GQF Quail pens and brooder info!

[cotquail]

My grow out pens are surrounded by a black plastic curtain , the light is from a line of tiny led lights like star light . They seem to like it shadowy like hiding in grass looking out , for me low light makes them less aggressive more secure , the curtain gives them privacy and no drafts and keeps the dander from coursing everywhere , they like to fluff it up. I keep the feed at chest level and they have to poke through a hole to get it , this design same as GQF keeps feed clean and not so wasted. My water is via nipples they like pecking at it and it stays clean , they have no problem with this saves me lots of hassle

filling cleaning etc. In post 13 you can see the water line across the top back of the cage three nipples per unit . Here's a pic. I still have to put their sand boxes in .

 

[angelobutter]

All set up. one question- the instructions didn't say, that bar that holds the heater- do you leave that in the grow out pens? i didn't attach it and now I am nervous that i should have. i just thought it was one more thing that the chicks would jump on and poop on. oh and just checking but you can't have the lids on the two lower pens right? the dropping tray from the pen above becomes the lid? we couldn't figure out any other way to do it so that's what we did anyways.

 

[sniper338]

All set up. one question- the instructions didn't say, that bar that holds the heater- do you leave that in the grow out pens? i didn't attach it and now I am nervous that i should have. i just thought it was one more thing that the chicks would jump on and poop on. oh and just checking but you can't have the lids on the two lower pens right? the dropping tray from the pen above becomes the lid? we couldn't figure out any other way to do it so that's what we did anyways.

Yes dropping pan becomes the lid.... as far as the heater deal goes.... if you just have one brooder and two grow out pens then the heater bar/element only goes in one.... the grow out pens are basically the exact same pens as the brooder where later you can buy the heater parts and make more brooders if you want... you should just have the brooder pen on the top and two grow out pens on bottom

 

[sniper338]

As far as quail go... you dont need the extended height parts... the pens are tall enough already... those extensions are for chickens... doubt it would hurt anything having them on there though.... I just left mine off though... at all looks right from what I see in the pic...

 

[sniper338]

Hey - I too took the plunge and bought a GQF battery brooder with the two grow off pens under it. it should be arriving today actually. I did have a question though- can i run this out in my garage? I am in NH so we get below 0 weather. it happens to be 40 degrees today but tomorrow could be negative numbers again. I just didn't know if I should expect it to compete with that much cold, or if I should be setting it up in my basement instead. thanks 

From what I can tell with mine is the outside the brooder temp greatly effects what the brooder does... when it was 30 degrees outside it was hard for me to keep the brooder above 90 degrees inside.... when it was 60 degrees outside the brooder had no trouble getting to 95 or so inside...

The heating element does cool down or get warmer depending on where its set at.

I havent fully figured it all out though... im not a fan of the cheap wafer thermostate though.... for the price it needs to all be digital..

 

[angelobutter]

I agree about it needing to be thermostatically controlled- I feel like you either have to make your own brooder and hope it works and maybe even looks nice, or you have to spend an arm and a leg for just to get something that looks decent and works efficiently.
a nice panel of digital controls would really ease my mind though. it's the same with incubators. I have used everything from styrofoam, to brinsea octagons to the sanven with the digital controls and I cannot begin to describe how much easier the digital controls are.

I added the height extensions because I have to raise one batch of (chicken) chicks in here first (they are out of my current brooder but not ready to go outside yet), plus i figured the extra height wouldn't hurt anything once the quail moved in. I have coturnix, and african harlequins in the incubator now and will be going in the brooder pen once they hatch. they also sent a "sample liner" so I will use that with the quail until they are big enough to walk on the wire.

ok that makes sense, for them to just include the metal bar for the heater with all the orders so you could make it a brooder if you wanted to-without them having to send that huge bar separately. I was worried they had it in there for stability as well as where you attach the heater so I wanted to make sure that wasn't the issue.

on a funny note- the kid who helped me put it together (who has never seen the way the heat wafer works) just randomly set it and when we went to check what temperature it was at a few hours later .... 95 degrees! haha pretty dang good for a random adjustment.

 

[sniper338]

Yeah.. nothings perfect from what ive seen until you get into commercial stuff.... but these work... I had quail chicks in it already.. but they werent new borns... im still nervous about putting new born chicks in it right after they hatch. Im still leaning more on the side of keeping my new borns in the plastic tote in the house for the first few days to grow them up a little before they all go into the brooder... main reason is for the tempature outside... depends how warm or cold it is when mine all hatch here on march 4th...

 

[pawtraitart]

Yeah.. nothings perfect from what ive seen until you get into commercial stuff.... but these work... I had quail chicks in it already.. but they werent new borns... im still nervous about putting new born chicks in it right after they hatch. Im still leaning more on the side of keeping my new borns in the plastic tote in the house for the first few days to grow them up a little before they all go into the brooder... main reason is for the tempature outside... depends how warm or cold it is when mine all hatch here on march 4th...

I use plastic totes for the first two weeks. I feel better if they are fully feathered before they go into their grow-out pens, but that's mostly because I hatch early in the season when the temps can get down to freezing into April.

 

[aprophet]

Though they look nice,but they are pricey.Why don't you build your own and you can build it to your needs?





Here is one of mine I built.Each compartment is 2' widex3'deepx 18"tall.I have 12 of this size and 4 that are 4'widex3'deepx18"hi for the older birds or bigger groups.I paint all my bulbs red just in case a bird starts to bleed it makes it a little more difficult for others to see the blood.Pens are cleaned and sprayed with tek trol weekly.
In N.H.,Tony.

First starting out with coturnix I just copied the rollout cages they have and though they are large enough for coturnix I did not like the way my birds acted ( gambels and Bobs) the cages were too short so the next round of pens I built were 12 X 12 X 24 just a little better but the birds seem much less skittish in these and if anyone builds pens for chukars the ones that are listed in Berkleys publication are minamalistic at best more room is better with most species

 

[bill-123]

How tall and how much head space do they have in the gqf breading pin