Just getting in to quail, how many should i get?

[dand883]

Are you going to be hatching any or just eating the eggs?

If you aren't going to hatch any you could put all females in there. You could put 8 hens in there if they all get along but 6 would be more ideal. You could do 1 male and 5 females also. 2 males and 6 females will be pushing your luck.

I deal with raccoons a lot. I considered doing a second layer of mesh under the floor but the raccoons don't just pull them through the floor, they pull them through the sides too, and the quail aren't smart enough to stay in the enclosed area either. Plus a raccoon climbing all around my cage would put a lot of stress on my birds.

Best thing you can do is keep raccoons from climbing up on your hutch in the first place. I wrapped my legs in aluminum flashing and so far no raccoons or opossums have managed to climb up them, and they have tried....

If you try this make sure not to wrap it super tight around the legs. You want the flashing to be round and have some flex to it. If you wrap it tight around the legs the coons might be able to climb it by wrapping their hands around the corners.

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I never thought of flashing around the legs. I have a roll left over that would fit great. I still think I might double up the mesh an inch or two away just in case. The hutch is going to be close to a few bushes, so depending on how persistent they are they might make it past the flashing.

For now it will just be eating the eggs, but I do plan to hatch some probably next spring when my daughter is a bit older, so I want to have a male and have him be part of the flock and not need to introduce a new bird later on.