My great idea!!

[guyinflorida]

Hi board. Rookie coturnix guy here. I am designing my adult cages at 15" by 22" to accomodate 18" wide shrink wrap for litter pans under the cages. I plan to stretch this stuff under the cages leaving a slight droop or belly in it, and simply gather it up and throw the whole mess away. Any thoughts?
J

 

[rittert3]

I think it's a good idea in theory but the way shrink wrap sticks to itself you could have a mess and go through alot of extra shrink wrap. 15"x22" also sounds pretty small and would only beable to hold 2 maybe 3 birds at most (comfortably). You could look into maybe using 24" butcher/wax paper and there by beable to increase your pen size by a bit. I have a design for a 32" L x 20" D breeder pen that in theory could hold 4 maybe 5 birds comfortably. I started a thread somewhere on here that has the sketchup file.

 

[Dingo]

Or you could use newspaper, or even end rolls. Where I work they sell end rolls for 1.25 each and they're still about 3-4 inches thick.

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
GQF THAT SELLS QUAIL EGGS/EQUIPMENT HAS THEIR BREEDING CAGES 10 INCHES WIDE BY 24 INCHES IN LENGTH AND SAY THEY ARE DESIGNED TO HOLD 4 QUAIL. SAYS THAT RESEARCH HAS DICTATED THEIR SIZE AND DESIGN. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
YOU COULD BUILD SOME DROP PANS FROM FLASHING WHICH IS NOT EXPENSIVE AND THEY COULD BE LINED WITH NEWSPAPER AND WASHED WHEN NEEDED AND REUSED FOR A LONG TIME.

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

GQF cages is 10x24= 1.67 sq with 4 birds allows .410 sq ft per bird with 4 birds


GIF's cages is 15x22= 2.91 sq ft using the same amount of space would house 7 birds


Seems like a tight fit.

I never thought of shrink wrap. I may have to try. Would be much better than scrubbing pans, especially in the winter. Do you know what the cost of the skrink wrap is?

 

[rittert3]

I've never heard of GIF I don't think. I space needed per bird can vary over all the more the better but 1 sq.ft. per bird is a good rule. GQF cages will work ok for 1 male and 1-3 hens per hole depending on if you have bobs or cots but your birds will also look really "rough" and beat up. Over all I'm a fan of GQF products but those cages are designed for commercial breeding and packing alot of breeders in a small area. This is where you have to weigh out how much you care about your bird vs. production. Yes you CAN pack 4 birds in that area but you have to think about what that dose for the birds then decide if you WANT to pack 4 birds in that area. For the shrink wrap idea, I just think butcher paper would be less mess

I know our local newspaper when I was a kid (not to horribly long ago) would give away rolls of white paper (similar to butcher paper) 30"w x~150' free if you came in and asked for it. I just think wrestling with shink wrap trying to stick to itself would get old fast, especially if you were trying to use it under more than 1 pen the size you specified.

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

GIF= guyinflorida

 

[rittert3]

Ok gotcha

Ya, I think I like the 1sqft rule (given by most BYC quail vet.s) but if I ever went commercial

I might consider packing birds. I just try to be sinsitive to my animals and give them as much respect as I can afford. Like I said GQF pens are ok for a pair or trio of bobs or possibly a quad of coturnix, but most of the birds I've seen housed in them look really stressed out and tend to have lots of ruffled feathers and bald spots. Your design seems a little tighter than that rule but might probably work.