Quail tractors?

[95yj]

sorry, i moved the pics since last time i posted. As for predators, i only have to worry about that at night, so i built a part that they can be locked up in at night. Thats the only part on wire. I'm not too worried about worms and i think the benefits of grass outweigh the risks, so I'm just gonna worm them and hope for the best.

If you are really worried about worms you could try making a 2x4 base, covering the entire thing in wire and letting your grass grow out a little.

 

[Wifezilla]

If you are really worried about worms you could try making a 2x4 base, covering the entire thing in wire and letting your grass grow out a little.

I saw someone who did that in part of her run so the chickens could graze on the tops of the grass but couldn't scratch up the ground and kill it.​

 

[pringle]

Thats a pretty neat idea,I plan on making a nice lttle house for them to fit about 12 then im going to attach it to a little covered run its going to be basically a tractor but ill make sure to put them in the small coop part at night with a door and alock.

 

[Olive Hill]

We're just starting quail this year after a number of years with Chickens and some dabbling in Turkeys and Ducks and ours will be "pastured" in tractors. Like wifezilla, I just can't find any logic in the thought that it is unacceptable to raise chickens in battery-type cages but that for quail this is a perfectly fine existence. Both my morals and my tastebuds prefer pastured and/or free-range eggs and meat. As such there are risks I am willing to take to raise the birds "right" (my personal "right", of course, anyone else will have their own definition)

I've been playing around with different designs over the past couple weeks at first my plan was to have convertible tractors that would be down all day but put up, raised on HW cloth platforms at night, but I think we've about settled on a plan tonight and it will be open bottomed with a hut/shelter that can be locked at night.

Honestly, I've been raising pastured/ground poultry for years without commercial wormers and medications without any problems. *knock on wood* I really believe proper management of your ground can go a long way towards maintaining health and sanitation in any species.

 

[95yj]

Quail aren't like normal poultry, they are much more susceptable (sp?) to worms and parasites. Whereas a chicken may have no issues and pick up nothing from pasturing on an area a quail may pickup a gut load of worms. But please by all means do not let this deter you, i'd much rather see birds on the ground than up in cages.

 

[pringle]

sheesh I started this thread a while ago lol.Well ive decided to keep my laying flock in 2 large modified doghouses,but with a type of covered run so they have space to run and eat grass.My breeders will be in tractors moved around the yard,and my meat quail will be in cages but grass can slip through the wire so they can eat it.

 

[cayuga26]

I think the thing to keep in mind here is that yes quail (game birds) are more susceptible to worms etc, but if you are tractoring them you will be moving them to fresh ground every day or couple of days and thus lessening the level of parasites they pick up (they will still get worms etc but far less than if they were kept on the same patch of ground all year long, I think that is something that is not even good for chickens to be honest just they “can” take it)

I have not raised quail yet but have thought about it and figure that having a summer tractor system and a separate raised winter enclosure would help break a lot of parasite cycles in the birds and allow them to forage (I would imagine that the green food would help deter aggression between individuals since they would have something to do picking at the green stuff).

I thought about it and since predators are a major risk I think it might be a good idea to still have a wire floor on the cage but that would allow the grass to poke though the bottom and still allow them to eat, and would make moving them much simpler as they would not be able to slip out under a bottomless tractor (plus it would help deter predators from slipping in) I figure hardwear cloth (perhaps the plastic coated stuff) would work well for this.