Framed in a hutch. Ceiling too high?

[Kyguylal]

Hi all,

I'm currently furloughed as a state government employee and am already bored.

Decided to use whatever scrap wood I had laying around to start a quail hutch. We're thinking six hens solely for eggs.

I framed this hutch together quickly today and realized that the front will be about 2.5' high. Should I be concerned about the birds jumping and hurting themselves onnthe ceiling with this height? I could put a sort of drop ceiling in I suppose.

Going to throw up solid walls for a coop area (where the flooring is tighter), a full shingled roof, and the rest will be hardware cloth. Couple doors too. Going to hardware cloth all the little gaps as well, such as along the roof when I board it and shingle it.

This hutch will be outdoors.

 

[Nabiki]

If you can cushion the ceiling somehow, you should. 2.5' is high enough that they can get up enough speed to break their own necks if they flush.

 

[Kyguylal]

If you can cushion the ceiling somehow, you should. 2.5' is high enough that they can get up enough speed to break their own necks if they flush.

Thank you. I'll tack up some garden mesh. Should be enough to buffer a head in the event of a hard flush.

 

[Ratchnick]

Put a false ceiling of hardware cloth.

 

[mdees88]

Bobwhites or coturnix? I've kept hundreds of coturnix in a cage with a 4ft high ceiling and I've never had one break it's neck. My coturnix are pretty tame and rarely flush. Put the garden mesh if you're worried about it.

One thing I would like to point out. You have a lot of braces where the wire floors going to be. Poop will build up anywhere where there's a brace. I would get rid of as many of those as possible. (If you stretch the wire tight when you staple it you might not need any supports underneath). Also they'll poop all around the edge of the cage and it will pile up. You can fix this by putting some wood all the way around the inside of the cage ON TOP of the wire, if you understand what I mean.

Also be very careful which wire you choose for the floor. All 1/2" hardware cloth is not created equal. I learned the hard way. I built 4 cages with some from Lowe's but the galvanized coating left very small burrs on the wire and it cut my quails feet and many of them got bumble foot. I'm now rebuilding all my cages with pvc coated wire. I'm also using 1/2 x 1" pvc coated instead of 1/2 x 1/2. It's much thicker wire (don't need any supports underneath) and the poop falls through better (only matters if you're raising big jumbos).

 

[Nabiki]

Bobwhites or coturnix? I've kept hundreds of coturnix in a cage with a 4ft high ceiling and I've never had one break it's neck. Coturnix are pretty tame and rarely flush IMO. Put the garden mesh if you're worried about it.

One thing I would like to point out. You have a lot of braces where the wire floors going to be. Poop will build up anywhere where there's a brace. I would get rid of as many of those as possible. (If you stretch the wire tight when you staple it you might not need any supports underneath). Also they'll poop all around the edge of the cage and it will pile up. You can fix this by putting some wood all the way around the inside of the cage ON TOP of the wire, if you understand what I mean.

Also be very careful which wire you choose for the floor. All 1/2" hardware cloth is not created equal. I learned the hard way. I built 4 cages with some from Lowe's but the galvanized coating left very small burrs on the wire and it cut my quails feet and many of them got bumble foot. I'm now rebuilding all my cages with pvc coated wire. I'm also using 1/2 x 1" pvc coated instead of 1/2 x 1/2. It's much thicker wire (don't need any supports underneath) and the poop falls through better (only matters if you're raising big jumbos).

a 4' high ceiling is high enough that they usually aren't going full speed any more if they hit the ceiling. 12-18" high is low enough that they can't get to full speed. 2.5' high is just about the perfect lethal height.

I have one pen that's about 4' high as well. My birds never make it that high when they try to fly. That doesn't mean they can't, they just don't. I have had a bird flush right past me and up onto my roof.

 

[Kyguylal]

Thank you,

They will be coturnix.

I see what you mean about the bracing. The area where the bracing is doubled up will be a solid floor. Figured a completely walled in area will be a good idea due to our winter temperatures. We regularly see a week or two below 0 (F) here in NH and we can expect snow/below freezing from October through late April. I took out a center brace from the area which will be hardware cloth. I'll check out the PVC coated hardware cloth.

Going to lower the ceiling a bit by tacking a shelf in below the roof.

 

[mdees88]

I had to do a hardware cloth ceiling in mine also. I wanted the metal roof to be high enough where I wouldn't hit my head but also wanted to the keep the ceiling height low for the quail.

Here's a write up I did on mine....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-3-0.1239392/
And here's a feeder design that works great and doesn't waste any feed.....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-no-waste-quail-feeder.1232052/

 

[cottontail farm]

Quail LOVE to have cover to hide in. For their mental health you should add some pine branches or the like (or even staple some artificial swags to the ceiling) to make them feel secure. Cover in the pen will keep them from popping when they're spooked, in my experience. So if they have cover I wouldn't worry about ceiling height.
Quail are wonderful producers of eggs. With cover in the pen they will mostly find a secure "nest" to all lay in instead of dropping eggs willy nilly.

 

[cottontail farm]

About the floor. My layer pen has a hardware cloth floor and if you bed them with straw it's not difficult to routinely "fluff" the bedding - all of the poo will just from the bedding down through the screening. So no worries there.