Show me your quail pens!!!

[igorsMistress]

I have moved stuff around in the quail pen recently to make better use of the space as the days grow longer and shade shifts. I hate the galvanized feeder in there so we will be putting up a gravity feeder or two this weekend.

 

[Jpat]

Led lights, Ail filter with fans and split up the middle with wire and a hatch door you can open

Ones a male ones a female

 

[Bluemonster107]

here is my main pen- built it to be open and airy to shed the phoenix area heat- I have a corrugated roof over the top now that was added later, but I like my top-latching doors on all sides- it makes egg retrieval quite easy! I keep a "shoebox condo" inside for them to hang out in and hide from any wind, but it is rarely windy here in AZ unless we are having a monsoon!

good luck with your coop building!

K

Hello!! I see you are in AZ... so you too have some of that blistering heat like we do here in central cA... how do the quail do in the heat? I’m afraid of our 113 temps.. ugh... and tips??

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Hello!! I see you are in AZ... so you too have some of that blistering heat like we do here in central cA... how do the quail do in the heat? I’m afraid of our 113 temps.. ugh... and tips??

Here where i am in n.m. it gets to 109 for maybe 7 days, and lots of 105 days, in summer i keep my pens partly covered with sheets, then spray down with the hose once, sonetimes twice a day, it really helps. Ive heard of putting frozen waterbottles, or icepacks in the pens or even ice cubes in the water. I think there's some good threads or articles on here about getting through the heat too... I need to start reviewing them myself soon!

 

[Bluemonster107]

I think there's some good threads or articles on here about getting through the heat too... I need to start reviewing them myself soon!

Thank you for the tips! Yea, I use to do the frozen water bottles when I had rabbits and last summer we hit 113 for a few days in a row and had to do the frozen water bottles in my turtles above ground water... more for the gold fish, but that heat is brutal!! Do you know what max heat temp the coturnix tolerate?

 

[Horizuka]

Morning everyone!
Bear with me and my journey to raising happy and healthy quails for meats and eggs.

- The cages that I've built have been mainly 1x2 pieces of wood, screws, hardware cloth, and chicken wire. The first one that I've built, I've been using references from Youtube and taking bits and pieces from every video that I see. The one below is my first one that I've made. There is a tray that I put on the bottom of it.The biggest con is trying to take the tray out for cleaning.

- The 2nd cage that I've made was about the same design, but of course we always learn and improve. I noticed that the first cage, there was poop getting onto the side of the cage. What I've done to see what happens is put a board on the sides. Keep in mind, its my first two cages 3 out of the 4 sides are chicken wire, with the front with the door is hardware cloth. The door was the tricky part because I havn't had a clue on how to make one or attach it. Zip ties came into play and made a lock and hinge with a block of wood(attached to the door) and clipped it to the cage itself.

- I gave it legs because I was curious to see how that was going to pan out. I will probably get a metal sheet from home depot to make the litter tray.

 

[DK newbie]

Unless you can keep the cages in a place that is 100 % predator free (including rats), I'd replace the chicken wire with hardware cloth. It will be no issue at all for rats, skunks, snakes, raccoons and so on to get to the birds through the chicken wire.
With regards to the door, usually people make a wooden frame for it to make it more sturdy - again, you do not want any predators to get near your quail. But your design should work, as long as there are no predators where you keep the quail.
You should be able to find lots of inspiration on how to make great cages in this thread.
As you mention happy quail as an objective, you might want to pay extra attention to the cages where the birds live on bedding rather than on wire. Wire is not very pleasant for the birds to stand on and offer no enrichment.

 

[Horizuka]

Unless you can keep the cages in a place that is 100 % predator free (including rats), I'd replace the chicken wire with hardware cloth. It will be no issue at all for rats, skunks, snakes, raccoons and so on to get to the birds through the chicken wire.
With regards to the door, usually people make a wooden frame for it to make it more sturdy - again, you do not want any predators to get near your quail. But your design should work, as long as there are no predators where you keep the quail.
You should be able to find lots of inspiration on how to make great cages in this thread.
As you mention happy quail as an objective, you might want to pay extra attention to the cages where the birds live on bedding rather than on wire. Wire is not very pleasant for the birds to stand on and offer no enrichment.

Ah I'm writing these things for my next quail cage 3.0 lol. Bedding is a tough one for me because they like to flick things everywhere. Do you have any ideas?

 

[RUNuts]

Ah I'm writing these things for my next quail cage 3.0 lol. Bedding is a tough one for me because they like to flick things everywhere. Do you have any ideas?

I'm using free woodchips from the county. They flick and I fill it up again. Put a filled cardboard box down on the wire. Working well. they will sit in the boxes more than on the wire. Another box filled with sand. Laying eggs in both spots. Seldom on wire.

After the compost pile has built up under the wire with quail poop, chicken poop, wood bits and kitchen scraps, everything goes to the garden or the compost collections. I've got a very nice collection. Bin #3 is due. The first 2 are full and I'm letting number one age for another 4 months before the chickens get to tear it down for me to sift and garden with this year. Only works if you've got enough room to stack these things. I don't turn them. They sit for a year, then the uncomposted gets returned to the new pile.

 

[DK newbie]

Ah I'm writing these things for my next quail cage 3.0 lol. Bedding is a tough one for me because they like to flick things everywhere. Do you have any ideas?

Ideas are one thing I always have The cage in the attached picture is 2x6 ft. It's build to fit 3 2x2 ft garden trays exactly so they can be pulled out at the front of the cage for cleaning (or egg collection, for that matter). The cage houses 3 lovebirds and 5 button quail roos. It doesn't have to be as high if it's only housing quail. They do make a mess, but that could be prevented by adding sheets of wood, plastic or similar partway up the sides all the way around the cage.