this with quail in it. What kind are you getting?

Thanks for all the tips and comments. The food and water are each on a 16 by 16 paver currently, but I was planning to either raise them more (maybe double the pavers, or hang them. An unintended side effect of the roofing having a slope is that I cant screw into/thru the majority of it to reach a solid joist. So I can't use the majority of my roof to hang anything. Unless I hang right at the door. Bummer!

I agree about the sand box being better with deeper walls. I am hoping what I have right now will work or be sustainable after they toss a good amount out. Before I filled it with sand, I dug out a lot of the mulch that was there on the virgin ground. So that sand box area is actually sand about 2 or 3 inches below the ground level.

The gutter idea is a good one. I might actually be able to make something like that work......I am going to have to go stare at it for a while to see how I could attach it.

Plastic house is empty except for a layer of sand. With my luck they will refuse to go in it for shelter from the wind. I was toying with the idea of putting treats in there nightly to entice them to use the house. I know they wont roost, but maybe I can train them to at least check out the house for treats. I also was thinking of putting a layer of straw or timothy hay in there in case they decided to actually use it to nest a bit. I know the instincts are not strong.....but who knows. If they do use it, I fully expect to have a quail explosion each time I lift it looking for eggs or giant piles of poop to clean. I like the idea of putting the house over the sand pit. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it might work. I think the house is wider than the pit, so it would rest on top of the sand box frame. Which could work out perfectly.

As for what I am getting, standard "brownish" coturnix.

 

[clawstar]

paneubert I suggest placing some wire on the bottom of the door, so when you open the door the quail cannot run out. this would require you to step over it every time you enter or exit but I found it usefull in my aviary. Does your door open into the aviar or out of it(or both?)?