My new Quail cages

[ugly ducky]

Ok, we finally have most of our quail pens done and in use, so I thought I'd show them off. We built these cages ourselves, and designed our own set up. We currently have 12 pens; 6 housing breeders (7 hens / 2 roos), and 6 housing juveniles (up to 20 / pen). We built 4 units 90" long X 24" deep X 16" high, and divided each of those cages into 3 pens 24" X30". We hung them in our pole barn down the center by screwing 2X4's down from the trusses, then adding cross boards to hang the cages from and one along the bottom of the cages to keep them hanging level. We hung two units on each side of the boards, so we have 12 pens in an area of aprox. 4Ft X15Ft. Underneath the cages is dirt (clay) which is packed VERY hard, and we keep it limed and just rake and sweep under it every other day, then add more lime. We also hang fly strips under the cages to keep the flies under control. Our next project will be some form of auto waterer, but haven't decided which way we want to go with this, with winter being a big concern.
We keep our Quail chicks in the house in Rubbermaid tubs the first week, then move them to our outside brooder in the tack room of the barn (see pic) till they are ready to go to the cages. That's our operation, and it's working very well for us. As we expand more, we will add another setup like this alongside this one.

 

[fitzy]

Holy *&^^%^ That Thing Is (*^&^&*^ Awesome Looking!!!!

 

[Bossroo]

Great setup ugly ducky!!! I had a very similar cages hung by wires only setup in my barn years ago. I would recomend to lower the cage height to 9-12 inches as quail don't need the extra height and just might save a bird or two from breaking it's neck. Saves on the amount of wire and money too. To save on soiled feed and increase floor space , I used rabbit feeders hung on the ourside of the cages, then used 1" chicken wire over the feed section inside of the cage which prevents the birds from flinging the feed. I tried to use thick walled PVC lines between the back to back cages with brass drip type drinker nipples. However, when the temps get into the low 20" or teens, the pipe tends to split leanthwise due to the expantion of the water at freezing. I switched to galvanized iron which solved that problem. For my breeder cages, I also sloped the cage bottoms back to front by 1" and the front of the cage had an opening of 1"at the bottom ( to allow the eggs to roll through, I then extended the bottom wire to extend by 3 inches and had the front of that curved up to 1 1/2" to auto catch collect the eggs without breaking them. Saves a tremendous amount of time and stress on the birds. Good luck with your birds.

 

[chicken_angler]

Quote:
Ugly Ducky, those cages are nice! I want to build some.

I might try to do the slant like you were saying Bossroo. That seems pretty cool. One other idea is taking a big 4 or 6 inch pvc pipe and cutting it lengthwise to form a little channel. you could easily add these to your cages. just put a little carpet in the to pad the eggs so they dont crack and Vioila(sp?)lol

I am going to have to look into building these. Ugly Ducky, If you dont mind me asking, how much did these cages end up costing?

Thanks,
Cody!!

 

[First To Hatch]

Thats a very nice set up, right now I have a 4' x 20'' all wire cage that I need to make legs for, I'm trying to come up of a good way for having wire cages with legs and roofs, but I'm just going to make a single cage for now and make more next year when my numbers increase.

 

[ugly ducky]

I'll respond to some of the comments made. The height is at 16" as I have had no problem with my Jumbos boinking. They just don't. They're so tame and quiet...not flighty at all. So, our first cages we made were 9" high, and we didn't care for them with our waterers we use, you have to tip them to get them in and out, which makes for spilled water. So we decided to go to the 16", which can also double for chickens if we need to.
Our first cages also had the roll out egg tray, which was ok, but in my opinion not necessary. I like getting in there and collecting eggs, and it keeps my birds very tame, as I usually play with one or two each time. When I need to handle my birds, they are not upset becauase they're used to my hands.
The feeders are an issue due to the amount of waste, but I've found if we don't fill them all they way, there is much less wasted feed. We're considering the rabbit feeder idea or some kind of external feeder.
The cost....I figured it up one day, and came up with $15.00 per pen, with each 3 pen unit at $45.00. However, we bought 2 100' rolls of 1 X 2" wire and 1 100' roll of 1/2 X 1" wire. We have quite a bit left, which we've been making up some carrying cages for use at swaps, and to sell a few, and have made some cages for our Buttons as well.
I'm sure there are more efficient ways of doing things, but I enjoy the time I spend with them, and so far, this works well for us. As time goes by, I'm sure we'll be using some of the suggestions for improvements, so keep them coming. Thank you for the compliments!

 

[macnugget]

very nice and clean setup. I would invest in the rabbit feeders only because if you leave for a few days you don't have to worry about feeding. Some of the ones I have have a solid bottom some don't the ones that dont I covered in cardboard and duck tape and put some screen across the top. I use an auto watering system but haven't used it in winter yet more than likely I will use water bottles.

 

[ugly ducky]

Leave for a few days? What is that like? LOL There is no option of leaving around here. With over 100 chickens, a couple hundred quail, 3 horses, 30+ sheep, 2 goats, 5 calves, 5 dogs, 7 cats, and a Macaw, leaving is a major undertaking, and can only happen if we have someone to take care of things. But seriously, we are considering an external feeder system and auto waterer.

 

[fitzy]

Quote:
take a peek at my external feeding system....in the meantime, i had a thought. you might be able to raise the feed trays so they can't flip food as easy. maybe a 2x4 or 4x4 block under them so they have to reach more to get to it might solve them problem.

those red chick feeders are what prompted me to switch to external...food waste is virtually zero.

 

[ugly ducky]

I've thought about raising them just like you said, but I've got to figure a way to stabilize them so they won't flip them over. I think external is the way to go. We're working on that now.