Coturnix quail ?

[josh]

Can you raise them on the ground? I have raised them in hanging pens but was thinking of building a pen and coop on the ground.

 

[Teach97]

can...they tend to have issues with worms

 

[Sumatra503]

just have deep litter in the bottom of the pen.

 

[Wifezilla]

I have mine on the ground. No worm issues.

When I bought them they were in a cage. Lots of broken feathers and they were pretty scruffy looking. Kinda spazzy too. Once I got them in their outdoor pen with lots of room to run around and baskets, foliage, hutches to hide in, they started looking really good and really mellowed out.

 

[Stellar]

It depends on what you are planning to use the birds for. For eggs and meat, the ground bottoms not a good idea. For pets and your own consumption, sure, why not.

 

[Attack Chicken]

I raise mine in a wirecage bottom but they have a BLAST when I put them in the 10ft by 10ft dog kennal. Gosh their so much happier in there running and flying around but I still keep them in their cage the dog kennal is only daytime use.

 

[shelleyd2008]

A lot of people raise them on the ground, but you have to keep in mind the amount of poop these little poop-machines put out! They'd need a pretty big area so they wouldn't soil it too quickly, or you'd have to have them in some type of tractor that could be moved often. I wouldn't recommend a tractor, simply because those are designed to be open-bottomed to allow access to the grass and dirt, meaning anything could dig its way in if it wanted to. Lots of digging predators love coturnix quail

As quaillady stated, if you are raising them for eating (by you or someone else) it is really not productive to raise them on the ground seeing as they'd need to be wormed. Since they reach 'market size' at 12 weeks old, and most wormers require that you not eat the bird 2-4 weeks after worming, plus they'd need to be kept in a brooder for at least 3 weeks (in warmer temps) that means that you'd put them in a ground cage for about a month before having to put them in a raised cage (so you could worm them and they not be exposed to worms in during that time)...see?

I disagree on keeping them in raised cages just because you are using them as egg layers. My coturnix almost always lay their eggs in their dust pans, I would think coturnix in ground pens would do the same. Granted, you might have to find their dust box since I'm sure they'd make new ones other than the one you provide, but I don't think it would be all that hard to find their eggs. You'd obviously want to make the pen tall enough that YOU could comfortably get into it.

 

[Petej]

We had ours on the ground and had no issues.

 

[katheria]

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