Introduction

[paneubert]

Thanks! We appreciate the offer I think we're happy with the number we have, but will let you know if we change our minds.

Talk to me again when there are 5 males. Haha.

 

[JayZay]

Talk to me again when there are 5 males. Haha.

You bet! haha

 

[starrmar006]

 

[starrmar006]

You bet! haha

I have 6 out in a brooder we hatched 2 and bought 4 (2 strait run 2 sexed) and we have 4 roosters even the one that was sexed is a completely diffrent breed and a rooster,ha!

 

[JoeQ]

I put hay in the box, you will soon find out they poo EVERYWHERE, it will be much easier on you to throw away a couple handfuls of straw/hay than cleaning the mat you have in there. I also second what @mdees88 said about the poo getting stuck in the smaller wire on the floor, I keep a little scraper on the roof of my coop just for that purpose and I'm using 1/2" mesh for the floor!!

 

[JayZay]

Thanks for the feedback again everyone . I went ahead and upgraded to the 1/2" hardware cloth as recommended. As the chicks are getting larger I'm seeing how their droppings would totally not fall through the 1/4" wire. I guess that's how it goes when you build a hutch without knowing truly how messy these little guys are haha.

 

[venymae]

Your coop color is gorgeous!!! Quail are so cute, good luck on your adventure!

 

[JayZay]

Hey everyone,
so it's been a while since we've done any updates on our quail since we moved them outside and into the hutch about a month ago, so I thought I'd share with you guys the progress that has been made.

We decided to obtain more chicks as soon as the older ones got kicked out, so we had to figure out what to do about space, and liked the idea of an aviary. We started designing and constructing the aviary around the hutch which is located in our fenced in garden space, and made the structure 6ft wide by 8ft wide using 2x2 furring strip board, painted it with deck paint, and stapled 1/2 hardware cloth sheets to the panels. The aviary is set on bricks and I've been slowly trenching around the outside of the hutch side by side and adding hardware cloth that goes 1.5 ft into the ground as an effort to keep pests out. We designed the feeder and watering system to be filled from the outside of the aviary so we don't have to go into the aviary every time to do refills.

We had to do some mods to the hutch to make to make it more of an open shelter with food and water, so we converted the right door into a ramp, added a second entry with ramp on the right side of the hutch, modified the feeder to a design suggested by mdees88, upgraded water reservoir to 2 gal. bucket, and added a second water station beneath the hutch. We also modified the side room in the hutch and removed the hardware cloth floor, and replaced it with a solid floor/tray with pine shavings. We went with a tray design so it would be easier to clean out the pine shavings.

The younger flock was added to the aviary about a week ago, and has since settled in well with no major issues with the older quail after they figured out the pecking order. We've added some ferns, bamboo shades, and bucket and they seem to enjoy the accessories so far. It's been a bit of a process getting them to use the ramp, so I made a bit of a mound to make the ramp height less to climb up, removed the hardware cloth from the old door design and replaced it with plywood and have started seeing them using it more and more .
Anyhow, enough talk! - onto the pics: