rick0200
In the Brooder
- Jul 24, 2022
- 7
- 7
- 14
I've been raising quail now for about a year and a half. The roughest part of raising these hardy little birds is watching them suffer the heat. I live in NW Indiana and we can get some pretty hot, humid days without wind on a steady basis throughout the summer. Average temps in June, july, august can be in the 90's or even higher. I've watched my birds and they start panting in the upper 80's so I know the 90's have to be tough on them. I've scoured the forums looking for ideas, thoughts and just about anything I can find to keep them cooler and lessen their heat stress. I have my birds outdoors in wire cages under a white canopy, now a silver heat reflective canopy. But, they still suffer when there is no air movement. I put fans on them, ice in their water and was using water bottles. When I realized that they were standing on the frozen water bottles, I thought about how I could increase the frozen surface for more of the birds to use. I have anywhere from four to five birds per cage and I have four cages. Here is what I am doing now and it's working nicely so far. I take 1 gallon freezer bags and fill them about 1/4 full of water. I push out all or most of the air so that they'll lay flat and place them on baking sheets. I then insert them into the freezer and now I have flat sheets of ice for the birds to walk on that have some surface area. Just thought I'd share this. I haven't seen anyone else doing this.