DIY Quail Cage 3.0

[mdees88]

Got 40 quail moved in this morning. I normally move them outside at 2 weeks. These are only 10 days old but are almost fully feathered. High of 85 low of 68. They did good today and I have a heat lamp in the middle of the cage tonight so they should be just fine.

I'll leave them in here for about a week or so then move them to the big cage when I'm finished working on it.

I added some temporary supports under the feeder and waterer this time. They should help keep the floor from sagging. The new floor is thicker and much sturdier, and I stretched it tight so it shouldn't sag too much over time. I'm going to replace these temporary supports with a new design in a couple days and I'll post photos. They shouldn't let any poop build up on top of them....

 

[Ratchnick]

That floor looks great! I'm building a quail hutch right now based on your design. I was not able to source that type of welded wire but i did score some stainless steel .5x.5 inch hardware cloth for free!

 

[mdees88]

That floor looks great! I'm building a quail hutch right now based on your design. I was not able to source that type of welded wire but i did score some stainless steel .5x.5 inch hardware cloth for free!

Thanks, I do like it. It actually is rather hard to come by but that stainless should work out well and you can't beat the price. Once you get it installed, look it over for any burrs. Check around the edges especially and make sure there aren't any ends of the wire you cut sticking up. Spray it down every so often when it gets real dirty and you should be good. Probably 90% of people use the basic galvanized hardware cloth and don't have issues. That stainless should be even better.....

I meant to take a picture yesterday but I forgot. When I replaced the floor I changed up the egg catcher. I mentioned in post #10 about extending the wire floor 6" and making it the floor of the egg catcher for people who didn't have a kreg jig. That's what I did on the new floor. The original floor was 2ft wide with a 6" wood egg catcher. This wire was 3ft wide so I made the floor 2ft"6 wide with the wire. I'll take a picture this afternoon.

 

[mdees88]

1 year update on the pvc coated .5" x 1" welded wire floors. They work great and I haven't had any foot issues with my quail. I haven't even scrubbed or washed the floors in a year. They literally look like brand new.

On my old galvanized .5" x .5" floors the poop would occasionally get stuck, sometimes not fall all the way through, and it would eventually dry on the wire creating rough spots.

Highly recommend the pvc coated wire....

 

[FloorCandy]

1 year update on the pvc coated .5" x 1" welded wire floors. They work great and I haven't had any foot issues with my quail. I haven't even scrubbed or washed the floors in a year. They literally look like brand new.

On my old galvanized .5" x .5" floors the poop would occasionally get stuck, sometimes not fall all the way through, and it would eventually dry on the wire creating rough spots.

Highly recommend the pvc coated wire....

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I recently switched to pvc coated wire, the green stuff, for all the quail cage wire. After using it for the floor of a grow out I made from a dog crate, I decided it’s worth the cost, the “luxury” of not cutting myself every 5 seconds is worth the extra $15-$20 per cage haha, I have a horrible scar on my leg from last year, it barely bled and didn’t need any care besides washing it off, but once healed it looks like the 3 blind mice stapled it shut, even a year later lol. It only comes in 48 inches wide tho, so there’s more cutting and waste than usual, but I cobble together the scraps and find uses for them too.