My Coturnix House

[itsy]

My boyfriend is basically finished with the quail coop he made (ok, I helped a little bit!) We still need better closures for the doors and I think I may make the opening to their house a little smaller. If anyone has any other tips, I'd like to hear them! I've read that many of you recommend putting the mesh around the bottom, too.... but I don't understand the purpose if the entire bottom is mesh? The area for the quail is basically 2'x4' and the height on the inside is about 2' on the higher end.

I think I'd like to add another one of those black bins with something else in it, perhaps sand. I may go further in the colder weather and put hay or straw on the inside floor of the house portion just to keep less of a draft. This was basically built with things we had around the house. I purchased the 2x4's...and they were $2 each. The BF thinks we used 6 of them? All of the plywood was recycled from someone on CL, and our neighbor. The person on CL even gave us a bunch of new shingles and tar paper. I had the mesh from a broken down chicken tractor that I had built in the summer. It's shimmed on the bottom and will be moved to a more permanent location at some point, but it's fine where it is for now.

There are 8 quail in there, and all getting along at the moment. I believe I have 3-4 males, but I need to take the time to sex them. Excess males will be culled. The females aren't laying just yet. We don't have any plucking or aggression issues that I'm aware of.

Here's the front:

Back:

Side:

Other side:

Inside the house part:

 

[navasima]

 

[chicmom]

That's really cute! I don't know alot about quails, but can they handle cold temps? They seem so little! Very cute.......

Maybe mesh around the bottom would keep anybody from bothering them or sort of scaring them from underneath.....I can just imagine a fox or raccoon looking at them and scratching at the bottom......

 

[navasima]

Lots of critters like to come from underneath and bite bird toes, so enclosing the bottom will help make the house more predator proof.

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
Or get electricity, but I fullheartedly agree with little hands.

Wonderful house though!

 

[mochicken]

you could enclose the bottom part with wire or wood, you could put "poop trays" under the birds and then build a box under there to store your food and bedding so its close

 

[itsy]

Thank you all for the compliments and suggestions!

Good idea, Mo. Poop trays may be an idea in the spring. These little things sure make a lot of poo.

 

[free_loader]

Quote:
I 2nd this idea... you're right, quail make a LOT of poop, and when it's concentrated in 1 spot it smells horrible!.. I started out keeping mine in a similar setup, and had to shovel below the cages way more often than I liked, a poop tray you could dump fairly often would make that a little more bearable...

 

[rittert3]

 

[Chick Charm]

Custom!

You've done a great job. Now just make one bigger, cause you know you want more birds.

And Purple. Those must be ROYAL Coturnix.