Are ground pens okay, or should I really go with raised?

[cupman]

Hi, I think I went through just about every page of the "show me your quail coop/pen" thread. I must say, there's a lot of creative people out there and I'm envious. I noticed virtually every pen was raised off the ground with the exception of a few, and I was wondering if there's a real benefit to that or if they work well on the ground too. My house is built on a hill, so there is a door on the main floor and a door outside from the basement. We have a deck that extends out the back side of our house and underneath the deck is a concrete ground leading to the basement door. It's easily 150 square feet and is protected on all sides except for one(would be very quick for turning into a coop) and it's got the deck above it to protect from the rain for the most part. If I were to predator proof this area would it be okay for the quail to run around and live, or do they really do a lot better in the raised pens?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Most pens are raised because it's easier.
First, you don't have to worm them because they have no exposure to worms. Since they are 'table ready' at 8-12 weeks, waiting 4 weeks to process after worming is kind of a pain.
Secondly, they aren't the brightest crayons in the box, and if in ground pens I imagine they'd just sit there and get rained/snowed/hailed on if their pen wasn't completely covered.
Third, they are small enough and fast enough to make ground pens dangerous. One second you are clear to put your foot down, the next....SQUISH.
Fourth, since they are so small and aren't notorious for using nest boxes, their eggs would be difficult to find if they had dirt/grass to hide them in.
And last, their poop stinks....REALLY bad...raised pens are easier to clean under or move.

But you can have them on ground pens, several people do. But if you want them for meat or eggs, raised pens is a better idea.

 

[DuranAndy]

I keep all of my birds in ground pens. They are much harder to clean and take care of, but they look a lot better.

 

[aprophet]

Shelley gave a lot of the reasons I keep them off the ground when my birds lay the eggs roll out to the front of the cage all nice and clean

 

[Stellar]

I keep mine on wire with dust boxes. I have some Coturnix in guinea pig cages currently and they get gross fast.