Newbie quail question (best cage? where to buy?)

[dimi]

Hi, all,

I am a quail keeper wannabe. I think read enough about the subject and I think I am ready to roll.

1. Any good resources on do-it-yourself cages for 10-20 Pharaoh quail? (I am planning to keep them in my garage - definitely going to have ventilation)

2. Buying quail. I live in NJ. Where can I find some Pharaoh quail (I heard they are meaties and lay most eggs) preferably not via shipping. If you shipped yours - what's the success survival rate and where did you buy from?

Thanks!

Dimi

 

[jaredmalcolm]

If you aren't opposed to it I'd start from eggs and just get an incubator. Long term you'd need this anyway since egg production decreases as they age. If you do go this route you can get eggs from a vast amount of suppliers. Also, with the quantity you are wanting I think you are going to have a hard time finding a supplier that will ship them. Generally you will see a minimum order of 50 to ship (just what I have seen).

If you go the incubator route I've had decent luck with eBay eggs and you can get just about any variety of quail you want from there.

 

[odave]

Do it yourself... I certainly did that... today I converted my son's CRIB to a quail coop... I have to admit I am pretty proud!

 

[dimi]

hm. yeah. I found eggs here as well http://jamesmariefarms.com/purchasing-pricing.html
Any reliable (and relatively cheap) incubators you can recommend? or DYI?

Thanks!

 

[dimi]

Thanks sounds awesome, odave! Have any pictures to share?

 

[jaredmalcolm]

Homemade Incubator Pictures and Parts...

Parts List...

• The "incubator" is just a cooler/ice chest of your choosing. I first built an analog incubator and used one of the super cheap ($3) foam coolers. I would personally not recommend this simply because the weight of the "guts" weighed more than the cooler so I had to be incredibly careful that I didn't tip it.
• The thermostat...the one I'm linking runs off of AC. They also have DC options if you want to run it off the same power supply as your fans.
• The 12v power supply...I picked up a 2A power supply so that I didn't have to worry about power constraints. You don't have to worry about over powering the items it runs...it'll just produce unused power.
• The fans... I used 80mm computer case fans. You can use other sizes, but these seem to be what fit good in this size of a cooler.
• Extension cord. Just get a cheap 2 wire one.
• Wire nuts. Just get a variety pack if you don't already have some.
• Plastic wire clips... I'm including a picture since this 'might' have a different name if you go to a hardware store and ask for this. These are used to keep the wires tidy. I also used them to tie a wire to in order to retain the power supply.
  
• Two light sockets. I used the replacement sockets for a lamp. I chose these since they have a slight lift from the surface via the mounting bracket that they use.
  

Pictures...
Outside of the incubator.
Window and vents on the left... Thermostat on the right.


The "guts"
You can see the light bulbs that provide the heat (I used 60watt)
The 12v power supply is behind the lower light and is used to run the fans.
The fans help to circulate the heat



The insides...
Normally the towel isn't there, but I add during the hatch so the chicks have some grip.
In the bottom right you can see one of the holes that I drilled for ventilation. There is one
in each corner and then two on the front.

Also, during the incubation in the middle of the incubator I add a box and then rather than
rotating the individual eggs I just rotate the tray. My trays sat at roughly a 45°. Lastly,
During incubation I only used one of the small Tupperware containers which gave me a 45-50%~
humidity and then adding the second gives me 65% for the lock-down.




Directions...
I'm going to list the steps I took, but the order isn't incredibly important. The reason the order I have was used was simply to place the parts in a fashion that I could guarantee they would all fit. The wiring diagram is below the directions.

DO NOT connect power to the wall until you are done making all the connections and wire nuts are installed!

1. Cut the lid and mount the thermostat. Due to the thickness of the lid I was unable to use the included mounting brackets, but I cut it tight enough that friction was MORE than enough to securely hold it in place.
2. Mount the light sockets. Using the ones I linked you will need to get a small screwdriver and remove the small metal bracket. If you look inside of the light socket you should see two screws. Be careful when removing and screwing in the screws. The ceramic that these are made from are extremely brittle so be careful so you don't crack the ceramic.
   
   Once the bracket is remove then screw it to the lid and remount the ceramic to the base. The wires will now just come out around the base instead of going through the hole that they originally came through. This is fine and shouldn't cause any issues. To make sure this was the case I simply used the wire clips and secured the wiring right at the base of the bulb.
3. Mount the fans...
   1. I just used the wire fabric that I had on hand, but really anything that can elevate the fan and mount it securely will work.
   2. I aimed them away from the vents that I ended up cutting in the lid. The biggest thing here is that they blow ON TO the bulbs. I mounted mine as close as I could without them touching and without me worrying about the fans melting. This ended up being a couple of inches that they were away from the bulbs. As far as the final mounting of the fans to their base you will need to wait until step five unless you know the direction that the fans will blow when powered.
4. Power cord prep...
   1. Drill a hole for the power cord to go through. I did mine at the back of the lid right by the hinge.
      1. You will want to open and close the lid prior to drilling to make sure that the path you are cutting won't cause the lid to not open/close properly. For me this just meant drilling the hole at a slight angle.
   2. Cut off the end that the power supply plugs into (leave 6-12 inches of wire). Once you have cut off the end run the rest of the extension cord through the lid and into the cooler.
   3. You will be cutting pieces of the power cord off to use for additional wiring as needed unless you have some spare wiring to use for this purpose.
5. Wiring...
   1. Main input connections...
      1. The Black/Hot wire should have four wires connected to it
         1. The Thermostat
         2. The plug-in you cut off during cord prep
         3. A light
         4. A light
      2. The White/Neutral wire should have three wires connected directly to it
         1. The Thermostat
         2. The plug-in you cut off during cord prep
         3. Input into connection one on diagram
         4. The white wires from the light go to connection 2 and is discussed in the next step
   2. The thermostat has three connection points
      1. Power In (left and right edge of thermostat on diagram)
         Simply supply a connection to hot and another to neutral it doesn't matter which is which if I remember correctly...just read the instructions and look for the terminology in the diagram.
      2. Relay (this breaks power to the lights when heat isn't needed)
         This need a source from the neutral wire on one side (connection 1 on the diagram) and then both white wires from the light on the other connection (connection 2 on the diagram).
      3. Thermometer Input (temp input to control the relay) this is connections 3 & 4...doesn't matter which wire goes into which connection.
   3. Once the connections above are made the outlet the power supply will use should be wired. I had one of the standard...one connection on one side and two on the other...type of extension cords so I used glue and glued the side that only had one outlet to the lid.
   4. The Power Supply...
      1. Cut the connection off of the power supply (I left a few inches on the off chance I would ever need to use that connection on the power supply again).
      2. Connect to the fans. Depending on the power supply and fans you may not easily be able to tell polarity (+/-) luckily the fans will only work when connected correctly and shouldn't sustain damage when connected in reverse. So when you make the connections I would test them by plugging straight into the wall. If it works then button it up and plug the power supply into the outlet you glued to the lid of the cooler. If it doesn't reverse the two wires and all should be right in the world.
6. Testing
   1. Once you have ALL the connections in wire nuts and there are no visible wires...plug it in and the thermostat and fans should turn on. If the thermostat lights up this is the time to go through it's manual and set the temperature and make sure it's set to heat and not cooling (if it has this feature).
   2. Once the thermostat is set and the lights and fan are on then shut the lid and let it go through a few cycles. As long as the fans are ALWAYS on and the lights shut on/off then everything is setup correctly!!!
   3. Once the above are confirmed you will want to calibrate the thermostat as it may be off. On mine this was labeled as the Tem. Correction and was displayed as CA on the LED's of the thermostat. To do this you will need to have a known to be correct thermometer. Set the thermometer and the temperature probe in the same location in the incubator. Let the incubator go through SEVERAL cycles so the internal temp can stabilize. Once this is done watch the temp that the incubator turns off at and match it up to the temp on the thermometer. If thermostat temp values are off then adjust the temp correct value until the thermostat and the thermometer line up.

While you are doing the testing make sure to be getting the humidity set to where it needs to be. I initially tried a couple of different Tupperware containers before I found the right combination of sponge and water surface area to get it to where I wanted.

Wiring Diagram
AGAIN DO NOT connect power to the wall until you are done making all the connections and wire nuts are installed!



If you have questions I'm more than happy to attempt to answer them. If it's a question on wiring then....PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES. I don't want to have to try and infer from your post what you have connected where.

 

[dimi]

Thanks a lot for the writeup, Jared, I will try to make this as soon as I find an old cooler/the rest of needed components.

 

[jaredmalcolm]

I forgot to mention. The links that I posted were all for US sellers. If you have the time to spare you can get them from chinese sellers for quite a bit less. The biggest thing is on the temperature controller...they make DC and AC options (which look pretty much EXACTLY alike) so make sure you know what you are buying (I wrote this for AC, but the DC one just gets wired in with the fans...still super simple).

Just FYI, the cooler I used was a $25 combo pack and included a lunch sized one and a water one...so I figure I have $15 or less in the cooler if you take out those two items.