Quail Coop and Aviary Questions

[KTsHens]

do you have a full photo of your birds housing? do you run hot wire on the outside for raccoons? what wire size is that? and how long does the wood last until it rots or do you live in a dry area?

I’ve been moving it to high ground when it rains. Here is a picture of the inside housing. I have a hot wire around the inside of the fence around my back yard, as well as a dog that roams free. He does occasionally chase my chickens, but doesn’t kill any. I just started getting eggs this week. They are all blue or blue with speckles.

 

[KTsHens]

do you have a full photo of your birds housing? do you run hot wire on the outside for raccoons? what wire size is that? and how long does the wood last until it rots or do you live in a dry area?

I’ve been moving it to high ground when it rains. Here is a picture of the inside housing. I have a hot wire around the inside of the fence around my back yard, as well as a dog that roams free. He does occasionally chase my chickens, but doesn’t kill any. I just started getting eggs this week. They are all blue or blue with speckles.

Here’s my dog, he just likes to look at them, he hasn’t ever tried to get in. I think he is having too much fun patrolling the yard. He keeps any predators out of the yard. It’s funny because he’s a bird dog. He does really like to chase after my white silkie rooster sometimes though, he’s pretty smart and will sometimes help me round the chicken up back into the coop. He did retrieve a few chickens when we first got them but didn’t hurt any. He doesn’t do that anymore though. I don’t plan on ever free ranging the quail though. They would just fly away.

 

[brunsonquail]

My wife and I are talking about getting quail, most likely regular size Coturnix. I've been doing research on coops with an aviary. It seems like I am either confusing the 2 or people don't usually have a coop with an aviary. Can anyone help with coop height and size and aviary height and size. I know they require different food than chickens, what would be a good diet? We will probably be getting 2 males and 5 females. We already have chickens. I built the coop (8'x16')and run (about 1200sq ft)we have and will be building 3 chicken tractors in the next couple of weeks, so adding quail doesn't seem like a big deal. Any help would be appreciated.

Hello... I just finished a quail aviary. It's 6ft tall to give them plenty of room to flush when spooked. It's also 56 square feet (ground sq footage) which gives them plenty of room to roam and do their thing. I have a pair of valley quail and a pair of bobwhite right now. I don't plan on getting a whole bunch and make it crowded. I might add another pair next spring. I put in a solid layer of mulch, garden soil, saw dust and alfalfa (hay) so they can dig around. I mixed in a handful of sunflower seeds so they can eat the sprouts when they come up. I added two good sized logs so they can hide, a couple of perches and a wicker basket tipped on its side so they have a place to cuddle up in bad weather. I'm also going to add a sandbox for them to dust themselves. It's been fun since I put this all together. I toss in a few raspberries from the garden from time to time and they quickly eat them. I feed them poultry mash. They need a protein content of at least 24%. The mash has right around 25-26%.

 

[CliftonQuail]

Hello... I just finished a quail aviary. It's 6ft tall to give them plenty of room to flush when spooked. It's also 56 square feet (ground sq footage) which gives them plenty of room to roam and do their thing. I have a pair of valley quail and a pair of bobwhite right now. I don't plan on getting a whole bunch and make it crowded. I might add another pair next spring. I put in a solid layer of mulch, garden soil, saw dust and alfalfa (hay) so they can dig around. I mixed in a handful of sunflower seeds so they can eat the sprouts when they come up. I added two good sized logs so they can hide, a couple of perches and a wicker basket tipped on its side so they have a place to cuddle up in bad weather. I'm also going to add a sandbox for them to dust themselves. It's been fun since I put this all together. I toss in a few raspberries from the garden from time to time and they quickly eat them. I feed them poultry mash. They need a protein content of at least 24%. The mash has right around 25-26%.

In another post, you indicated that the dimensions of your aviary are 8 x 5. If that's correct, your ground square footage can't be more than 40 and that number is reduced by the logs, wicker baskets and anything else on the ground such as feeders or waterers. It would have to be closer to 8 x 8 to have 56 square feet available.