Just finished a quail pen today. Woot!
It's made with almost entirely salvaged materials I had lying around. The exception is the 1/4" hardware wire.
I have long kept quail on the ground and, by careful observation, perfected what seems to make my birds happiest. This pen is not only salvage built, it's designed to meet the specific preferences of my quail flock.
As you can see, it is completely enclosed. There is no place with an opening larger than 1/4". Total square footage is a little over 20 square feet, and I will house between four and five quail in it.
I have found that quail tend to prefer a lot of cover, so I focused on closed-in spaces more than open spaces. Obviously, however, they need light and air movement, so there is plenty of that provided for as well.
The central piece is an old dining room table from when my kids were toddlers that has been sitting in a storage shed. I used leftover 2x4s from another project to frame the base and build out the angled "wings" on either side to bring the width out for square footage while reducing total amount of space that needed to be covered with wood or wire. The rest is just bits of wood I had lying around patched together to provide coverage, plus 1/4" hardware cloth. The door is made from a piece of plywood with the central part cut out. I used paint I also had lying around to try to bring the look together. I wish I'd had something better than that ugly piece of green for the roof section. I'll probably pull it off and get a piece of white plastic roof instead at some point, even though I'll have to buy it.
Although I built it for quail, I'm growing out a batch of chickens in it right now. When the chicken coop is done, the chickens will graduate to the coop, and the quail that are currently in my brooder will graduate to the run.
Hope you enjoyed. Salvage is fun!
It's made with almost entirely salvaged materials I had lying around. The exception is the 1/4" hardware wire.
I have long kept quail on the ground and, by careful observation, perfected what seems to make my birds happiest. This pen is not only salvage built, it's designed to meet the specific preferences of my quail flock.
As you can see, it is completely enclosed. There is no place with an opening larger than 1/4". Total square footage is a little over 20 square feet, and I will house between four and five quail in it.
I have found that quail tend to prefer a lot of cover, so I focused on closed-in spaces more than open spaces. Obviously, however, they need light and air movement, so there is plenty of that provided for as well.
The central piece is an old dining room table from when my kids were toddlers that has been sitting in a storage shed. I used leftover 2x4s from another project to frame the base and build out the angled "wings" on either side to bring the width out for square footage while reducing total amount of space that needed to be covered with wood or wire. The rest is just bits of wood I had lying around patched together to provide coverage, plus 1/4" hardware cloth. The door is made from a piece of plywood with the central part cut out. I used paint I also had lying around to try to bring the look together. I wish I'd had something better than that ugly piece of green for the roof section. I'll probably pull it off and get a piece of white plastic roof instead at some point, even though I'll have to buy it.
Although I built it for quail, I'm growing out a batch of chickens in it right now. When the chicken coop is done, the chickens will graduate to the coop, and the quail that are currently in my brooder will graduate to the run.
Hope you enjoyed. Salvage is fun!
