Minimum coop height

[maxk]

Great start maxk.

You can tell you are in the valley. My avatar was taken in Buckeye.
I would encourage you to use front door opening because top doors are difficult to open at anything above 3'6'' high.
What I found to be the most important was to keep them under shade as much as possible in AZ.

Best of wishes.

Ha, yep, North Scotts'.
We decided to stick with the top doors, but to lower it quite a bit. I have a pretty secure yard, so I'm not to terribly worried. It will be a bit shy of 4'6" all said and done, so nice and easy to get into still. I hope. We will probably build another after a few months, when I know what I like/dont like about it. Regarding the sun, I figured that might be an issue. One half of it will be completely covered (Plywood doors) and the whole thing overall will be in a pretty shady spot. Still plenty of sun, but well shaded that they won't overheat.

The wire took way longer than anticipated (Also, I didn't realize I had tin snips until we were mostly done, but oh well). here's what we got done today.

I ended up having to disassemble after the last update, and narrow it down a bit. The connecting bars are 4 feet, and my wire is 4 feet wide. That left the edges of the wires at the long runners, with no good attachment. I cut about 2 1/2 inches off each and reassembled that. Used literally over 1000 staples putting all that wire on lol. All thats left is the doors, and the legs. Then I can start building some PVC pipe feeders, and figure out what I want to do for sandboxes, additional cover/hides, and waterers.

Then I need to order eggs and an incubator. Any tips as to the best places to get those at fair prices? Thinking of a hovabator with the auto turner, and we'd like to do a pretty solid order (>100) over texas A&M eggs, so we have some to raise, and some to just eat lol.

 

[Chick Charm]

That is a really nice pen. You can put quite a few in that. I raised mostly cots in the valley and it worked well even with the heat. You've done a great job so far even if you had some rebuild time.

I miss the call of the native quail in the valley. And also seeing them scurry along the roadside.

 

[maxk]

Yeah I still get my dog suddenly flying across the yard when the natives start running around in the yard. Theyre pretty much always running along the tops of the walls in the mornings.

I'm glad it worked well! We're going for the texas A&M cots, so hopefully that goes as well. I've got about 64sqft in there, all said and done, divided into 4 sections. I'll try to figure out how much quail i can get in there humanely. From what i can tell, 64 if i'm keeping layers, a bit more if i'm butchering males young for meat. Unfortunately no progress this weekend. I may start cutting the frames of the doors at least. Theres not much left to go!

 

[beakmaster]

My wife would'nt have it at all when I run it by her. I tried several times to talk her into it to no avail. I simply waited till after I had kissed a little arse enough and had her plenty happy and started building pens. One day she walked into the garage and asked me "whats that for". When I told her she just looked at me and that was it. She does like the eggs and loves it when I hatch the babies. She is not cool with eating the birds but other than that its been fairly smooth sailing.
I have built 2 pens one is 3x4 and the other 2x3 and both have ceiling height of about 2 ft. I have heard them hit it several times but only had one die from hitting it. My ceiling is plastic but some framing is presnet that could be an issue. I guess it depends what your ceiling is made out of too. Good luck.

 

[maxk]

Well its been a bit, but its almost done. I have 100 A&M eggs in the incubator (hoping for a good

but less than stellar hatch rate lol) that went in a week ago friday, so they should be out next weekish.
Got it up on legs built the doors on top, and put on the hinges/latches. the top sits just above elbow level, so its super easy to get into. Still need to put ply and wire across the top, and pipe in a watering system (ordered a huge package of drinking nipples), but thats about it. Building some PVC feeders later tonight.

 

[quail98]

Good looking cage this is the feed system I use if it helps u and this is my water

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[quail98]

Good looking cage this is the feed system I use if it helps u and this is my water

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