We built our first tier of quail cages using 1/2" x 1/2" wire for the bottom. After a few weeks we noticed that some of the poop wasn't falling thru, particularly around the edge of the cages. This starts to build up after awhile. The next tier of cages, we used the 1/2" x 1" and it's working much better. No poop gets stuck and the quail don't seem to mind walking on it at all. It also is much sturdier if you are making the slanted bottom so the eggs roll out. The 1/2" x 1/2" is too flexible and tends to sag after a little while, so the eggs end up "pooling" in the middle of the floor instead of rolling to the front of the cage like their supposed to. We just switched out the bottom of our brooder wire also, which was 1/4" x 1/4". After 2 weeks of age, the quail poop becomes too big and doesn't go through at all, so we switched to the 1/2" x 1/2" for the bottom of the brooder. Works much better and the 3 week old quail don't seem to have any problem walking on it. We don't have coons (we're in the arid southwest), so I haven't had any problems using the 1/2" x 1" wire on the bottom of the adult cages so far. Rats might be a problem, but it's very rare that we get a rat around here. But it's pretty hard to rat-proof a cage, as they can reach through almost anything and chew thru whatever they can't reach thru, if given enough time.
