straw in quail pens

[NY Coturnix]

I live in the Southern Tier of NYS and the weather people were saying we were supposed to see the teens over night last weekend. I haven't really winterized my pens yet so I got a bale of straw and pretty much covered the wire bottoms of the pens. Pen bottoms are 1/2 wire with some plywood covering about half for a foot safe area and then their sand boxes. I've been putting wood chips in the sand boxes over the last month so they could kind of nest in them. I've noticed that the straw seems to stay wet from the droppings a lot more than the wood chips did. They would dig the wood chips all over the place so I refill every couple days so maybe I just wasn't noticing the dampness.

Anyway...I guess what I'm asking is does anyone else use straw with their quail over the winter. If it's going to hold the moisture I'm thinking it may not be such a good idea. This is my first winter. My plan has been to wrap the bottom of my pen and put a heat lamp underneath and run it when it drops below freezing and the straw was more a quick fix for the time being.

Let me know your thoughts.

Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[FloorCandy]

I live in the Southern Tier of NYS and the weather people were saying we were supposed to see the teens over night last weekend. I haven't really winterized my pens yet so I got a bale of straw and pretty much covered the wire bottoms of the pens. Pen bottoms are 1/2 wire with some plywood covering about half for a foot safe area and then their sand boxes. I've been putting wood chips in the sand boxes over the last month so they could kind of nest in them. I've noticed that the straw seems to stay wet from the droppings a lot more than the wood chips did. They would dig the wood chips all over the place so I refill every couple days so maybe I just wasn't noticing the dampness.

Anyway...I guess what I'm asking is does anyone else use straw with their quail over the winter. If it's going to hold the moisture I'm thinking it may not be such a good idea. This is my first winter. My plan has been to wrap the bottom of my pen and put a heat lamp underneath and run it when it drops below freezing and the straw was more a quick fix for the time being.

Let me know your thoughts.

Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks

I live in northern nj, I haven’t had any plan to add extra heat, except maybe to keep the water flowing. I used sand all summer, and I shoveled it out and put deep wood chips for winter. It’s been raining for like a week and the chips are all soaked even though I have a tarp over the whole pen, but they don’t seem to care, they have an indoor coop area where they can go to stay warm, but the air is so humid, it’s even wet in there sometimes, still they don’t care and often sit out happily in freezing rain, even when I try to lure them in with treats. I think hay or straw is fine, as long as it keeps their feet from having to stand on freezing cold and wet wire. But they will probably like wood chips better, based on my observations.

 

[HillGuy]

My birds are on a sand covered ground. It does get wet, but I have some covered locations, and put straw in those. They seem to like it, and that's where they lay eggs.

 

[Quailobsessed]

I use straw in my quail enclosures, because they like to make nests out of it. I have to change it quite often though.