- Apr 26, 2014
- 14
- 0
- 22
Heelo everyone! New to BYC and new to birds in general other than VERY GENERAL bird care (My grandma raised canaries and I helped). I had pet chickens as a kid but I didn't do any of the actual maintenance with them.
I am getting day-old Japanese quail chicks on Monday. We are keeping them inside for the first 4 weeks under a heat lamp and all, while we finish building their coop and run. I am doing this more as a project and learning experience than anything else, so we are starting with just 5 quail chicks straight-run. We will cull any males we get this time around until we get more females.
Their coop is a repurposed medium-size dog house. I removed one of the roof panels and added two hinges and two hooks for latching it closed. I need to add one or two small nestboxes and a perch on the inside, as well as drill a hole in the top of the other hole to add a vial of water to make a natural light. But it's raised up off the ground and the floor is removeable for cleaning too, but I will be using aspen shavings inside the coop for litter.
The area that will be their run is 11'x15' (The pictures always make it look much smaller than it is! ) and it'll have a small pomegranate tree inside along with several dead trees and branches I have been saving for perches and brush piles. Their area will include a sand pit and an area where I will be placing mats of wheatgrass that I'll be growing in trays. I would like to include a small shallow pool for them however I'm not sure how safe, needed, or recommended that is. The water would be about an inch deep. and a foot square I am also going to plant some lemon grass and lavender inside/around the pen to help deter insects from gathering around them too much.
We are taking our time building the run, since I am working on a $100/month budget and that includes all my other projects. I've spent my budget for this month but thankfully I already had most of the things I needed. The only thing I DON'T have that I really need is hardware cloth. The area they're going in is the SAFEST place on my property (My dog lives on the other side of the fence, and my house and garage surround the other side) so the only real predators I need to be wary of in this space are hawks but I will be using bird netting as well. That being said, hardware cloth is pretty expensive for the size I need. Do you think it would be safe to double-layer the chicken wire (one layer on the outside, one on the inside?) and add bird netting to the inside? There's no large predators that would be getting at the quails so my main concern is keeping the quails inside the coop. I already have the chicken wire from previous projects so that is the cheapest and easiest option for me.
When we make our actual coop for our chickens we will be using the 1/4" hardware cloth since they won't be in such a protected area.
The run will be large enough for us to walk into it to clean.
Opinions on my plan so far?
Here's the area!
I am getting day-old Japanese quail chicks on Monday. We are keeping them inside for the first 4 weeks under a heat lamp and all, while we finish building their coop and run. I am doing this more as a project and learning experience than anything else, so we are starting with just 5 quail chicks straight-run. We will cull any males we get this time around until we get more females.
Their coop is a repurposed medium-size dog house. I removed one of the roof panels and added two hinges and two hooks for latching it closed. I need to add one or two small nestboxes and a perch on the inside, as well as drill a hole in the top of the other hole to add a vial of water to make a natural light. But it's raised up off the ground and the floor is removeable for cleaning too, but I will be using aspen shavings inside the coop for litter.
The area that will be their run is 11'x15' (The pictures always make it look much smaller than it is! ) and it'll have a small pomegranate tree inside along with several dead trees and branches I have been saving for perches and brush piles. Their area will include a sand pit and an area where I will be placing mats of wheatgrass that I'll be growing in trays. I would like to include a small shallow pool for them however I'm not sure how safe, needed, or recommended that is. The water would be about an inch deep. and a foot square I am also going to plant some lemon grass and lavender inside/around the pen to help deter insects from gathering around them too much.
We are taking our time building the run, since I am working on a $100/month budget and that includes all my other projects. I've spent my budget for this month but thankfully I already had most of the things I needed. The only thing I DON'T have that I really need is hardware cloth. The area they're going in is the SAFEST place on my property (My dog lives on the other side of the fence, and my house and garage surround the other side) so the only real predators I need to be wary of in this space are hawks but I will be using bird netting as well. That being said, hardware cloth is pretty expensive for the size I need. Do you think it would be safe to double-layer the chicken wire (one layer on the outside, one on the inside?) and add bird netting to the inside? There's no large predators that would be getting at the quails so my main concern is keeping the quails inside the coop. I already have the chicken wire from previous projects so that is the cheapest and easiest option for me.
When we make our actual coop for our chickens we will be using the 1/4" hardware cloth since they won't be in such a protected area.
The run will be large enough for us to walk into it to clean.
Opinions on my plan so far?
Here's the area!