Making houses for Jumbo Coturnix and would love some imput. Thanks

[BasilHillFarm]

I plan to house my Jumbo Brown Coturnix quail outside year round. I'm in Maine so it routinely is in the teens in the winter. Sometimes -10 or so but usually 20's - lower 30's most of the winter. I've got a number of questions and I plan to put up some blueprints here if I can. I just want to make sure I do this right and not have to redo it. My first few questions are below.

Do jumbos need the same head room as standard coturnix? I've read 8 - 10 inches if you have a solid top to prevent them from breaking their necks. Ideally I could make them a huge flight pen but that won't be till later as we are moving the end of this summer and everything has to go with us. So I was planning on making a run 8 inches high and a housing area that will have litter that is 10 inches high. Probably 8 - 9 inches once it has shavings. Does that sound good as a minimum or do I absolutely need it higher. I really don't want them to get hurt if they get startled by something.

How many would you put in a 4'5" x 2'5" pen.

Also I plan on having a house at the end of each pen that they can sleep in, eat, drink, lay eggs and warm up in. In the winter they would need extra heat just to keep the water from freezing and to keep them laying because we get very little light in the winter. (I know this is a controversial topic so don't bash me.) But anyways I plan to keep the water from freezing and give them 14 hours of light a day and provide a warm spot for them. My plans aren't necessarily set in concrete. So..... Here is what I thought up. If I put two light bulbs in there, one black light and one normal light (both low wattage) and turned the white one on for "daylight" and the black one on for night would it keep it a comfy temperature in there or would it bake them. It will be a 24" x 29" x 10?" area. I know black lights are twice as hot so.... what wattage would you recommend. Is it crucial that the water never freezes? Is it bad for them to go from a warm "house" to a cold pen daily?

Also I've heard drafts are bad so ..... is that mainly a concern in the winter? I plan to put a removable glass window on the house part and in the summer put that as 1/2" x 1/2" wire on the door to keep it cooler in there. (The house will also be in the shade).

Thanks and I'm sure I'll have more.

I'll try to attach some blueprints after I get some feed back.

 

[ranit]

We keep ours outside yearround in a leanto off our shed. In the winter we tarp the two sides that are open and hang a heat lamp to help keep the waterers unfrozen. This mainly for my convenience in not having to deal with frozen waterers and having to provide new water 2-3 times a day. It's not really crutial that the water never freezes as long as they have some available at least a couple times a day. The adult birds can handle the cold weather and once they are fully feathered drafts don't seem to be a problem either. I usually use a red bulb unless I am wanting them to lay (yes I do this some too) then I add white light on a timer to provide enough "daylight". Not sure about the black light as I never thought about it being a hotter light.

Our growoff cages are in the 8-10" height range and our breeder cages are taller as we just used some extra rabbit cages that we already had. Caged coturnix are usually pretty calm birds so not too much trouble with them flying into the top of the cage. In the summer we do have a flight pen that we use to condition some birds for those that want to use them to train dogs and the birds in there tend to be a lot more flighty.

 

[BasilHillFarm]

Ok, thanks. That helps. I'll try to get my blueprints up. Not sure if my files are compatible.

 

[BasilHillFarm]

Ok guess I can't do the blue prints unless any of you can tell me how to get a bitmap image on here.

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Quote:
Convert it? Or you can just upload it to photobucket or something then add it in.

 

[BasilHillFarm]

There is no upload button.... hm... I might try to put it on my site and link to it. Will have to do that later today. Busy as can be here and the day isn't even half way over yet....