how many quail cages should I make?

[cupman]

Hi, I haven't started my quail experience yet but I think it might happen this summer sometime. I plan on buying an incubator and hatching a lot of eggs at once(I think the incubator I was looking at said 140 quail eggs). My main purpose for the quail would be the meat and I plan on keeping some for eggs. I am thinking I'll probably start with the coturnix breed. So my questions are: If I plan on having 100 or so birds at once, should I build 2 separate cages to hold the males and the females? Also, I plan on producing my own eggs to keep the cycle going in the incubator, do I need any kind of third cage to put the males and the females both in so the eggs can be fertilized? Thanks.

 

[jm93030]

Hi there

Welcome

you have big plans there

well adult quails will need 1ft square per bird if you plan to keep as a colony and you will need 1 male for avery 7 females this will give you a good fertility rate .

if you want a higher fertility rate you may need to buitl breeding cages , i am not sure about the size but it has to be enough to hold 1 male to 4 females .

I keep the extra males separate for meat purposes .

if you hatch your own eggs consider you will get 50 -50 males - females ratio

baby quails cannot be sexed

 

[Ga.chickenman]

Two pens will do to start with but unless there really big pen you will need more soon!!

And with the numbers your talking, several brooder also.
Good luck..

 

[JJMR794]

50 +/- 10 OUGHT TO BE A GOOD START

 

[kerry 2138]

I started with 54 last march and by early july had hatched 1200. Build lots of cages if you are going to hatch bunches.For meat birds our cages are 4 ft wide and 2ft 6 inches 12 to 16 inches high we raise 50 to 60 birds in each. the cages are hung from the ceiling with porch swing chain from lowes. For breeding cages we use 18 inch by 36 inch cages for 15 birds 3 males and 12 females. We made rollout cages for the breeders and the egg layers. this makes collecting the eggs very easy.I assemble the cages in groups of four so I can use the sides for 2 cages. The tops and sides and backs are either 1 inch by 2 inch our 1 inch by 1 inch depending on whether it is used for meat or eggs. i use 1 by 1/2 for the bottoms.They are assembled using cage clips.

 

[shelleyd2008]

You need a minimum of .75 sq. ft. per bird depending on the size of the cage. Also, 7 hens per roo is too many, 5 is the most recommended for best fertility.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Yup! There is no such thing as...TO MUCH PEN SPACE!

 

[cnewton116]

I started with 54 last march and by early july had hatched 1200. Build lots of cages if you are going to hatch bunches.For meat birds our cages are 4 ft wide and 2ft 6 inches 12 to 16 inches high we raise 50 to 60 birds in each. the cages are hung from the ceiling with porch swing chain from lowes. For breeding cages we use 18 inch by 36 inch cages for 15 birds 3 males and 12 females. We made rollout cages for the breeders and the egg layers. this makes collecting the eggs very easy.I assemble the cages in groups of four so I can use the sides for 2 cages. The tops and sides and backs are either 1 inch by 2 inch our 1 inch by 1 inch depending on whether it is used for meat or eggs. i use 1 by 1/2 for the bottoms.They are assembled using cage clips.

Do you happen to have a picture of your quail cages that you can share?

 

[Nabiki]

Do you happen to have a picture of your quail cages that you can share?

FYI, this thread is 13 years old, and it looks like the person you're replying to hasn't been on in nearly that long.

 

[Susan Skylark]

The obvious answer to this post is way more than you think: you’ll become addicted and want to keep more birds, you’ll also have sick bird, young birds, your kids will want to keep every single one forever, you’ll want to breed glow in the dark or neon pink quail…!