the area under your quail pens

[Pineapple]

Just curious--does the area under your quail pens grow anything? Grass? Mold (haha)? Other plants?

My pen is going to be very lightly populated (3-5 quail) so I was wondering if I could/should plant anything underneath it to catch all the nutrient-rich quail poop.

Maybe that's not very possible. Thoughts?

 

[eHuman]

Unfortunately it is considered "hot" and will kill most things. If you collect it and age or compost it then you will have black gold and can grow anything with it.

 

[Ladybirdmama]

Great question! I'm a newb and love scrolling through posts & learning We're going to do a sort of deep litter with ours, I'm sure the garden will appreciate when I scoop some out!

 

[ChickenLegs13]

The chickens pretty much keep it churned up looking for that expensive high protein feed that the quail waste.

 

[Ulladh]

Might sound weird but you will attract flies, I can gather mine on a tray and I am currently infested with maggots in it, who help recycle it I guess but also ake great treats for my quail! just keep the bucket or whatever your keeping it in away as to not bother the quail, but theyll likely just try and eat any.

 

[preciouseureka]

We find that scooting the coop a little everyday spreads it out and gives the ladies access to fresh grass at the same time...a littke poop here and there and you've got putting green perfect in no time!

 

[Pineapple]

Unfortunately it is considered "hot" and will kill most things. If you collect it and age or compost it then you will have black gold and can grow anything with it.

This is only true if you have an increased number of animals in a decreased amount of space.

It's the same thing when people say, "Chickens will eat all the grass in their pen no matter what." That is also not true--if you have sufficiently few chickens with sufficiently large an enclosure, the area won't get pecked dry of grass. The same thing is true for quail--if you keep them at low enough numbers in a large enough space, plants will grow beneath them.

In the wild, the entire earth is not "hot" (i.e. plants grow where birds live) because they have adequate space.

 

[Ulladh]

I dont think it is the fact they eat all the grass, but in a small run they just scratch, it is in their nature and hat breaks up roots and dislodges plants and that kills them faster than their poop.