Paneubert's Quail Aviary Adventure

[Binki]

New idea/project forming in my head due to the (hopeful) hatching of some new colors.... Hutches within hutches within hutches within aviaries. Haha. If I get anything cool looking, I need a way to selectively breed. Why not build within my existing aviary? The boring guys can live on the ground while the cool kids get the penthouse apartments. This location actually makes any building job easier since the aviary is already secure from predators and dry (if you ignore my rat problems...). This is a really old photo, but everything is still generally where you see it. If I go with this plan, I will move the dog house and dismantle their dust bath. That way I can spread lots of sand and PDZ under there for easy cleaning. It is right against our house, so also the driest part of the aviary. Probably don't even need a solid roof....could go wire on all sides with a simple wooden frame.

I see where you're going with this Good idea! I would do a few sides closed for a wind break?

Hmm if you moved the dog house aside or even left it under the "pen house", you could raise the dog house a foot or so and have that raised area as shelter for the ground quail and gain the space underneath of it, and also could make the dog house as another little "pen house" since you would be replacing the shelter it provides the ground quail by raising it ?

 

[JurassicBawk]

I dont have a giant aviary, but I have a fenced off area inside my fenced backyard for the quail area. I really like the large rabbit hutch I have for my egglayers, but couldnt find another one like it. Since I had 11 girls in it and they are grown and crowded now, I improvised and created an area under it by penning around the legs. With an added sunblock (the cedar bottom tray for the hutch) they're all set because the upper hutch provides shelter and the outer chainlink fence keeps out the dogs, and the dogs keep out any little predators. Now they are comfortable with 6 up top and 5 down below. If you are considering making a raised pen, you could potentially do the same. Now, I put mine on trays of shavings instead of wire, so that might make a difference, but just an idea.

 

[paneubert]

Ignore the wonky legs......long story involving crushing a quail with a 2 by 6......

This is what I built today. Need to put some finishing touches on it, but this is about 95% complete. Will add a removable partition about halfway down the inside so I can use this for 2 groups of birds.

Dimensions are around 64 inches long, about 16 inches deep and 16 inches high. Two roof doors that each cover approximately 32 inches each. I was working with a 4 foot wide roll of wire. So the 16 by 16 by 16 front/bottom/back made it so I could cut one 64+ inch section of wire and then wrap it from the top front, down around the bottom, and back up the rear. Then I just needed to cut small 16 by 16 sections for the two sides. Then 2 frame and 2 wire sections for the roof doors.

The legs.....yeah. I was dumb and thought I could mount the legs when this was already in place in the aviary. Just sort of prop it up there and secure it. Yeah....no. Not with one person....I no joke crushed a bird with one of the 2 by 6 legs when it fell out from under the hutch. That sucked... Punt kicked another bird that got under my feet when I was not looking. That bird was fine. So anyway, got frustrated with the uneven sandy and "mulchy/wood chippy" floor and ended up dragging this back out of the aviary so I could lay it on its side and try to attach legs in the yard. That worked.....until I wanted to bring it back in the aviary. See the problem is I have a small wire wall that spans my doorway so the quail don't walk out. That little wall, combined with the narrow doorway and my becoming tired meant I could not easily get the new hutch up and over. I ended up with some wonky legs by the end of the day. It is all secure, it just looks weird. I do not know if it will bother me enough to go fix it. Probably not. But now that I look at the photos, I think what I might do is screw in some 2 by 4 legs to the front corners and back corners, 90 degrees to the current legs, then remove the dumb 2 by 6 legs that are all wonky. Or at least do that, then unscrew and re-screw the 2 by 6 legs so they aren't at weird angles. We will see. This really is a great example of letting being tired get to you (and being pissed you squished a quail with a 2 by 6).

 

[paneubert]

I see where you're going with this Good idea! I would do a few sides closed for a wind break?

I did not close in any sides yet, but I plan to fashion some sort of tarp or thick plastic sheeting that I can hang on the top or sides if needed during the winter or cold seasons Probably will make it removable and reusable. Maybe put some hooks on the edges so I can fasten and unfasten it. Or velcro....or something. With the orientation of the aviary, I really only think it would be needed on the far left side and possibly the top left roof. But then if I divide this hutch in two, then I probably need to cover part of the right side as well. We will see! At the very least I will make some little houses for them to shelter in. I have a couple of these that could work. It is open on one side and closed/a little staircase on the other. Made for rabbits or guinea pig I guess.

In other news, I moved the babies out to this new hutch last night. Someone local is planning to come get them from me sometime this week, but I am not sure when they will do so. Normally I would have kept them in the brooder until they were picked up, but I discovered that even at two weeks old, they were already starting to escape my brooder and wandering around the garage. Since the top of this new hutch is wire, I was able to just rest the ceramic IR bulb/heater from the brooder on the top for some heat in case they needed it. They did cluster under it to sleep, but all was well when I went to check on them this morning. They had all made it, even the tiny runt of the litter.

 

[paneubert]

You could raise the dog house a foot or so and have that raised area as shelter for the ground quail and gain the space underneath of it, and also could make the dog house as another little "pen house" since you would be replacing the shelter it provides the ground quail by raising it ?

Hmm.....now I am thinking about this....I might make that a new project. I would most likely just put some 4 by 4 post legs under the doghouse to raise it up about a foot as you suggested. Maybe add a little ramp for them to get in the house. When I had the doghouse parallel to the human house, they used the gap between the doghouse and human house for shelter sometimes. Now that I moved it away from the human house, there is no longer a benefit to keeping it on the ground. Hmmm....

 

[paneubert]

First iteration of the "super non-leveled doghouse on stilts". I had a bunch of cinderblocks laying around. I think I might still go with a wood stilt frame instead of the blocks. But maybe I will leave this for a while and see how it goes. I have this pulled away from the corner of the aviary because that corner is where I have all the rain water directed from the "roof" of the entire aviary. It all drains to that one corner. I don't want the doghouse to be directly hit with the stream of water, so I am hoping I pulled it back from the exterior wall enough so that the water will flow between the doghouse and the exterior wall of the aviary. We will see.

I still need to make a ramp for them so they can get up there. You might notice a big blob under the house. That is the giant boulder that I built the aviary around. I thought I might be able to pull it out, but no. It is massive. So the most I have managed to do over the life of the aviary is somewhat roll/scoot it around. Since it will always take up room, I put the doghouse over it. Also something you might notice is that this is two blocks high, but you can only see one block in some spots. That goes to show how deep the litter/chips are on the floor of the aviary.

Bonus shots of the quail enjoying a pile of nasturtium that was covered in aphids.

 

[paneubert]

Yeah, I am going to make a wood stilt frame for the house. The cinderblocks are weird. Haha. Or now I am thinking about ditching the doghouse completely and instead building them a little lean-to house so they can nestle in to the mulch but have a wind break. I have a ton of scrap wood and asphalt shingles. Would make getting it to fit into the overall aviary much easier. We will see!

 

[Binki]

Sorry to hear about the quail accident :/

I think it's cool and gives lots of places to break the quails' line of sight, making the enclosure appear larger to them with different areas and if need be, they can run away from any bullying and hide around there !

We are considering deep litter for our chicken coop run, is it warm in the winter?

 

[paneubert]

We are considering deep litter for our chicken coop run, is it warm in the winter?

The overall weather where I am, or the deep litter itself? The litter is warm right now due to the natural decomposition that is going on (it is a fairly fresh pile I was pulling from), but it will mellow out as it dries out. But then when the rains hit, it should warm back up as the bacteria go back to work. It is also has a range of particle sizes, so there is much more air in it, and much better drainage. All that makes it warmer overall since air is a good insulator. The most recent photos show a fresh wheelbarrow loads worth that I spread right before taking the photos. The prior loads showed me that the quail really do like to dig down. They tend to make depressions/nests in it that are about their own size/height. Like a quail sized hole in the ground. It is clear they are not trying to dust bathe since this stuff is not dusty at all. So they must be doing it for other reasons. I often find eggs in those holes.

For all the holes and scratching the quail do, I know chickens would do 1,000% more. So I would think it would be great for chickens. They would keep it fluffed up and aerated and I am sure it would allow them to keep warmer in the cold temperatures if they nestle down in it.

The overall weather for us does not get that cold. We are 8a or 8b for the USDA zones. Gets into the teens occasionally, but not often. The quail were fine last winter. Their water would freeze, but no big deal. You are on Ontario....so....yeah. Colder. Haha.

 

[paneubert]

Out with the dog house (for now), in with the new 3 sided wind shelter. Photo of the sides and back. 24 inches wide, 16 inches tall at the back, 19 tall at the front (to create a slope for the roof). 16 inches deep.

Roof has some 2 by 2's screwed to the bottom to stop it from shifting around when mounted.

I glued some sheets of roofing asphalt to it and gave a generous overhang so the rain should stay away from the walls.

Instead of putting this over the giant boulder like I had done with the dog house on stilts, I dug the boulder as much as I could and strong-armed it towards the corner of the aviary the best I could. Man that thing is heavy.... Put the new shelter right up against the boulder to save as much space as I can. I have the open side of this shelter facing my human house, so this should hopefully provide a nice wind and sun break for them.

It ended up "taller" than I wanted, but I have not yet sunk it down into the mulch. It is sitting on probably 6-8 inches of mulch. Haha. So after the roof glue dries, I am going to dig out the edges and sink it down a bit. I am sure the quail will sink it in as well.