Coturnix Housing Question - How Many Per Pen?

[quiltnchik]

So, DH finally got around to making my outside cage for the eight 3-week-old Coturnix (poor guy has been busy, busy, busy, between the move and having to build new cages/runs/pens for all the critters). The new cage is about 7' long, 3' wide and 2' high (the cage itself is sitting off the ground about 4'). DH divided the cage into 2 sections and added a nest box at each end). So, my question is this: how many birds can I house in each section of this cage? I thought I could only have one male and 4-5 females in each section, but have read that you can put 2 males and 8+ females in together and be fine. Of course, the more birds the better as far as I'm concerned, but I don't dare ask DH to build anything else right now, especially since I've already got him adding a coop & run for my Frizzles under the Coturnix cage (the Frizzles will free range, but I'd still like their area wired in to deter predators at night), and have "hinted" that my regular coop needs to be enlarged for more chickens to come.

I figure if I can raise them in a colony setting, I can have more birds and still mange to keep DH from running away from home!

ETA: Forgot to mention that the plywood used for the Coturnix pen, nest boxes and new coop for the Frizzles was originally bought as the floor for DH's shed, which he hasn't had time to put back together since the move because I've kept him so busy building critter housing! Oops!!

 

[Boyd]

21-25 birds easily... And they don't mind crowding a little bit more

My grow out pen is roughly 8x2x2 and I have about 40ish in that one alone. They all play nice.

 

[quiltnchik]

Quote:
Awesome! Thanks Boyd! For now I'll use one side as my breeding pen and the other as a grow out pen for the 23 eggs due Tuesday (when the babies are 2+ weeks old of course). Yippee!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

It's supposed to be at least 1 sq. ft. of floor space per bird, so the cages you are referring to would be able to comfortably hold about 10 birds each (21 total, if it were not divided). However, as Boyd stated, they don't mind being crowded, here's the run-down of my space-per-bird.

Pen 1: 30"x36" (7 sq. ft.=7 birds)===houses 11 jumbo birds, with an aluminum roasting pan as a dust bath.
Pen 2: 2'x2' (4 sq. ft.=4 birds)===houses 5 normal-sized birds, and an ice cream bucket dust pan.
Pen 3: 2'x2' (4 sq. ft.=4 birds)===houses 6 normal sized birds, and an ice cream bucket dust pan.
pen 4: 2'x18" (3 sq. ft.=3 birds)===houses 5 normal sized birds, and ice cream bucket pan. Also has chick bottle waterer inside cage.
Pen 5: 2'x15" (2.5 sq. ft.=2.5 birds

)===houses 4 normal sized birds, and ice cream bucket pan.

The only ones I have problems with are those in pen #4, and there are 2 females in there that are just jerks. Otherwise, everyone gets along just fine, even if there isn't technically 'enough' space.