We have all seen it,,money going down the drain at the feed trough.Feed is scratched out,stepped on,pooped in and then gets thrown away.I witnessed this for two days with my first born quail hatch,,little buggers seemed to get more fun out of scratching and wasting food,than I had when I paid for it.So,,after watching them,and trying to visualize what would solve the issue,,next was their super small size.For being so low to the ground,these squirts have a lot of energy for sure!
So I went rummaging around under the kitchen cabinets.Can we say "Hoarder"? My wife seems to utilize every inch of space and saves at least one of everything,,plastic butter tubs,sour cream tubs,,cottage cheese tubs,,you name it,she has it someplace in the stack!!
My main concern was with their small size,,,,so I set out looking for 2 of these plastic tubs that when the smaller was set into the larger,only about 3/4" of space was left around the bottom.
The perfect match was a Cool Whip container,,and a Italian Beef tub plastic container. The cool whip tub needed modification,for the quail to just stick their small heads thru to reach the food,,this was solved by taking a quarter coin,tracing or using a razor knife to cut out openings all the way around the tub. I did this about 1" up from the base,measured from the bottom of the hole I cut. Next the Italian beef container that is used to store the feed needed altercating,,so I cut about 6 V shaped openings at the very bottom of this container,,each V opening is about 3/4" high.
Now the testing phase!! I put this new contraption in the brooder box,,and then stood back and watched.And after 6 hours time,there is now NO feed on the floor of the brooder box,,,the little squirts seem to still think scratching is necessary as they eat,,but there is no food for them on the floor.
I wanted to perfect a better way to stop 1/2 the feed from being wasted,before I put down hardware cloth for them to walk on,and now I think this is the answer.For the past 2 days of changing the paper on the floor of the brooder box,there is NO Feed at all on the floor.
So I went rummaging around under the kitchen cabinets.Can we say "Hoarder"? My wife seems to utilize every inch of space and saves at least one of everything,,plastic butter tubs,sour cream tubs,,cottage cheese tubs,,you name it,she has it someplace in the stack!!
My main concern was with their small size,,,,so I set out looking for 2 of these plastic tubs that when the smaller was set into the larger,only about 3/4" of space was left around the bottom.
The perfect match was a Cool Whip container,,and a Italian Beef tub plastic container. The cool whip tub needed modification,for the quail to just stick their small heads thru to reach the food,,this was solved by taking a quarter coin,tracing or using a razor knife to cut out openings all the way around the tub. I did this about 1" up from the base,measured from the bottom of the hole I cut. Next the Italian beef container that is used to store the feed needed altercating,,so I cut about 6 V shaped openings at the very bottom of this container,,each V opening is about 3/4" high.
Now the testing phase!! I put this new contraption in the brooder box,,and then stood back and watched.And after 6 hours time,there is now NO feed on the floor of the brooder box,,,the little squirts seem to still think scratching is necessary as they eat,,but there is no food for them on the floor.
I wanted to perfect a better way to stop 1/2 the feed from being wasted,before I put down hardware cloth for them to walk on,and now I think this is the answer.For the past 2 days of changing the paper on the floor of the brooder box,there is NO Feed at all on the floor.
