New to quailling .....

[quailling101]

Hello,
I love eating quail eggs so I decided to keep some quails for eggs. I am new to this but I am learning a ton from everyone here. I bought 3 quails a month ago from someone close to my town and the first night some animals attacked them and I lost 2 females. Their heads were pulled from the cage and were eaten. That was the moment I realized how vulnerable they are to predators. I have since bought 3 more females. I am building a bigger place from them and I have also hatched 9 baby quails from the eggs I bought. They are 2 weeks old now and I keep them inside a 50 gallon tank with sand in the bottom. I use a human heating pad to keep them warm and an old fashion night light to keep the tank a little bit light up.
I am converting a cold frame into a quail house. It has a corrugated roof which can be opened up. I tried to keep the cost down and so far I think I have spent less than $30 and I have been using extra materials I can find from other projects. I am covering ALL openings, cracks and the bottom with 1/2 inch hardware fabric. I will upload a picture if I know how. Anyway, it is a small coop about 3 ft x 4 ft. It is raised about 1 foot and I put wheels so I can move it around to different spots. The question I have is the only place where I think is too big are the holes where the corrugated roof meets the wood frame. Do I have to worry about those little spaces? I do not want any animal to get in and hurt the quails. Please advise me.
I also want to do deep litter. But can I do it on the wire bottom? I am thinking I can put down some card boards and then put wood shavings on top. Is that ok?
Anyway, I am so excited to have some quails and am getting 2 to 3 eggs a day.
Thank you everyone.

 

[purslanegarden]

Consider the kinds of predators you have in your area and try to protect them from that. Because your birds were killed already in the first night that they were there, I imagine your area has a high density of predators, or also your initial cage protection was not very good.

If you have any predators that dig, putting them in a cold frame that just sits on top of the ground won't protect them very well. Also as you open it up to give them food or water, or just air out the container, they could fly out and you'll lose them or have a hard time catching them.

You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to make a relatively safe coop for them, and certainly can re-use items you have already, but you won't want to find out that you goal of keeping things inexpensive led to several of them dying either.

 

[quailling101]

Thank you for your support. I have put 3 layers of protections to the bottom:1 layer of 1/2 inch hw fabric, one layer of chicken wire and the chicken wire is mounted on some vinyl coated shelving units. I also added wheels so I can move it and not killing the grass underneath.
I put hindges on one side of the top and lifted the other end to make a slanted roof with 3 open sides. I created one big opening to the front and 2 smaller openings to each side. This way I don't have to open the top to tend to the quails. Underneath the roof, I installed a false ceiling with plastic chicken wire to prevent them from bonking their heads or to fly out if I open the top. The false ceiling is removable.All openings are covered with 1/2 inch hw cloth on vinyl shelveing which I cut to match the size and locked with carabiners. I hope they would be safe. The only area I am worried are the little gaps between the corrugated roof and the wood frame. Do I need to cover those cracks too?
Anyway, thank you for your answer.

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[purslanegarden]

I would find a way to cover those exposed areas that you mentioned, also.