Is there a way to humanely keep quail?

[Weirdness555]

Hi there,

We keep our quail in an aviary (approx. 15 sqr foot) and we've never had any problems (except at the moment they won't lay, but I don't think that that's a housing issue). You can create a very natural environment for them with plants and conifer branches for cover, which also encourage broodyness. It's lovely to watch them behaving naturally, plus when they're kept outside like this they don't need any extra light unless you want them to lay all winter. You could probably keep them in quite a small aviary, ours is L shaped and maybe 10 foot down the longest side (with an air lock in the middle to avoid escapes). I would think that if you allow something like 3 or 4 square foot per bird then it allows you to keep them much more naturally. Our aviary is turfed with mesh under the turf, however the quail have destroyed the grass, but they seem to like the earth just as much (they do a lot of scratching). As long as whatever you make for them is predator proof and allows them to get out of the weather once in a while then it will probably be fine.

 

[iheartquail]

I thought the same way as you, my first 5 quail were on the ground. Raccoon got them ALL, it was horrifying. Then I built a much more secure pen so raccoons couldn't get them. **** rat tunneled under and ate two of my birds. What horrible deaths. I put them on wire after that and they actually were happier on wire (I guess because the person I got them from raised them on it?)
I built the pen so that the bottom is 1/2 plywood, 1/2 wire. I put straw in the plywood section and some plastic containers and a sandbox. They are quite happy.

 

[Weirdness555]

In the US you guys seen to have a lot more persistent predators than here in the UK haha. We only have cats, rats, and the occasional fox to worry about, and our dogs keep most things out of the garden anyway. If predators are an issue though there's no reason why you couldn't keep them on a solid floor in a shed for instance with lights on a timer, you could still create a really nice environment for them, it's all about being creative