Building a Quail Hutch **UPDATE** Finished! Photo-Heavy

[AndreaGS]

Thanks for everyone's advice and help so far! I've built an incubator based off of MissPrissy's, and we've got an old terrarium we can use for a brooder. I've held off on getting eggs because we wanted to get the quail cage built!

We started it this weekend. I drew out the design beforehand, but there's been quite a bit of in-progress guesswork (I've come to realize that 2x4s are not exactly 2"x4"! Gah!).

It'll be two cages, one on top of the other, with an enclosed shelter area on the left. 2' wide and 6' across with slide-out poop trays. I'm still trying to find a place that sells the coated hardware cloth for the bottoms, but hopefully I'll find some soon.

So here's our framing in progress! My fiance's never built anything before, and I haven't built anything in a while, so we've been plotting when we can next get away to the garage to build. It's fun!

 

[monarc23]

That looks GREAT so far!!!! I'm excited for you guys!!!

 

[macnugget]

lowes has coated wire and so does ace hardware

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

I LOVE the design so far... keep up the good work!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I have a question!!!!

What are you going to do about the poop? Just let it fall from one cage through the other? So far it looks great! I am in the process of doing this also, but I have old chicken cages tht I am going to convert. Never thought about double deckering it though. Are you going to enclose one end or leave it all open with just a roof on top.

Keeping an eye on this!

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
I'm pretty sure the top one is gonna have a tray on it, atleast it looks like that's what the support parts are for?

 

[AndreaGS]

Hey-o! Did some more work on it tonight! My fiance and I are totally stoked to get some quail ASAP.

Yeah, it's double-decker, and there are supports under each cage for slide-out poop trays. I'm thinking shallow rubbermaid bins for ease of cleaning. Something like that.

We've done some more framing. The area off to the right is going to be enclosed so they can go in there when the weather's bad. I'm going to put some fun little places they can hide in the open area as well. I'm thinking we'll leave the rest of it open with just the roof, though I haven't set that in stone yet. It never gets below freezing here, and they'll be in the corner by the fence - fairly sheltered. We're going to plant a tree next to the hutch too

Couldn't find the coated wire at Lowe's. Or rather, I did, but it wasn't the right size. I'll check Ace.

 

[Yanna]

This looks really terrific!

It will be a pleasure for you to care for your birdies with such a nice setup.

Alas, some of us are not so handy! For now, my babies are in a stock tank brooder while I try to figure out how to build something simple for them.

 

[AimsChickies]

That looks really great! I can't wait to see it finished!

 

[AHappychick]

wow very nice set-up you are gonna have some happy quail.