Gambel Quails

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
Honestly, I love your cage, I have a fetish for corrugated metal, especially on roofs

.

LOL....we do too. Corrugated metal roofing is on everything we have around here. LOL When we built our last chicken coop, we finally broke that mold and used regular shingles. Enough with the corrugated metal!! Ha!

 

[Advocat]

6 feet minimum height. 7 feet if you can do it. My ceilings were all 6 ft. Only one time in all my years of keeping them in aviaries did one hen flush up this high and break her neck. Something came prowling at night. The quail do enjoy doing laps around the aviary and normally don't fly this high however. You can put in a false ceiling with a net or something that hangs down just in case somebody does flush.

I also use solar lighting all around the outside of the aviary, coops and runs. Like an airport run way. LOL But it really helps to repel the night critters. Predators are really drawn to quail and will come for miles when they smell them. I used railroad ties and buried one completely, then another on top to attach the panels too. Make sure your facilities are predator proof as possible. If you feel safe sleeping in there, then your quail will be safe as well.

Thank you for the very good info!

 

[AZ RT89A]

Is it 4 sq' per bird in the coop or in the run?

 

[TwoCrows]

The 4 square foot rule definitely applies in the coop. In the run they can sometimes get by on the 4 square foot rule if they aren't too hyper. I like to give them as much room as possible in the run if I can.

 

[AZ RT89A]

How much headroom do they need in the coop? I know they need a lot in the run but.

 

[TwoCrows]

If you provide brush and other hidy areas in your pen, coop or hutch, you can go higher with the ceiling. The birds would much rather dive for cover than flush up. I use fake Christmas tree boughs in the hutch that my birds use for a coop. You can use the real thing, which I used to do, but I got tired of cutting branches after all these years. LOL Same with any aviaries or runs for the quail....I use brush piles for hiding in. They will rarely flush if you give them places to hide when they think there is danger lurking. They can also hide from each other as well.

If you don't want to bother with foliage, then keep the ceiling no higher than 1 foot in case they do flush up.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh and my aviaries are at least 6 foot high. Give them 7 or 8 if you can afford to do so. Only one time did I have a female flush up into the 6 foot ceiling and break her neck. Only this one time, it has never happened again. She was a very powerful flyer.

 

[AZ RT89A]

Guess I'll have to build out my 4x4 coop lol