Thoughts on my Quail Coop plan? Am I missing anything?

[JManIndiana]

Hello! I am moving to the country! With that, I am very excited to get into Coturnix raising for a variety of reasons. I also happen to be a bit of a Tolkien fan... and since Quail are the halfling of the Chicken world...why not go for a hobbit coop? Anyway, I wanted to see if I am missing anything that I haven't thought of that would prevent this from being successful. Any tips would be welcome! I'm not oozing out the ears in cash, BUT I'm fortunate enough to not have to do anything extremely cheap either. Let me hear it and thank you for all the tips/advice in advance! The picture is something I drew up using Paint... sorry for the quality, I did my best. I know the dimensions aren't to scale, but it'll give you the idea.

I do have adequate tools. Saws/Kreg Jig/cutters/hardware/drills/etc. I also have 4 mower wheels that I have been saving for one of my projects. They yellow in the picture may get spray painted later on. I forgot to add the height in the picture. Right now, I am thinking a max of 32 inches, probably closer to 28 inches. I am trying to hit the 12 inch mark for each area so they aren't boinking their heads.

Sincerely,
Justin

 

[JManIndiana]

I completely forgot to mention I will have raccoon proof locks as well. Just hard to draw up.

 

[kingmt]

To keep them from breaking their neck & head injuries the ceiling needs to be under 12". I'd suggest 8". They don't do well on the ground. If you have raccoons then a wir sheet of welded wire another 8" from the bottom of the cage is suggested to keep the raccoons from grabbing a toe & pulling a leg off through the bottom of the cage. You will also need heavier gauge wire reinforced with hardware cloth to keep them from reaching through. They can chew through hardware cloth by itself.

 

[JManIndiana]

To keep them from breaking their neck & head injuries the ceiling needs to be under 12". I'd suggest 8". They don't do well on the ground. If you have raccoons then a wir sheet of welded wire another 8" from the bottom of the cage is suggested to keep the raccoons from grabbing a toe & pulling a leg off through the bottom of the cage. You will also need heavier gauge wire reinforced with hardware cloth to keep them from reaching through. They can chew through hardware cloth by itself.

Thanks for the tip! The bottom of the cage would not be directly on the ground, so I may have room to put some extra wire to prevent an attack from below. I'll look and see what kind of additional wire I can get to cover the front. The back portion should have both the roofing on top of wire, so I'm hoping that'd be sufficient. I also considered wheeling it in a shed overnight. I didn't mention I have two well behaved dogs that will be nearby. They like to watch for critters and I'm sure they will be watching at all hours to see if something comes. Chasing rodents/squirrels/etc is a passion for them.