Housing question

[LLRSandraMort]

Like everybody else stuck at home, I'm wringing my hands and trying to think of useful things I can do to make life less stressful.

I decided to raise coturnix quail. My daughter wants hens, but that's her problem, not mine.

I've seen reasonably priced cages on shelving units that could go on my porch away from the glaring sun, but they look hard to clean, potentially overcrowded and won't let them have access to the real world. That last part may or may not matter.

I saw small animal cages with the poop trays removed so they can go directly onto the grass and get moved daily to keep the grass healthy and give them new bugs and weeds to enjoy. They look like a predator could have easy access, though. I also don't know how I'd collect the eggs that way.

I suppose the families could go in one space and the spare boys could go somewhere else, since they're not going to be kept long term.

I have limited income for buying premade housing, less skill to build it and even less patience. I do, however, have lots and lots of space to stretch out in. I also, potentially, could move small cages into the chicken run during the night when they go to their coop. Or I could possibly put the cages into the coop with the chickens. That's a thought.

ANYWAY, all thoughts are welcome and appreciated!!! Thanks!!!

 

[mdees88]

How many quail are you planning on raising?

Are you planning on hatching eggs or buying your quail as chick's or adults?

I guess your primary goal for raising them is for eggs, and probably also as a pet of sorts?

Where are you from?

I think keeping chickens and quail together is not recommended because of some kind if disease chickens can give quail but I have no first hand experience with it.

Quail poop a lot. I had intentions of keeping mine in my shop and it didn't take a month before I moved them outside because of the smell and how often I needed to clean the poop tray.

Outside is best IMO as long as you can protect them from predators.

Keeping them on the ground is most natural and as long as you don't have too many and have a decent size pen gor them the poop isn't too hard to manage. I'm sure some people will be here shortly that will tell you how their on the ground pens are setup.

I keep mine in wire cages off the ground. You can add dust pans, straw, and limbs inside their cage to make a slightly more natural environment but it's not like keeping them on the ground. I prefer the wire floor because it's pretty much zero maintenance. The poop falls through and the floor stats clean. I don't have to worry about the ground getting wet during a rain or diseases from a damp dirty environment. If I was going to keep them on the ground it would be in a very large enclosure or possibly some kind of tractor setup I think....

Not sure what the cheapest option for either way would be but I'm sure more people will have suggestions.

 

[Quailobsessed]

I like to keep mine on the ground because it's most natural. I like to keep mine in aviaries with my parrots, but I also have other enclosures. I made an enclosure out of a large dog kennel my neighbour was getting rid of.

I added a door to it that I made out of some old pallet wood. I also added bird wire to the top and some wood to hold up the lid (I close it at night).

I also made an enclosure out of a greenhouse frame. There's a zipper on the front for easy access and a larger door for cleaning.

I also built a large coop out of my garden bed for some of my gamebirds, including japanese quails.

I don't consider myself particularly handy, I just make housing out of what I find.

Some of the main things you need to consider with housing are: overcrowding, too much exposure to the elements, protection from predators and keeping enclosures clean.

 

[LLRSandraMort]

UOTE="mdees88, post: 22504461, member: 506317"]
How many quail are you planning on raising?
[/QUOTE]

Uhhh, I'm not sure. I'm sure that if it goes well, the numbers will go up over time. If I had to take a stab at a number today, I'd say we use 2 dozen eggs a week, or the equivalent of 8 dozen quail eggs a week if I were to switch entirely. If I'm getting 4 eggs a week per quail, then I need a minimum of 2 dozen girls. I want to be able to hatch, so I'd want one boy per three girls, or 8 boys.

So, I guess the answer to that is 2 dozen girls and 8 boys, at least right now. Tomorrow that could change!

Are you planning on hatching eggs or buying your quail as chick's or adults?

If I had unlimited funds, I'd start with point of lay adults but have a setup for incubating and brooding.

[/QUOTE]
I guess your primary goal for raising them is for eggs, and probably also as a pet of sorts?
[/QUOTE]

Eggs and meat. I have no need for pets, I already have teenagers.

Where are you from?

From whence I cometh, eh? It's sort of a convoluted question. I grew up in NYC. I moved upstate and signed up here for my first account (SandraMort is the old username, I think) and I ordered some fuzzy day old chicks online. I'd never raised so much as a parakeet, so what did I know? But ordering sounds like fun so I brought home 140 day old chicks.

Um. Did you know they grow? A lot? And eat and poop even more? Whoa, that was a serious learning experience!

I think keeping chickens and quail together is not recommended because of some kind if disease chickens can give quail but I have no first hand experience with it.

Well, yes, but I wasn't planning to keep them together. My daughter's chicken run will be empty at night, so if I move the quail pens into it, it gives an extra layer of protection from the predators, but they're not interacting with the chickens. They'd still be in their cages.

Quail poop a lot. I had intentions of keeping mine in my shop and it didn't take a month before I moved them outside because of the smell and how often I needed to clean the poop tray.

Yeah, I could handle it on my porch but not indoors.

Outside is best IMO as long as you can protect them from predators.

That's a big caveat.

Keeping them on the ground is most natural and as long as you don't have too many and have a decent size pen gor them the poop isn't too hard to manage. I'm sure some people will be here shortly that will tell you how their on the ground pens are setup.

Inespensive ones, I hope!

I keep mine in wire cages off the ground. You can add dust pans, straw, and limbs inside their cage to make a slightly more natural environment but it's not like keeping them on the ground. I prefer the wire floor because it's pretty much zero maintenance. The poop falls through and the floor stats clean. I don't have to worry about the ground getting wet during a rain or diseases from a damp dirty environment. If I was going to keep them on the ground it would be in a very large enclosure or possibly some kind of tractor setup I think....

Not sure what the cheapest option for either way would be but I'm sure more people will have suggestions.

Thanks!!!

 

[Fenrisulfr]

My quails are laying every day an egg each. Once a month one or two are making a day break.
So with a dozen quails you get 7 dozen quail eggs a week.

 

[LLRSandraMort]

Okay, so a dozen might be enough, though just barely. It's definitely not enough for sharing or for meat, though.

 

[LLRSandraMort]

The question is, how do you inexpensively keep them off the ground and away from predators? We've got lots of those in the country.

 

[nao57]

Access to freedom and real world will get your quail killed. EVERYTHING eats them. So if your concern was about letting them go free don't. Many people on youtube talk about this and how sturdy the cages should be at night for coyotes, foxes, and all kinds of stuff.

Your question wasn't clearly stated in the original post. We hope to be quite helpful.

I'm hypothesizing they wouldn't do too well with the chickens, because all fowl have pecking orders, and territory. People say that after 6 months especially people notice chickens becoming more territorial.

However, if you had a cage within a cage, or a divider that might work. And possibly get some defense bonuses.

One trick this guy on Youtube and a few others do is very slightly invert the cages, so the eggs roll to the side and bottom lip of the tray. Then in the morning you just pick them up. (But you'd have to be really careful you don't have so much force the eggs crack. But some people say quail eggs are sturdy.)

(To be fair I haven't done quail but I read a lot and watch Youtube stuff often.)

I would try to just go cheap even if you have to do it yourself. Look at how cheap plywood sheets are for example. Maybe you can do something with that and hardware cloth. (I'm not sure if the normal size chicken wire would effectively hold in young quail chics however, because they might be able to slip through traditionally sized chicken wire?)

One thing I remember stressed by people raising young quail is that when very young you have to be really careful to make sure they always have water because their life cycle is going so fast that this guy said they could dehydrate within an hour.

There's a couple of great quail videos on youtube under the channels for 'Self Sufficient Me' and 'Dexter's World'. These two have many quail videos, but also other gardening stuff and even stuff on ducks, chickens, etc.

 

[nao57]

I like to keep mine on the ground because it's most natural. I like to keep mine in aviaries with my parrots, but I also have other enclosures. I made an enclosure out of a large dog kennel my neighbour was getting rid of.

View attachment 2109660View attachment 2109662
I added a door to it that I made out of some old pallet wood. I also added bird wire to the top and some wood to hold up the lid (I close it at night).

I also made an enclosure out of a greenhouse frame. There's a zipper on the front for easy access and a larger door for cleaning.
View attachment 2109669

I also built a large coop out of my garden bed for some of my gamebirds, including japanese quails.
View attachment 2109673

I don't consider myself particularly handy, I just make housing out of what I find.

Some of the main things you need to consider with housing are: overcrowding, too much exposure to the elements, protection from predators and keeping enclosures clean.

I like this design. ITs also similar to a popular one I've seen for chicken tractors built cheap going around on the net.

 

[LLRSandraMort]

Access to freedom and real world will get your quail killed. EVERYTHING eats them. So if your concern was about letting them go free don't. Many people on youtube talk about this and how sturdy the cages should be at night for coyotes, foxes, and all kinds of stuff.

ROTFL! No, no, no. I've got a two bedroom apartment with four kids underfoot so I must have been SUPER vague! If I let them out and they didn't get eaten, they'd just leave!

I was talking about something like THIS to let them have grass and bugs and such, but not quite as complex or expensive to build or buy as a tractor:

I'm hypothesizing they wouldn't do too well with the chickens, because all fowl have pecking orders, and territory. People say that after 6 months especially people notice chickens becoming more territorial.

However, if you had a cage within a cage, or a divider that might work. And possibly get some defense bonuses.

EXACTLY. If the chickens were in a fenced in run during the day and a coop at night and the quail were in portable cages in the day that got moved to the run at night....

One trick this guy on Youtube and a few others do is very slightly invert the cages, so the eggs roll to the side and bottom lip of the tray. Then in the morning you just pick them up. (But you'd have to be really careful you don't have so much force the eggs crack. But some people say quail eggs are sturdy.)

I'm hoping to skip the tray. That keeps them from having the grass and bugs and such, plus adds lots of choretime, rather than picking up the cage and moving it somewhere else to avoid lots of poop building up in any one place.

I would try to just go cheap even if you have to do it yourself. Look at how cheap plywood sheets are for example. Maybe you can do something with that and hardware cloth.

Did I mention failing shop twice? LOL

(I'm not sure if the normal size chicken wire would effectively hold in young quail chics however, because they might be able to slip through traditionally sized chicken wire?)

I was assuming the brooder situation would be either indoors or on my porch, but definitely not in a grownup size cage.

Muchas gracias!!!