Prefab options?

[dagnabbit]

My father in law plans to start keeping chickens this spring, and yesterday he called me super excited about finding a jumbo quail breeder near us. So now he wants a covey for company too. (He's so cute, I love him!)

He isn't interested in having to build anything from scratch this year, so I was hoping to help him find a prefab option or multiple items that could be cobbled together. I plan to help him reinforce and predator proof whatever he gets, but I wouldn't be able to build for him.

Does anyone have good experience with a prefab when just starting out, or is it just not worth getting into until we have the time and money to invest in custom builds? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! I've seen some of the prefab coops at home Depot and TSC, they're really flimsy. If you can modify a used shed or depending on your climate a pig pen panel ( hoop coop) would be an option as well.

 

[dagnabbit]

We're in central Oklahoma, so we get harsh summers and harsh winters as well as high winds. I'll do some research on hoop coops. Thanks!

 

[Whiskybear]

I tried a prefab hutch first. Didn’t last a year outside (which is kinda where it ought to be expected to be used, eh?). Had to tack pieces of shim across joints to stabilize it enough to carry it where it belonged after putting it together. Unless you’re looking for something very temporary, don’t waste your time.

 

[dagnabbit]

I thought that would probably be the case, but it was worth checking. I'll tell him we should wait until we can build something nice.

 

[Kiki]

My father in law plans to start keeping chickens this spring, and yesterday he called me super excited about finding a jumbo quail breeder near us. So now he wants a covey for company too. (He's so cute, I love him!)

He isn't interested in having to build anything from scratch this year, so I was hoping to help him find a prefab option or multiple items that could be cobbled together. I plan to help him reinforce and predator proof whatever he gets, but I wouldn't be able to build for him.

Does anyone have good experience with a prefab when just starting out, or is it just not worth getting into until we have the time and money to invest in custom builds? Thanks in advance for any advice!

I use rabbit cages like these...they work perfectly if wrapped with hardware cloth.
My cages are not this exact model but similar.

One of my cages:

 

[dagnabbit]

I use rabbit cages like these...they work perfectly if wrapped with hardware cloth.
My cages are not this exact model but similar.
View attachment 3397360

One of my cages:

Thanks for the advice! I'll check out some rabbit cages.

And EXTRA thank you for the video! What sweet little guys

 

[DonyaQuick]

Does anyone have good experience with a prefab when just starting out, or is it just not worth getting into until we have the time and money to invest in custom builds?

I don't have quail so maybe the prefabs aimed more at those are worse; I don't know enough about quail to know. I started with a pine prefab for my chickens though. I painted it to help protect the wood and am going through my 2nd winter with it right now and it's just fine. It has some features I would have changed for convenience if I was doing a custom build, but it works as-is. The biggest problems are that the pull-out tray doesn't really pull out (mostly my fault; I painted the places where it slides in and that was the last time it slid out lol) and the original coop-to-run door jammed on me so I had to mod it pretty fast to be hinged instead of sliding. Replaced it with an auto door later anyway. At some point down the line I will have to replace the bottom boards that are in contact with the ground because they aren't pressure treated and I didn't lift it up on bricks or anything to keep those boards away from water (didn't know I needed to at the time). However, it certainly didn't just fall apart right away and isn't falling apart right now. Climate will make a difference with that, but I'm in a really wet place and I would normally think that's worse for degrading things quickly. I also built it in place where I wanted it; has never needed to be moved. It would need to be disassembled to a degree to be moved safely. I am eventually going to mod an old shed on my property and move my main flock to that, but I will be keeping my original prefab in use, just with a different set of birds.

 

[Kiki]

I've built a few ghetto quail cages from scratch. Never again. The rabbit cages are perfect for me.

 

[QuailQueen3]

My father in law plans to start keeping chickens this spring, and yesterday he called me super excited about finding a jumbo quail breeder near us. So now he wants a covey for company too. (He's so cute, I love him!)

He isn't interested in having to build anything from scratch this year, so I was hoping to help him find a prefab option or multiple items that could be cobbled together. I plan to help him reinforce and predator proof whatever he gets, but I wouldn't be able to build for him.

Does anyone have good experience with a prefab when just starting out, or is it just not worth getting into until we have the time and money to invest in custom builds? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Dale’s quails for brooders and Wynola Ranch for teenagers and adult quail.