Happy quail cages designs?

[iamkingtim01]

I think that an "airlock" would be an awesome idea. I built my aviary from plans that are only found within my head. This means that after building it I realized all kinds of things that I could have done different.

I have 4 white doves in my aviary that I have to make sure to look out for while going in and out. As far as the quail go, I had 20 of them in there at first and I figured out a different way to keep them from getting out when I open the door. My door is about a foot off the ground and that seems to be working. The quail don't even try to make a run for it. The doves don't go for it either, but I still keep an eye out.

I have a small fig tree in a pot that none of them seem to care much for either. I move things around from time to time to soothe my aesthetics.

I now have 13 females and 1 male. I had to cull the herd a few weeks ago. Since the males don't lay eggs, I eliminated all but one of them. I don't plan in hatching new quail, so males serve me no purpose. I get 8-13 eggs a day and that's more than I can eat.

 

[iamkingtim01]

This pic shows the door and how it is raised off the ground a bit. The pic also shows the two most fearsome preditors within miles (Someone asked me about bears in am earlier post). I have a few more pics of my aviary. If you want to see them scroll up to my earlier post.

 

[chrishw]

Just curious, why do we build the cages so high? I'm not talking about flight pens of course but just breeding/laying/fattening cages. Why not just say 8"? Mines like 18 inches high, I have been wondering if there is a reason or Its just because chicken cages are this high?

 

[iamkingtim01]

Mine is a high as it is so I can go inside of it. I disnt want to have to squat when i went in to clean or refull food and water containers. It did seem empty because of the height so I added a few doves that needed a home. They ccame from a cage that didn't give them room to fly, so they seem happy to have the extra space. One of my chickens fly up to a peg at the top of the pen that I put in there for the doves and she sleeps there most nights. Maybe she doesn't know that she is a chicken.

 

[iamkingtim01]

 

[Weirdness555]

Also quail need room to boink, the cage either needs a roof low enough so they can't build up momentum, or high enough for them not to reach it.

 

[epmchickens]

Also quail need room to boink, the cage either needs a roof low enough so they can't build up momentum, or high enough for them not to reach it.

Hahaha. Absolutley true! I call them bottle rockets

 

[julianarivers]

My first post.

Hi im from sunny Sydney, Australia

Been quailing since late April. So much fun and the delight of the day still is collecting the eggs. 1st one always at 3pm or thereabouts.

One layed a 17g egg today. see my pic to prove it.



We started with an old rabbit hutch but evolved to what we have now which is a bit of a "movable" cage constructed with 2 x 2 foot steel frames we got online, and just connected together with recycled plastic agripic stakes. The 2 x 2 foot frames act as the walls and the roof so i can easily collect eggs and clean the cage.

So the cage is 8 foot along one side and 4 feet along another. At the moment have 11 quail, including 9 hens. Had to remove the first male as it was very very aggressive.

Its a portable cage such that we can move it around the garden if we want so that we can improve the soil from time to time. Will probably move it in about 5 months. We may make the next one bigger. We have plastic piping on the top to make it easy to place a sunshade or tarp if its heavy rain.

The frames were made with a simple pet enclosure foldable system like this one http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/24-8-Pan...d=100011&prg=1005&rk=4&rkt=5&sd=230948910748&
bought in australia

The actual cages are not high but they dont seem to bang on the top which is just the frame anyway. It means I can lean into them to clean their cage, or grab an egg but some of the frames have little inbuilt doors if i need to access things from a different angle.

We prefer the free range approach with quail on the ground and every now and then I can do some digging of the soil so they can have a great dust bath. I put in grass and hay so they can make their little nests for laying. We give them lots of places to hide with a little plastic box or two inside.

My neighbour that introduced us to quails says its "quail paradise" .








Since construction all the grass is gone of course, though Im going to get some parsley and green foliage plants going in little tubs i can bury every now and then.



Totally off topic, we also have 2 honey bee hives! So we can share the honey as well as the quail eggs amongs friends and neighbours






Cheers

 

[nayeli]

http://thenewdaybringshope.blogspot.com/2014/04/diy-quail-cage.html

Here is mine. It isn't as nice as some of the others but we have virtually no carpenter skills yet. It cost under $35.

 

[SeanH]

For those of you who just raise the quail for their eggs why do you keep a few males in the mix why not just have all females or do you use the eggs to raise more. I plan on having a group for laying amd a group for butchering. I will keep them in separate enclosures. How old should the quail be before I butcher them? I love birds