Show me your quail pens!!!

[Penny Hen]

latest manifestation homage to steve baer, new mexico, in the 70' s !!.5 sq ft the geometry is exponential and possible with cheap materials up to 15 or 18 ft diameter.

very interesting! Are you selling/providing the instructions?

 

[cotquail]

Yes I sell , instructions if your into it , It is basically a zonehedra , a catalan solid, Steve Baer was into these maths, The specific is a rhombic triacontaedron, 30 rhombus ( diamond shapes, 4 equal sides that make a sphere , this cage uses only 1/3 or ten rhombus. This one uses 4 2by4 8 ft , 10 feet of 36 ich wide 1/2 inch 19 guage hardware cloth, 7 feet of plastic 1/2 square floor material . easy on their feet , a little bit of 1/4 ply and some hardware. Tools compound miter saw , table saw , 1/4 inch crown air stapler , cordless drill an a few screws . Helps if your a carpenter or can use such equip. I sell this one for 175 cad , Makes nice aviaries at 12 foot plus and fairly cheap , breaks down to a neat tidy stack will fit in a compact car . Not overly challenging for a being to fabricate. there is only one length for all sides. If I can help feel free to ask . Paul

 

[streetmutt]

This is my third post and the third time I will post pics of my quail pen already ... I'm just really proud of it! Built from locally harvested and milled cypress, and much of the wire was salvaged from another project. The top pen is the chick pen, which allows for a light. There are six individual pens, so in theory it can house 36 coturnix quail. But I only do about 3-5 per pen right now.



(bottom doors are on it now)



And it appears to be snake- and raccoon-proof. We have had some instances of snakes chilling on it, and raccoons harassing the quail at night, but so far it's held up to the siege of wildlife!

 

[Bruiserdog99]

Thats really neat i recommend though using ire instead of shavings and put an oil pan under them so they dont poop on each other the shavings may cause feet problems but other than that it looks nice

 

[streetmutt]

Thats really neat i recommend though using ire instead of shavings and put an oil pan under them so they dont poop on each other the shavings may cause feet problems but other than that it looks nice

Thanks! We have newspaper under the shavings to keep it from dripping down. We change the shavings out every week. I haven't noticed any issues with the shavings (I read mixed things), but I appreciate the advice

 

[streetmutt]

The Quaility Inn survived another snake attack. This happens almost weekly. Same rat snake. We try to make it a scary/seemingly life threatening experience for him, but the quail are just too tempting. We will relocate him next time.

It is reassuring to not find him inside the pen though.

 

[COsteveo]

Work in progress... 10 minutes to design, 10 hours to build.

Got the sides done today. The middle row is slanted five degrees for an egg roll-out. My local hardware store is out of the large rolls of 1/4" hardware cloth so I'm in a holding pattern for now. I still have to figure out how I'll do the doors but I have a month to sort it out.

Update: I hammered in the crossbeams today. In doing so, I found a design flaw-- I wanted the crossbeams to be flush with the side pieces, but doing that would have meant driving screws through the 2x4s longways. I don't think my drill could handle that, and 6" screws are really expensive, so I got some 2x4 connectors used in fencing and some 1" galvanized nails and went to town with the hammer.

Then I got a little overzealous with the hammer... I put all 2x4 connectors on the frame at the start, which meant I couldn't hammer on the inside where the 2x4s are in close proximity to one another. By the time I realized my mistake I had gone too far, and there was no way I would have been able to pull the nails back out. It's a good thing this basically only has to hold its own weight plus maybe another 40lbs in hardware cloth and other accessories.

I thought I had miscounted on the 2x4s and connectors and scratched my head a bit before remembering that I want to close in the top with plywood.

So far it's a bit rickety but it should do the job. I've decided that, rather than hammer in a hundred hardware cloth nails, I'll just use cable ties. I should be able to pull the hardware cloth extra tight that way. I'll try to get to that part tomorrow.

 

[Quail Jailer]

Not a bad idea pulling wire with cable ties...

Installing with them, well they're sensitive to UV embrittlement, and I know for a fact a squirrel can clip through them faster than you can put them on.

Get on ebay and you can pick up a 1/4" narrow crown stapler for maybe 25 bucks new. On a pen that size you're gonna have 25 bucks worth of cable ties on it.

I never seen a squirrel that can chew through staples.

If you do not have access to an air compressor, I think you can pick up an electric model, but make sure it will shoot a long enough staple.

 

[COsteveo]

Not a bad idea pulling wire with cable ties...

Installing with them, well they're sensitive to UV embrittlement, and I know for a fact a squirrel can clip through them faster than you can put them on.

Get on ebay and you can pick up a 1/4" narrow crown stapler for maybe 25 bucks new. On a pen that size you're gonna have 25 bucks worth of cable ties on it.

I never seen a squirrel that can chew through staples.

If you do not have access to an air compressor, I think you can pick up an electric model, but make sure it will shoot a long enough staple.

The plan is to keep the pen in the garage, but if I end up moving it outside I'll be sure to staple it before doing so. Thanks for the input.

 

[Quail Jailer]

That's cool, I guess I like to think ahead and perhaps I assume too much...

For example
I assumed since you have a garage, there's a pretty good chance you also have a wife?

When I put those factors to a time tested algorithm...

It says ...

You're welcome, I wish you luck!