Cleaning out quail

[HattiLongSoks]

Hi all, UK resident here. I've recently got some quail as of Saturday July 24th . I've got 6 ladies and 1 roo. I'm raising them in my back garden in an large Omlet run attached to a more typical rabbit type ground hutch. I wanted them on the ground to be able to forage in the grass for bugs etc... except I didn't realize how much 7 birds would poop... everywhere! I've started putting a layer of wood shavings down to dry out the poop, but I'm having to do this loads! I've already raked and tried to get as much poop out as possible of the 2 runs the other day and spread more wood shavings. Should I be doing this like every 2 or 3 days? Once a week? All my reseatch before getting them suggested once a week, but even if they were in a similar sized run indoors I feel like I'd still be cleaning them out loads. Sorry very new to this and confused!

 

[Nabiki]

Quail eat a lot and poop a lot. I rotate mine through unused garden beds and as it gets dirty, I hoe the poop under. Every few months they get moved to a new bed to begin the process again and the bed they were on is left alone for a while to let the poop compost. The next time the quail move, the first bed gets planted, the second bed gets to rest and compost, and they quail get a new bed to dig in and mess up. Possibly some old garden plants to destroy too.

 

[HattiLongSoks]

Thank you so much @Nabiki ! I will move them once a month, I had originally thought of doing that but I've had to add so much preditor proofing to my Omlet run and everything is skirted to stop digging and ground pegged in ... basically right now there's all these additions making it harder to move as easily as I thought. But I'll figure it out and move it. Thank you!