100 gallon stock tank as brooder?

[mdees88]

That brooder will be plenty big for 15-20 chicks. My 55 gallon ones can get 20 chicks to 2 weeks without cleaning, just adding a fresh layer of shavings every day. I've got 40 chicks to 1.5 weeks in it once but I had to add shavings a couple times per day and I think I completely cleaned it out once. It was definitely a little cramped with 40 chicks once they got around 6 or 7 days old...

 

[Folly's place]

Those are rabbit hutches? Wire floors are NOT good for chicks!!! Raccoons will reach up and pull off toes and feet. Happened at a neighbor's, ugly.
Mary

 

[Tommypants]

This is a quail hutch. It’s 1/2 hardware cloth which is just fine for quail according to all the resources I’ve read. It will also be for the adult birds once they’re moved outside.

I actually based the design off of multiple sources. The closed off section, to provide shelter from the wind, has a solid flo

Those are rabbit hutches? Wire floors are NOT good for chicks!!! Raccoons will reach up and pull off toes and feet. Happened at a neighbor's, ugly.
Mary

i actually based the design, again it’s only for the adults, off of several successful quail hutch designs to fit our needs. The closed off section, to provide shelter from the wind, had a solid floor and this is where the sand bath will be.

 

[mdees88]

Quail are pretty stupid and will not necessarily stay in the enclosed area if a raccoon comes and they can pull their legs off through the 1/2" floor, happened to me several times.

As for the "long" door.... I would probably make it around half to 2/3rds the size of the opening. That's a very large area to have open when collecting eggs, adding feed, etc. If your quail are the slightest bit skittish I bet it would be easy for them to escape when the doors open.

If you really want to keep the large door I would add a lip to the inside at the edge of the floor. Maybe a 2x4 on edge. This would be a barrier they would have to jump over to escape when the door is open.

 

[Tommypants]

Quail are pretty stupid and will not necessarily stay in the enclosed area if a raccoon comes and they can pull their legs off through the 1/2" floor, happened to me several times.

As for the "long" door.... I would probably make it around half to 2/3rds the size of the opening. That's a very large area to have open when collecting eggs, adding feed, etc. If your quail are the slightest bit skittish I bet it would be easy for them to escape when the doors open.

If you really want to keep the large door I would add a lip to the inside at the edge of the floor. Maybe a 2x4 on edge. This would be a barrier they would have to jump over to escape when the door is open.

Oh, the door is going to be smaller than the opening. We just haven’t framed that part out yet. So what do you suggest for the flooring? This is an outdoor hutch so the purpose was to have the droppings fall through.

 

[mdees88]

You definitely have to do the wire floor. You just need to keep coons away from your hutch. If you don't have a ton in your area you should be fine. It took them almost a year before they killed some of my quail.

If you built it high enough where a coon can't reach from the ground, you just need to prevent them from climbing the legs. I wrapped the legs of my cages with aluminum flashing and that has prevented them from climbing up the cage.

If not, you might be able to add another piece of hardware cloth several inches below the wire floor. I probably wouldn't do that unless you for sure have a coon problem though.

As far as floors go though, I definitely recommended pvc/vinyl coated wire, specifically 1/2" x 1" 16ga pvc coated welded wire. I'm currently on my 4th design of outdoor cage and I used what you used on all of them. After a while I ended up getting some bumble foot problems.

The finish on the galvanized hardware cloth is not the smoothest and over time it gets less smooth from being pooped on. The pvc coated wire is as slick as glass and is also thicker which is better for the quails feet.

I ended up replacing the floors in all my cages which was quite a chore. Hopefully you'll have better luck with the hardware cloth than I did. If you ever do need to replace it the coated wire is the way to go.

 

[WhiteWaterLady]

Those are rabbit hutches? Wire floors are NOT good for chicks!!! Raccoons will reach up and pull off toes and feet. Happened at a neighbor's, ugly.
Mary

Depending on what else lives in the area, I know mink will also chew off toes, feet, and legs of even adult chickens on 1/4" hardware cloth.

Wrapping the legs with flashing would help, but I think better is to add a second layer of wire mesh 1 or 2 inches below the floor.

 

[Tommypants]

Depending on what else lives in the area, I know mink will also chew off toes, feet, and legs of even adult chickens on 1/4" hardware cloth.

Wrapping the legs with flashing would help, but I think better is to add a second layer of wire mesh 1 or 2 inches below the floor.

The cage floor is about 4ft off the ground and we live in Suburban NJ. We may have some trash pandas but there aren’t many mink around our neighborhood. I may suspend another layer of hardware cloth below the first.

 

[Tommypants]

We added a second layer of hardware cloth about 3 inches below the actual floor of the cage. The only thing able to snatch a quails foot now would be an Aye-Aye. We are also going to be enclosing the ventilation space around the top with chicken wire just to keep anything from attempting to climb onto the hardware cloth there. The chicks are hitting 4 weeks next weekend and will be moving outside then

 

[Doviesmama]

My only issue with that is it's hard to clean because of the weight. Chicks get dirty fast and you're going to need to clean it out often.

We cut a piece of cardboard to lay inside the bottom. I cover it in a couple puppy pads and layer all of the bedding over that. Each time I clean it, I roll up the pads, thrown into a bag, clean up the residual and make a fresh bed. It takes just about 5 minutes.