wire, shavings, dirt - What is best for quail?

[bigjohn]

I raise my Texas A&M quail in wire cages with shingle roofs. They do fine and the poop goes on the ground. Fairly easy to clean up and keep clean. But the pens are visible to neighbors. (I live in a small subdivision). Plus, the larger pens don't provide for more careful breeding with trios or pairs of my best birds. I want to improve my stock with smaller numbers of birds in each cage.

I have been considering building a shelving type system with wire flooring and trays underneath with shavings to keep the birds in a more 'compact' area and out of the backyard and being visible to other people. Mainly on a porch or in a small shed environment.

Does anyone currently raise at least 20 or 30+ birds using pine shavings (or another practical and inexpensive material)? And, if so, is the smell bad or is it easy to keep under control with this method?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[monarc23]

I use a mixture of aspen shavings and stall dry...and some may disagree with me but in my experience (indoors) with this method they need a few scoops of poo cleaned out everyday to every other day and some refresher of bedding and stall dry to keep it smeling fresh. Outside it may not need to be cleaned as much as that.

Outside my birds are just in a rabbit hutch and a 6 hole hanging pen (that hangs off of our fence) so no need for bedding I just rake or sweep it out

edited because this didnt make sense hahah

 

[SportTees]

I keep mine outside in a divided pen

That pen will hold 20 in trios but its tight- I just have them in there during breeding time. They go in a colony pen in winter.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
same with how i do it!

 

[Bettacreek]

I wonder if you could rig something up with a tray type system in a shed, with linoleum on the floor, then cut out a spot by the trays in the shed, and be able to hose it all out the back? Then you wouldn't have to use shavings or anything, just hose the poop off the trays out through the small slit in the wall, then rake the back when it gets yicky.

 

[CountryMom]

We have a similar cage to what is pictured, but I have them in what I call my new Quail Barn. It is basically a 12 X12 aviary with a wood floor covered with linoleum. I use a large black plastic bin that is used for masonary mixing that I purchased at Lowe's. I have them placed under the pens to catch droppings. I put some shavings in them - very lightly - just to make cleaning out the poo easier. I can let it go at least a week for cleaning if it is cold. I clean the bins a lot more during warmer weeks. Texas weather can't make up it's mind lately!

I plan on building some more cages that will stack and slip these bins in between to catch the droppings.

Just wanted to mention that we built our Quail barn to house our quail cages because of too many coon attacks. They like to reach in and pull whatever they grab out the wire. We lost a lot of birds - or I should say parts of birds - that way. I do have a wash out area built into one end of the floor, but it is covered with wire to keep critters out.

 

[98 gt]

I'm building my cages right now... Will post pics when I have it finished...

 

[SamG347]

WIRE....I have tryed ground pens....OMG collecting eggs is a pain....eggs get messy....and birds begin to stink if you don't clean the pen at least once a week. I'm having a local amish guy custom make all my cages.