Nest box for quail?

[wheezy50]

Hi, I am new to quail, haven't even got any yet. But hopefully in a few weeks I will, im still getting ideas for a pen to build right now.

Question is, do/will quail use a nest box for laying eggs? I'm thinking about getting Courtnix. I would like it if they layed in designated nest but I'm not sure if they will?

 

[Frankie Ruiz]

they will lay in a nest but dont need it by any means. ive seen many people just have their pen and have the quail lay their eggs right on the floor. im also thinking about getting coturnix quail. what will you be using them for? eggs? or meat too? i was thinking about building a pen where the quail would lay their eggs on the floor but the floor would be on a slant so the eggs would roll forward and i could collect them that way.

 

[1000yearoldeggs]

I don't know if this helps or not, but my quail lay in a plastic bowl I have in there. I put it in there just to see if they'd use it and they did. It keeps the eggs a little less messy, especially if you have a solid floor instead of wire (like I do).

If you have a solid floor, you will occasionally find an egg with poop on it, or at least I have. The bowl helps with my problem. If you have a wire floor, there's really no need because their poop falls through the wire, so no dirty eggs.

 

[wheezy50]

They will be for eggs and also meat. I have seen some designs with the slanted floor online. I am keeping that open as an option but I thought that if they will lay in a nest box reliably it might be easier to collect eggs from there. I'm just trying to avoid building a pen/coop that is difficult to collect eggs if they just randomly lay anywhere.

 

[wheezy50]

Right now my thoughts are to build a cage that has majority wire mesh floor with a few places for them to get off of the wire if need be. If I do this ill probably build it on a slant or use the plastic bowl/nest box idea.

I've also considered buying one of the small rabbit hutch/chicken coops off of Ebay or Amazon. If I go this route they will have a lower area on the ground and a ramp to go up into the enclosed coop. I like this idea but dont want to have to reach all over every corner to hunt for eggs in there.

 

[1000yearoldeggs]

I have mine in a rabbit hutch. Even though I only have a couple females, it is very hard to catch them in the corners of it. They are very fast and if you need to catch them for any reason, I suggest a hutch that you can reach every corner of without any problems.

 

[dc3085]

Some quail will never care where they lay, others will lay in anything that could be remotely considered a nest. On my runs that have boxes built they don't so much care to lay in the box as to have a place to feel secure so i recommend a box of some kind anyway.

 

[Anniekins]

I raise my quail with nest boxes and they do use the. Occasionally I find an egg on the wire or in the sandbox but most end up in the nest boxes.

 

[Hope It]

Same here! I have wire floor in both of my pens, but have several plastic bins in there (with sides about 3 inches high): two with sand and two with shavings. Never seen an egg on wire yet, all eggs are in boxes - shavings boxes most often, but some in sand boxes.

Take a look:


see the boxes in each corner of the pen.

 

[debbiefoxy]

wow how did you put pic on I'm
on my phone