Imagination run amok....

[navasima]

At some point soon I will have little Cot hatchlings under my care. I keep reading stories about escapees and am really concerned that I have to make my brooder of bricks to prevent this! I have a mental image now of birds the size of tiny mice popping out whenever I open the lid which around here = doggie snack!

Lots of folks seem to use large tub brooders with great success, but is that only for a short while? How high does it have to be to avoid "pop corn" chicks? Should I just set up with an enclosure that opens from the front?

Okay - I might overthink things on occasion......

 

[bfrancis]

Here are some pics of brooders I have.. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=601102&p=13

Instead of height, think secure top. unless you have your brooder on a shelf...IMO, a front door opening would be a big inconvenience to try to clean, water, feed, and catch the chicks...

good luck!

edited to add photo of yet another type of brooder. This one is 16"x36"x12"

 

[mochicken]

mine only escape when my wife or son forget to put the screen lid back on, I use a setup similar to bfrancis, they only escape of you dont do your part to keep them in, they never even tried to jump out until they were 2 weeks old, then they were like little basketball players lol

 

[navasima]

Thanks!

 

[mochicken]

I didnt see the second part of your question about how long they can be in the brooder, really as long as you want, if you wanted to keep a breeding set in there with a male to a 3-5 females in a decent sized tote you could, the good thing about Coturnix quail is they are not great flyers ( dont badger me on that one guys they dont fly as good as bobs lol )

I have had Coturnix get out of their outside cages when I open the door and they usually hit the ground and start looking for bugs and digging, I dont keep a ton of them so the ones I do have are used to seeing me around so they are not really scared of me at all, when I have one of my adults get loose I can just walk up and grab them with minimal effort. If you had several hundred that dont have your hand in their cages every day then they might be a little more flighty