finished my quail cage/brooder : )

[LindsayB]

I finally finished my large quail brooder! I already have a hutch I'm going to use for my breeders, and this will be used for our meat birds to grow out in. How many do you think I'd be able to fit in here? Its 4x3.

 

[beakmaster]

Nice job. I might have to copy your design as I have been using plastic totes for brooding. When they are real small you could fit a lot but by 8 weeks they will be bigger. I think it could hold 18 (7-8 week old birds) comfortably. You could double that if you moved them out at 4 weeks into another cage. I rarely keep birds in my brooder longer than that anyways. As long as you have a heat light on them they will be fine in a regular cage as long as its not ridiculously cold outside.
Of course the size of the feeders will make it tighter so you might consider using some that mount on the outside. One of those hamster water bottles should work well..... you could mount it on the outside and have the nipple sticking inside of the brooder to save space.

 

[LindsayB]

Thank you! I have a&m chicks now in the house in a plastic tote. They're a week old. And I have tuxedos incubating still. I plan on keeping 5 of the biggest birds out of those groups to use for breeding the rest for the freezer. This box is just going to be used for the ones I hatch out from my own stock. We're mainly raising them for meat so they'll be out of the box every six weeks.

 

[beakmaster]

Yeah, I have about 55 A&Ms that are my breeders. I sell the eggs and chicks too. There are 120 eggs in my incubator now that I plan on selling. I use totes right now but they are a pain to clean. Does you brooder have a screen floor? I am thinking about using 1/4 inch screen so the poo falls through. I have been changing the bedding every couple days in the totes I use. I was using paper towels though, shaving might be better.

 

[LindsayB]

No this one in the picture has a plywood floor that I covered with cheap linoleum tile. I'll put shavings down over it. That's how I have my chicken coop and I love it. Its so easy to clean and disinfect. My quail breeder cage has a wire bottom though.

 

[nayeli]

That looks really nice. How did you construct it? Also where is the heat source?