Tips on keeping flighty quail chicks in the brood box?

[flickerfarkle]

My jumbo browns are 7 or 8 days hatched and when I lift the lid to do brood box maintenance, most are testing their wings and several of them are able to get within two or three inches of the top of the box. At the rate they're growing and feathering-out, I'm sure it won't be more than two days at the most before one of them manages to reach the top. So my question is two-fold.

1. Got any tips for preventing them making good their escape? I'm using a 13"-tall plastic storage bin as brood box, and I generally only slide the lid off far enough to get inside to do my work, and that seems to reduce their "jumpiness." However, it's nigh on impossible to change the bedding (blue shop paper towels) without taking the lid off and setting it aside.

2. From the top of my brood box to the floor is four feet. If one of the little fellas manages to clear the top, does that necessarily mean he'll be able to negotiate a soft landing from such a "great" height? Or will he likely crash and burn?

 

[Nabiki]

I use large plastic totes with hardware cloth lids for my brooders. I will prepare a clean one, transfer the chicks to that one, then take the dirty one away for cleaning. This allows me to keep the lid mostly on while transferring chicks.

Another thing you can do is keep the brooder in a mostly empty room so the chicks are easy to catch. 4' high is a bit high for them to land safely, though. I keep my brooder on the floor.

 

[flickerfarkle]

Thanky, Nabiki. Dunno why I hadn't thought of that, especially since I've got lots of spare totes around. In fact I've already got one prepared for when they turn three weeks (and no longer need supplemental heat) with hardware cloth floor to give them more room to spread out.

I didn't put the current brooder on the floor because of a note I found somewhere saying you shouldn't put an incubator on the floor because that's where that evil carbon dioxide collects. I suppose I shouldn't have ass-u-med that what's bad for incubation is bad for brooding.

Thanks for the the tip!

An OBTW, silly question I know, but do you live in K-Falls? I lived there for a spell near Conger elementary. I absolutely loved it there (incredible climate & outdoor life) but at the time I was a traveling widget salesman and it wasn't long before the widget market dried up and I had to go elsewhere.

I hear they made a right mess out of the river.

 

[Nabiki]

An OBTW, silly question I know, but do you live in K-Falls? I lived there for a spell near Conger elementary. I absolutely loved it there (incredible climate & outdoor life) but at the time I was a traveling widget salesman and it wasn't long before the widget market dried up and I had to go elsewhere.

I hear they made a right mess out of the river.

I just moved up here a couple years ago now. I have a half acre and a huge greenhouse. I'm a happy camper.