Can I put 12 day old quail chicks in the chicken coop?

[dianneS]

Can I move my brooder full of quail chicks out to the hen house with a heat lamp, or should I keep them in the house a little longer? It is cold here, but I would keep the heat lamp on them 24/7. They are really starting to feather out now. They're the jumbo white coturnix.

 

[Binki]

I think that would be pretty cold but I don't know your setup like how drafty the hen house is, also it's not recommended to keep quail near chickens/where they've been because sometimes chickens carry diseases that are only symptomatic in quail in case you didn't know :]

 

[dianneS]

I ended up moving them to the heated garage. The ambient temp is 60 and they still have their heat lamp of course. I think I may move them to my greenhouse when they're older. I never thought of it before, but it would make a perfect brooder! Not at all drafty and plenty warm on sunny days. Lots of hooks to hang heat lamps from. Only problem I could see is they might jump up on my shelving and poop everywhere? So maybe not...

 

[Binki]

Hehe when they're young they like to do flap spazzes that lift them up and about xD so they could definitely end up on shelves