Help Quail in hot summer

[Jirachi]

Hi everyone, I’m a completely newbie both in this forum and raising quail and looking for some advice on helping my quail in the coming summer. I have about 12 Cortunix quails (2 mature +1 quite young male) + 1 button female. Their cage is as shown in the picture (it is in shade but get a bit sunny during late afternoon)

It’s ~ 93 degree today and this weekend up to ~104. I set up a small evaporative cooler directly to the enclosed area, constantly give them fresh water with electrolyte but they seem still panting quite a lot. Some tried to burry them under the shaving and stretch their whole body out. I’m thinking to set up a misting system (for outside area and on the wire side of enclosed area) with just a normal but bigger fan to help with circulating the air. Also I did give them cool water bath to soak their feet in but none of them seemed really interested. Anything else I can do here to make sure they will be all right? It’s not even summer here yet so I’m really worry what going to happen later when the average temperature is ~95 constantly for at least 2 months
Thank you and really appreciate for all your help

p/s: English is my 2nd language so please forgive for any grammar mistakes and also I did search around the forum but most seem quite old threads.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Welcome to BYC!

I know what you mean about the heat. Last January, it got up to 47.8 degrees C here! For that particular day, I had no choice but to bring all of my birds inside. Unfortunately, I did lose three birds to the heat (one chook, one japanese quail and one gouldian finch).

What you're doing sounds good. One of my friends puts frozen water bottles in the chickens' nesting boxes. Just make sure you give them plenty of water and shade. Misting their enclosure sounds good too.

I'm open to any ideas anyone else has, because I'm still trying to come up with a better action plan too.

Wishing you good luck this summer!

 

[Jirachi]

Welcome to BYC!

I know what you mean about the heat. Last January, it got up to 47.8 degrees C here! For that particular day, I had no choice but to bring all of my birds inside. Unfortunately, I did lose three birds to the heat (one chook, one japanese quail and one gouldian finch).

What you're doing sounds good. One of my friends puts frozen water bottles in the chickens' nesting boxes. Just make sure you give them plenty of water and shade. Misting their enclosure sounds good too.

I'm open to any ideas anyone else has, because I'm still trying to come up with a better action plan too.

Wishing you good luck this summer!

Thank you so much for your advice. Are you in Australia or NZ by any chance if you don’t mind me asking? The highest temperature I get ~ 45 degrees C but only a few times during whole summer. I did put frozen bottle in the enclosed area but they just looked at it then turned away or kept pecking the top of the bottle Lol So sorry about your lost though Let hope all will be fine this summer
Edit: I’m not sure if I can bring them inside as I have an indoor cat who always get really excited even just hearing the noise of my quails outside Do you have a set up cage for them inside or how do you keep them not stress out in a temporary small area?

 

[Nabiki]

I fill 2 litre bottles about 2/3 full and freeze them. The quail will lay up against them when it gets really hot.

 

[Quaicken108]

Thank you so much for your advice. Are you in Australia or NZ by any chance if you don’t mind me asking? The highest temperature I get ~ 45 degrees C but only a few times during whole summer. I did put frozen bottle in the enclosed area but they just looked at it then turned away or kept pecking the top of the bottle Lol So sorry about your lost though Let hope all will be fine this summer
Edit: I’m not sure if I can bring them inside as I have an indoor cat who always get really excited even just hearing the noise of my quails outside Do you have a set up cage for them inside or how do you keep them not stress out in a temporary small area?

Quailobsessed’s profile says Australia. About the set up... I’m not them but I do know that they have a lot of birds! @Quailobsessed

 

[Quailobsessed]

Yes! I'm in Australia.

I wouldn't recommend what I did last summer, but I did it out of desperation to save their lives. I had to bring everyone inside using whatever cages or boxes I had. I put all my chickens in the bathroom (it stunk so bad!) because I couldn't cage them. I don't think anyone was too stressed, because they were glad to be out of the heat! Since I had limited cages, I had to put a bunch of quails together, Some the males did fight a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. My parrots had a good time, because they love coming inside. I think I almost overheated myself dealing with birds outside.

It definitely wasn't a fun experience, but it was better than watching them all die in the heat.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Btw, it's 41 degrees C right now, so I have to keep an eye on the birds and spray them where necessary. On days where it gets up to 45 degrees, I really need a plan to get them out of the heat, because 46 degrees and above will kill them.

 

[Jirachi]

Quailobsessed’s profile says Australia. About the set up... I’m not them but I do know that they have a lot of birds! @Quailobsessed

Oh right I didn’t know I can find the info from the profile name. Thanks for letting me know

 

[Jirachi]

I fill 2 litre bottles about 2/3 full and freeze them. The quail will lay up against them when it gets really hot.
View attachment 2426039

I did again today and seem like it’s too hot so they ended up having to use it anyway. Thank you for your advice

 

[Jirachi]

Yes! I'm in Australia.

I wouldn't recommend what I did last summer, but I did it out of desperation to save their lives. I had to bring everyone inside using whatever cages or boxes I had. I put all my chickens in the bathroom (it stunk so bad!) because I couldn't cage them. I don't think anyone was too stressed, because they were glad to be out of the heat! Since I had limited cages, I had to put a bunch of quails together, Some the males did fight a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. My parrots had a good time, because they love coming inside. I think I almost overheated myself dealing with birds outside.

It definitely wasn't a fun experience, but it was better than watching them all die in the heat.

I did once before and probably I didn’t prepare for them well so they all ended up fighting to each other crazily for first hour, luckily no injury happened but the whole box is such a mess and heard them fighting make me stress out so bad

I set up a misting system on the outside area today with the help of a normal fan to circulate the air and cool mist, 1 small evaporative cooler inside the enclosed area, big tray filled with water and frozen bottle to cool their feet and frozen bottle inside the cage as well. These seem doing quite good as they panting less than yesterday even it’s way hotter today so fingers crossed
It’s so funny seeing them ran out when the misting on, got wet and all ran back inside directly in front of the fan Lol I might take some pictures of the set up tomorrow and post here in case someone needed.
Another 40 degrees C day tomorrow and hope you and your quails all stay cool. Thank you so much for your advice