Quail Coop

[Halfpasthen]

Depending on how you like your eggs, we found some pickled egg recipes that were great (Cajun style was loved by all). Also, found that they could be quickly added and cooked under a broiler on top of a pizza - because they are small, they cook pretty quick.

That's funny. I am Cajun myself lol. And pickles quail eggs can be purchased here everywhere from the grocery store to the gas station lol.
I looove the idea of cooking then in pizza! I also think they'd make the cutest salads.

 

[Acre4Me]

I had read this! Like you said, I was going to wait and see. If I do find my little birdies are injuring myself I will figure something out either with padding or lowering the top somehow.

I did read that some people do just use padding. Since its outside, you'll need to think that through so it doesn't disintegrate outside, or provide housing for mice. But, they may hang out primarily under the coop since it is more protected anyway, or the tall part is tall enough to not be a problem.

 

[cottontail farm]

Um, that quail setup is ADORABLE! And the fence! Love it! I will second the poster who mentioned quail laying under the house part, quail are little stinkers who always seem to lay in the one area you can't reach without half crawling in the pen.
That being said, they like cover so the area under the house is perfect for that. Before you go cutting doors anywhere, I have something that I use for getting out of reach eggs that works really well. It looks like an ice cream scoop on a long handle. I think it's actually for throwing tennis balls to dogs but the think is awesome at gently scooping up eggs.
The quail are going to love that house. Have fun!

 

[Halfpasthen]

I did read that some people do just use padding. Since its outside, you'll need to think that through so it doesn't disintegrate outside, or provide housing for mice. But, they may hang out primarily under the coop since it is more protected anyway, or the tall part is tall enough to not be a problem.

Padding...maybe even a screen mesh of some sort can be stapled to form a lower ceiling. I'll definitely keep it in mind and do some research on that.
I have a stack of branches I want to arrange behind the coop and run to help them feel more secure.

 

[Halfpasthen]

Um, that quail setup is ADORABLE! And the fence! Love it! I will second the poster who mentioned quail laying under the house part, quail are little stinkers who always seem to lay in the one area you can't reach without half crawling in the pen.
That being said, they like cover so the area under the house is perfect for that. Before you go cutting doors anywhere, I have something that I use for getting out of reach eggs that works really well. It looks like an ice cream scoop on a long handle. I think it's actually for throwing tennis balls to dogs but the think is awesome at gently scooping up eggs.
The quail are going to love that house. Have fun!

Brilliant! I love this idea! Saves me some trouble and despite having long arms I wouldn't have to get up close and personal lol.

It's a chuck it! I worked at A chain pet store 7 years so I knew exactly what you were talking about. And I literally gave mine away a few months ago

 

[Halfpasthen]

Um, that quail setup is ADORABLE! And the fence! Love it! I will second the poster who mentioned quail laying under the house part, quail are little stinkers who always seem to lay in the one area you can't reach without half crawling in the pen.
That being said, they like cover so the area under the house is perfect for that. Before you go cutting doors anywhere, I have something that I use for getting out of reach eggs that works really well. It looks like an ice cream scoop on a long handle. I think it's actually for throwing tennis balls to dogs but the think is awesome at gently scooping up eggs.
The quail are going to love that house. Have fun!

Also thank you for the compliment! I would like to give a shout out to dollar tree here. Literally all of the decorations including the fence were purchased there!

 

[paneubert]

We had quail for about a year. Raised in our garage, under a window for natural light. The eggs are fun, the birds are sweet. Lay lots and start young.

We found we could not have 2 males in a cage, irregardless of size or number of females. We found 1male to 4-6 females was good. Maybe you’ll have better luck outside.

Quail walk, lay an egg, keep walking... so, they don’t use nests generally. Collecting will be more challenging outside, but the area you have isn’t so big.

@paneubert raised quail outside, might have some suggestions too.

Good luck!

I did quail on the ground outside for a couple years. I started with 21 total. 3 male, 18 female. No fighting. But I had a lot of space. The aviary is about 6 foot by 9 foot. My numbers went up and down over time due to hatching and selling chicks.

Here is my link to my build and adventure: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/paneuberts-quail-aviary-adventure.1094484/

Trying to reply to some of the other comments have seen in this thread so far.

Quail will sometimes use ramps. Here is a photo user "coturnix condos" posted in my build thread.

They have/had a little coop and then a larger run down the ramp.

I had some quail lay eggs together in clutches, while some did not. I did have a couple at least appear to go broody, which is also not common. I know I at least had a couple spots in the aviary that were preferred for egg laying locations. Not nests like chickens, but still I could expect to find eggs in certain spots.

They can flush up and hit their heads. You pretty much either have to have a low ceiling so they cant get enough speed to hurt themselves (which is why people can raise them in small cages with less than a foot ceiling height), or a high ceiling so that they lose speed before they hit (so like mine where it is more than 6 or 7 feet high). Hope that makes sense. That being said, mine did not flush very often and I bet yours will be fine. Even if I was chasing them trying to catch them, they mostly ran, or jumped. Now that was coturnix. When I raised a batch of bobwhites.......I had them above my ceiling panels.....they would pretty much run up the sides of the aviary and get in the ceiling. They can definitely fly. Those were very young birds as well. Same happened with California Valley Quail. Basically any really wild or native quail will be a good flyer, while coturnix are just little fat birds who can't do much.

 

[Halfpasthen]

I did quail on the ground outside for a couple years. I started with 21 total. 3 male, 18 female. No fighting. But I had a lot of space. The aviary is about 6 foot by 9 foot. My numbers went up and down over time due to hatching and selling chicks.

Here is my link to my build and adventure: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/paneuberts-quail-aviary-adventure.1094484/

Trying to reply to some of the other comments have seen in this thread so far.

Quail will sometimes use ramps. Here is a photo user "coturnix condos" posted in my build thread.

They have/had a little coop and then a larger run down the ramp.

I had some quail lay eggs together in clutches, while some did not. I did have a couple at least appear to go broody, which is also not common. I know I at least had a couple spots in the aviary that were preferred for egg laying locations. Not nests like chickens, but still I could expect to find eggs in certain spots.

They can flush up and hit their heads. You pretty much either have to have a low ceiling so they cant get enough speed to hurt themselves (which is why people can raise them in small cages with less than a foot ceiling height), or a high ceiling so that they lose speed before they hit (so like mine where it is more than 6 or 7 feet high). Hope that makes sense. That being said, mine did not flush very often and I bet yours will be fine. Even if I was chasing them trying to catch them, they mostly ran, or jumped. Now that was coturnix. When I raised a batch of bobwhites.......I had them above my ceiling panels.....they would pretty much run up the sides of the aviary and get in the ceiling. They can definitely fly. Those were very young birds as well. Same happened with California Valley Quail. Basically any really wild or native quail will be a good flyer, while coturnix are just little fat birds who can't do much.

Fantastic! Thank you I will red through this!

 

[Halfpasthen]

UPDATE:

Just wanted to thank everyone again for all the wonderful advice I have been given in this thread. I also wanted to give an update for anyone searching for answers to the questions I had.

So, ultimately I ended up with 7 hens and 1 rooster. I think that’s just about right for the size enclosure.

None of my birds have ever injured themselves flushing. Although they do flush on occasion, they very rarely reach the top and they don’t have the momentum to do any damage.

They DO use the ramp and coop part of the enclosure. I almost left this out bc it was a little disturbing but...until I culled all of my excess males the A&M quail would stay in the coop while the browns stayed in the run. It was unsettling that they segregated themselves but I think ultimately the issue was too many males and the white birds seemed to be targets. The females favored and the males despised so they simply stayed in the coop for safety.
This didn’t last long because as soon as that happened I knew it was time to cull males.

Once they ate down the grass it got a tad stinky so I started deep litter. I did not buy anything commercial. I just never rake ever ever so I have tons of leaf litter. It works GREAT. Everyone compliments me and say my quail don’t stink and how strange that is. After heavy rains I add more leaf litter and it’s great. No expense. The quail love to scratch their way through the fresh litter.

They usually lay eggs in small divots they dig in the ground. Usually the same spot(s) but not always by any means. They can be hard to reach so I just keep a chuck-it dog toy to scoop them out as a previous poster suggested.

Despite knowing how to use the ramp and coop...quail are not smart as someone had mentioned. They will go into the coop to avoid another quail but not to avoid torrential rain necessarily. Of which we get a lot. So the one thing that I’ll tweak in my set up is adding a roof to the run itself.

So far they are great layers and sweet little birds. My neighbors all love them. They’re rich eggs make a mean chocolate chip cookie.

In conclusion: I’d say raising quail on the ground in a prefab chicken coop is totally doable with a few modifications. Should I run into any major issues down the road I will provide another update.