Quail how to do it right

[polk county]

It doesnt matter how much research I do real world experience from real people here is the final word. That being said, what is the best way to raise coturnix quail in a battery? I want to raise them for meat.

I want to build a stack type battery that looks like this

Im going to make hardware cloth rectangles with trays to catch droppings. Here are my questions

1) How many quail per square foot?
2) What sex ratio should I house them at?
3) How much heat can they endure?
4) How tall does the roof of the battery cage have to be?

Any other general advice is greatly appreciated

 

[aprophet]

The picture you are showing look like GQF pens if they are, they are 30" wide making each section 10" they are 10" tall in the front and I think 8" tall in the back so they will roll out the eggs , they are 24" deep. the racks I built I built from 3/4" pvc pipe and a slew of tees. I salvaged quiet a bit of sheet metal a coupla years back is what I used for poop trays. to support the poop trays I used galvanized screw eyes 1/4"X 4" turned so the eye part is to the inside of the rack . I will try to get a piccy up of it soon

 

[Doc Henry]

I built my battery out of wood with sheet metal in between cages the cages are 24"x24" and 10" tall they hold 5 hens and 1 roo with no problems you can put more in but they pick at each other and its not pretty. The nicest thing is that my cages slide out so you can use them as transport cages also and you can remove them to clean I will also try to get pics up but no promises i'm not too tech savvy.

 

[saddina]

1) How many quail per square foot?

1 per sqft

2) What sex ratio should I house them at?

Harems of 5 hens to 1 roo work well here

3) How much heat can they endure?

I'm in a desert, kept with cooler water and with shade mine ride out 112 in August

4) How tall does the roof of the battery cage have to be?

10-12 inches is plenty.

At the top of the quail forum is a sticky "notable topics" inside is a cage thread and a how-to that covers 99% of everything.

 

[macnugget]

Quote:
Put some pictures up if you get a chance

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
Put some pictures up if you get a chance





you could put another nut on the inside to make it adjustable oh the latest additions 3 day old bob chicks

 

[macnugget]

Thanks for the idea I was able to make a nice rack. I had my other ones made out of wood. I like this setup bettter
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg19/macnuggetcoop/IMG00067-20100511-0044.jpg
Quote:
Put some pictures up if you get a chance

[URL]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/aprophet/th_106_0115.jpg[/URL]

[URL]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/aprophet/th_106_0113.jpg[/URL]

you could put another nut on the inside to make it adjustable oh the latest additions 3 day old bob chicks

[URL]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/aprophet/th_mail.jpg[/URL]