For my girl
In the Brooder
I raised chickens free range about 25 years ago. We eat a lot of chicken, but they don't taste as good as home raised - so I want to raise our own again (and I want my daughter to experience doing it). Unfortunately, my current neighborhood forbids them, and the predators around here would make free ranging them hard anyway (Red Tailed Hawks, Great Horned Owls, Raccoons, Opposums, a Badger - and of course cats).
We've been raising rabbits for years, building our own hutches and custom building for other people. We have an older hutch that is really nice - but doesn't incorporate the things we've learned -and it's too heavy to transport/sell - so we're going to convert it to use for A&M quail. It's 8 foot long by 2 1/2 feet front to back, and 7 foot tall. It has two mail levels with angled sheet metal between them so waste doesn't land on the heads of the ones below. Each level can be split into separate compartments by closing a door, and each compartment has it's own door. The top compartments are about 40 inches tall - with shelves that the rabbits like to lay on, and large enclosed dens in the back with yet another door to them. I thought I could either build ramps for the quail - or even split the upper level into two separate levels using wire or wood.
I'm looking at keeping about 6 hens, and a couple of roosters as stock - while incubating 10 to 20 eggs a week. We have a few pvc pens with plastic garden mesh sides that we use to put the bunnies out into the grass - and have made some good yard tractors (sold them all recently though). I don't know if I want to do a tractor for the quail - I just tire of having to move them around.I figure I should keep each hatch separate from the others - so I may do fewer hatches to suit the number of cages I have.
We already took a leap of faith and bought 100 eggs (received 105). I have a hovabator which I used mostly for lizard eggs - but the turner still works - and I had the smaller quail trays. I couldn't fit the larger eggs with 6 trays (the eggs bumped the trays). So I moved it out to 5 trays and we had 6 eggs for breakfast. Luckily, I don't plan on doing this many eggs at once again - because some of our jumbo eggs bump each other when you do two rows - and we had 6 fall out with the first rotation. Two were crushed - I don't know about the other four. I was guestimating about a 50% hatch rate for receiving them in the winter and them being our first batch - but that was a lot for the first 4 hours.
Questions:
Is 20 square feet enough room for 8 Jumbo A&M quail if they don't have a run - or will they feel crowded?
I heard I should use 28% protein chick starter - but the highest we have around here is Dumor 24% - do I need to supplement that? Is Dumor a good brand?
When I raised chickens - I only collected eggs from one part of the house - and let hens brood in the rest. I've heard that A&M quail will not brood their eggs unless they are free range. I'm torn between using a couple of large tubs and pine chip bedding, or building a standing two compartment brooder with radiant foam walls and wire mesh floors. I would build it to have slide in trays underneath (I often build rabbit hutches this way). The advantage to the tubs is that they accommodate small broods, the disadvantage is that they need separate heaters. What are your preferences - tub or standing? Wire bottom or litter?
Robert and Elizabeth
We've been raising rabbits for years, building our own hutches and custom building for other people. We have an older hutch that is really nice - but doesn't incorporate the things we've learned -and it's too heavy to transport/sell - so we're going to convert it to use for A&M quail. It's 8 foot long by 2 1/2 feet front to back, and 7 foot tall. It has two mail levels with angled sheet metal between them so waste doesn't land on the heads of the ones below. Each level can be split into separate compartments by closing a door, and each compartment has it's own door. The top compartments are about 40 inches tall - with shelves that the rabbits like to lay on, and large enclosed dens in the back with yet another door to them. I thought I could either build ramps for the quail - or even split the upper level into two separate levels using wire or wood.
I'm looking at keeping about 6 hens, and a couple of roosters as stock - while incubating 10 to 20 eggs a week. We have a few pvc pens with plastic garden mesh sides that we use to put the bunnies out into the grass - and have made some good yard tractors (sold them all recently though). I don't know if I want to do a tractor for the quail - I just tire of having to move them around.I figure I should keep each hatch separate from the others - so I may do fewer hatches to suit the number of cages I have.
We already took a leap of faith and bought 100 eggs (received 105). I have a hovabator which I used mostly for lizard eggs - but the turner still works - and I had the smaller quail trays. I couldn't fit the larger eggs with 6 trays (the eggs bumped the trays). So I moved it out to 5 trays and we had 6 eggs for breakfast. Luckily, I don't plan on doing this many eggs at once again - because some of our jumbo eggs bump each other when you do two rows - and we had 6 fall out with the first rotation. Two were crushed - I don't know about the other four. I was guestimating about a 50% hatch rate for receiving them in the winter and them being our first batch - but that was a lot for the first 4 hours.
Questions:
Is 20 square feet enough room for 8 Jumbo A&M quail if they don't have a run - or will they feel crowded?
I heard I should use 28% protein chick starter - but the highest we have around here is Dumor 24% - do I need to supplement that? Is Dumor a good brand?
When I raised chickens - I only collected eggs from one part of the house - and let hens brood in the rest. I've heard that A&M quail will not brood their eggs unless they are free range. I'm torn between using a couple of large tubs and pine chip bedding, or building a standing two compartment brooder with radiant foam walls and wire mesh floors. I would build it to have slide in trays underneath (I often build rabbit hutches this way). The advantage to the tubs is that they accommodate small broods, the disadvantage is that they need separate heaters. What are your preferences - tub or standing? Wire bottom or litter?
Robert and Elizabeth
We're so happy you've decided to join us
