Bulk quail feeders?

[Chicken-Farmer]

I have used this style feeder in my brooder with little waste. But I usually use the feeder that I posted above. My brooder is 8' by 6' with two heat lamps that are attached to dimmer switches from Home Depot to control the temperature, that way I don't have to adjust the night of the lamps. The chicks just run around climbing into the feeders until about 1 week old, then they are too big to get inside and just start eating like normal. I don't see very much waste with those feeders, but they don't hold very much feed and need to be filled often. I don't keep chicks around for very long anyway. They are usually sold within the first week. Any stragglers not sold grow out for meat birds. I am fortunate to live in the South where the demand for quail is amazing and the weather is nice all year long so people buy year round.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Dimmer switches...another great idea. I've got mine in 4x8 boxes with lift gates on the end. Each week I move a group out, run the others down a box and keep the rotation going.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

In the summer I put my birds outside at 2-3 weeks depending on the temperature at night. When the temps at night are still in the low 80's it doesn't make sense to leave them inside under the lamps. My grow out pens are under a lean to rotor with wind protection. The winters I keep my birds inside the full 4 weeks under lamps.
My lamps are 250 watt and I found dimmer switches at Home Depot that plug between the lamp cord and the wall socket. The switches are rated for 300 watts and I have never had a problem with them blowing fuses or over heating. I have learned a few tricks over the years to make my life easier.
Another thing to consider is the amount of poop you'll be getting with 500 birds! I solved that problem with black soldier flies larvae. THey occur naturally down here in the south and are more than happy to eat my quail poop for free. I then take the grown larvae and feed them to my chickens. It's a win win! My larvae hibernate through the winter and emerge when the temps get back into the 80's consistently. The adults only live about 5 days and don't bite or sting, they don't even eat (no mouths). They lay their eggs back where they were born and the cycle continues. I have 20000 larvae or so I would guess and they churn the poop around like water when they really get going in the summer. The benefit of the churning is that the ammonia evaporates from the poop and the smell goes away.The larvae eat the poop, then they change into pupae and crawl away from the worm bins. Most people catch them in buckets as they crawl off, but I have so many that I just scoop up a few shovel full and give them to the chickens as a treat. You should look them up free composers that will eat protein as well. When I butcher all the guts and feathers go into the worm bins, by the next morning everything is gone! They are pretty amazing insects.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Worms do sound efficient. What type of quail are you raising? Mine are all bobs...I kick them out at 5 weeks in the summer and a heavy dew will still ding them pretty good on a cool morning. I don't hatch any birds in the winter...or won't this year. I'll keep about 200 breeders (150 Georgia giant hens and 50 northern roosters) for next year...the rest are sold. Shooting for 3,000 mature birds by October. Pens are big enough and they are on dirt so the poop hasn't yet been an issue...will get in the pens with the skid loader in the fall and start fresh next season.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

I raise Coturnix quail. I don't have the large pens for Bob Whites. I started mostly for egg and meat production for my family. The demand was so great that I started raising extra and now I sell enough birds each month to more than pay for my feed bill.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Ordered two 50 pound Kuhl range feeders to try out. So far I'm very pleased. They actually hold about 30 pounds which is disappointing but they function very well. The night after I put them in the pens we had about an inch of rain with 40mph driving wind. Both feeders...dry as a powder house. Very pleased with that aspect.

 

[FossilPeak]

Another little tidbit...had several big rains...feed is dry and little to no waste going on. Just ordered 4 more of these things.

 

[GansWIQuail]

Believe me I know. You need to experiment with ways to limit the level of feed to your birds while still allowing them to have bulk feed available. After trying several different designs I came up with a feeder that works for me. I bought the mason jar feeders off of amazon for a couple dollars each. The mason jar attachment allows the feed level in the bowl to be too high and the birds throw all the feed out. I removed the mason jar attachment and put a PVC pipe reducer in its spot, pushing it down into the bowl. This limits the feed from an original 2 1/2 inch level down to a 1 inch level. The birds still throw the feed around, but they have to stick their heads into the feeders to get to the feed, so the feed stays inside. The bulk hoppers still work to provide the birds all the feed they want, they just can't waste any feed. Each feeder took about 30 minutes to construct, but they save so much feed and time that it was worth it. I modified 10 feeders. Each feeder keeps 20 birds fed for two days with a 3 inch diameter PVC pipe that is 1 foot tall. A longer pipe would provide you with more days between filling.

You could easily pipe all the feeders together and run them to a bulk hopper. They would be a lot cheaper than those commercial feeders you were looking at. I personally would run them down the middle of your flight pens and call it good. THe only thing you would need to do is occasionally remove the very fine dust feed particles.

Chicken-Farmer

Thanks for posting this. It has given me other ideas in how to modify the cheap prebuilt feeders. I am going to see how much it will cost to make a sheet metal hopper that would come down to the long rectangular chicken feeder cut in half with both sides being used. Create the same 1" gap for food to flow through. If I do this I will post pictures if not I will just use the PVC idea


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[GansWIQuail]

I should explain my idea a little more. I am going to put the cut in half long rectangular feed side by side and mount it to the side of my johnney house. So the feed would be in a straight line. Hope my idea might spark better ideas.


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[pawtraitart]

I use 90 degree modified street elbow feeders for my adult quail. I can put them in as large of a container as I need. For my quads I only need a small feeder but for my colonies I use a bigger one. I like these because I don't have any feed waste and I can cap them at night so I'm not feeding mice. With trough feeders I was encouraging mice and it disgusted me to find mouse droppings in my quail feeders.