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So you ARE keeping them on wire.....mine are outside too. But my floor is wired with 1/4 x 1/4 and the poop doesn't fall through. Recently they've had some spilled food that piled up because of the rain we've had. Everything was wet and yucky and the poop and food sticks to their feet and makes a terrible mess. I have shavings down for them in their nest box and they mostly lay eggs in there. Occasionally they will lay an egg outside on the wire but not much. The nest box is easy to keep clean with shavings but I hate the wire floor. I'm just thinking that I would like to move mine to the ground and have sand on the ground. I have sand in my duck yard and it drains fast and stays fairly clean and dry. I really hate cleaning that wire and it's really hard to clean with them in there as they will jump out.
And I meant to say feel free to ask questions. I'm glad to help if I can. I love keeping the quail, we eat the eggs when I can keep some. Their eggs are good sellers. And there is nothing cuter than baby quail! Tiny little things but full of personality. I've found that they overheat quickly so I always try to keep the heat lamp on one end of the brooder so they can move away from it. And you don't want to overcrowd them. One other thing, they are so small you have to watch what food you feed them. They can't eat some chick crumbles. If you can't find a mash (a finer ground chick food), then you may need to grind your chick starter for them. Hope this helps, just things I had to learn the hard way on my own so I always like to share.
Well, yes and no. They won't totally be on wire 100% of the time, but yes they will have access to the wire-open air- section of the pen 24/7. The mesh I'm using is .5 x .5 --I've seen on the quail forum that most ppl use that size so the poop will fall through. I plan to put the food and water in the enclosed section to keep them out of the weather (food won't get wet, water won't get to hot=algae). Will one milk crate as nest box work for say 5-10 hens? Do you suggest me putting down shavings on the floor of the enclosed part or leave it as just a hardwood floor, so to speak?
ETA: I'm going to feed them game Bird starter 28-30% protein because I can readily buy it as needed from my local feed store. That should take care of having to worry about grinding up into smaller pieces. I was going to ask you about selling eggs. How much do you sell yours for? By the dozen? Do you sell them as hatching eggs or eating? Is there a price difference is you do sell them both ways?
THANKS JOY! You're a big help!
