Paneubert's Quail Aviary Adventure

[coturnix condos]

Accomplishment for today was getting the webcam mounted in a more permanent place, and trying out some treats. The quail seem to have no interest in any treats so far. Hahaha. I tried celery, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, whole strawberries, and little broccoli heads. They looked at them like I was crazy. Then later in the afternoon I tried some stale tortilla chips, and some popcorn. They sort of pecked a little at the popcorn. What they DID love was the grass clippings that I tossed in there. They burrowed right in. You can see their grass pile in the webcam shot below (and also see the new angle of the webcam).

try metalwork or just dig a big scoop of dirt from a damp area or your compost pile and watch them tare into it to get the worms and bugs

 

[paneubert]

try metalwork

They can eat metal?!?! Hahaha. I know you meant meal worms. I have some on order!

 

[paneubert]

These guys really do dig around. I had sprinkled sand from a full 80 pound bag on top of the soil/mulch before I put the birds in. Then on.....Saturday?.... I dumped the remainder of the 80 pound bag around in there since the "sprinkle" had already been worked in to the dirt. Now it is back to looking like I never put sand in there to begin with. I have another 80 pound bag that I think I am going to lay down some night this week. Keep doing that until I reach a consistency that I like. Something between sandy and "dirty".

 

[paneubert]

Found another empty feeder when I got home from work tonight. So I am now trying two feeders overnight to see if I can figure out a happy middle ground. Sucks because now I will need to go grab one or both from the coop before refilling in the morning. I have my feed bucket in the garage so it maintains a good temperature for fermenting. I used to be able to just always have a clean/empty one in the garage, but now both are in use at the same time. Maybe I will drag my bucket out to the coop each morning or something....

 

[deshet]

Are you going to just pick the eggs up off the ground.

Are you going to add a deep substrate? I think you are going to need to add a floor covering very soon unless you want a smelly deck. They are small but the poop adds up quickly and the urine is very acidic.

I am deciding if I will go with hanging cages or something similar but giving them the base of my raised garden. I just keep thinking about hidden eggs and stepping on eggs.

In my area snakes are a concern if they are on the ground.

The workmanship looks good.

 

[coturnix condos]

They can eat metal?!?!  Hahaha.  I know you meant meal worms.  I have some on order!

haha I'm a welder so I get a lot of auto correct words like that. Yeah mealwormd

 

[paneubert]

Are you going to just pick the eggs up off the ground.

Are you going to add a deep substrate? I think you are going to need to add a floor covering very soon unless you want a smelly deck. They are small but the poop adds up quickly and the urine is very acidic.

I am deciding if I will go with hanging cages or something similar but giving them the base of my raised garden. I just keep thinking about hidden eggs and stepping on eggs.

In my area snakes are a concern if they are on the ground.

The workmanship looks good.

Not worried about snakes. It is all half inch square cloth. I had a hell of a time even opening up a spot for me to snake in an extension cord for the webcam. Hahaha. I really predator proofed it when I was building.

No plan for deep litter. I am going to keep up with the fermented feed and also just keep up with cleaning and adding sand. So far it is working out just fine. Folks say that fermented feed reduces the smell a lot. I can't say from experience yet, but so far it doesn't stink that much. The pavers that their food and water sits on are pretty poopy already since they sit on there a lot, but I think they should be easy to clean. Time will tell! Deep litter is sort of an all or nothing type of adventure. I am not going to try it unless I really need to. Also have to keep in mind that the coop is not 100% rain proof. Deep litter combined with rain seems to be more of a disaster than keeping things thin.

As for egg collection, yeah, pretty much planning to have an egg hunt! Hoping to not step on any. I have been pretty good at looking where I am walking so far. Hope my luck holds when they start laying.

But I am still learning and experimenting.

 

[paneubert]

I read up on "Sweet PDZ" and I think I am going to give that a shot. I am going to mix it about half and half with a couple more bags of sand and then let the quail work it into the soil. I am not dealing with a horrible smell yet, but I want to avoid any issues in the future before they become issues. Since the quail enjoyed their bucket-o grass, I think next time I mow, I am going to mow a large bag for them instead of just mulching my grass back onto the lawn while mowing. If I keep adding more organics to the ground, I think this will help with any smells.

 

[paneubert]

Quote:
My phone changes the word "cool" to "coop".....

 

[jennifleur]

Was looking up zeolite and found this web site. Has more uses than I was aware of.

http://midwestzeolite.com/index.html


And they are having a spring sale...ugh, look at those shipping costs though.