It Is Going To Be Down To 32 Degrees Tonight, Can Adult Corturnix Handle This If They Are In An Enclosed Structure Without Heat Or Do Most Of Your Supplement With Heat?
All but the most exotic or Button quail can handle very cold temps without heat. So it is never advised to add any heat so they can acclimate to the outdoor temps. However quail do need a shelter to get out of the wind and moisture, preferably with a sold floor you can add bedding too. The shelter should have 4 full walls and a solid ceiling also. Wind and moisture can be a killer so make sure to keep the drafts and snow/rain out. Pine shavings or grass hay for bedding will work to snuggle into on cold winter nights. As far as adding heat, I have never used additional heat unless the temps get below zero and stay there for a long period of time. Unless quail are very old, young or sick, they can handle the coldest of temps in the winter all snuggled up together.
I agree with everything that Twocrowsranch said. My cot quail don't like the 4 walls...very few went in when I had a shelter like that. I've gone to a short 3 sided shelter, 9 1/2 inches in the front, 6 1/2 inches in the back, roofed of course. The roof dimensions are roughly 30'' wide and 22" deep. this shelter allows the whole covey to comfortably go in for bad weather. (Roughly 20-28 birds per colony) Last winter, our cots actually "played" in the snow, instead of staying were we put straw down for them they would go to the snowy parts of the pen and burrow. The only losses we had were 2 older hens. We don't use any supplemental heat at all and temperatures got to steady single digits with a few nights dipping below 0. Pretty cold for our part of the country. Good luck with your birds, they should be fine.
i do not have mine on solid floor, i have them on wire. the structure has 4 sides and a top and is dry shelter, the pens are inside this structure. we are going to start on an aviary area and will have ground and some type of shelter. it will have a top so that it stays dry.
My aviary is fairly small and the quail are on the ground. We just wrap it with clear plastic for the winter and the Cots have always done well. The top and 3 sides stay wraped , and the front is done so we can open it on the nicer days. It's not a tight seal, so during long cold or wet spells, we just leave it closed up.
