Outside pen

Wow Mark - nice to have you on here - and thank you for sharing your amazing photos of your quail house.

Just a few questions as I am a total beginner. I see that your house is on grass but just wondered why the birds are on mesh. I guess it is for easier cleaning - and the droppings fall down onto the grass - and of course rodents won't be able to get in is that right?

Have you hatched out hundreds of birds at the same time to have such a large flock? I only ask because I understood that you could not introduce birds/groups.

Is this done on a commercial basis i.e. for selling as pets, for shoots, eggs or meat?

Do they just lay eggs all over the mesh and you go in to collect them i.e. is the mesh strong enough to take the weight of people walking on it.

Do you move the house around or is it in permanent site - if so how do you get rid of all the excrement from underneath the mesh - it must build up after a time.

The row of feeding trays is something I have never ever seen before - amazing!

If ever we win the lottery I would have a huge house like that or lots of smaller ones on a similar style.

I guess our houses over here are governed by (a) by the limited space most of us have - our gardens are not often huge. In fact a lot of us has small gardens - and in comparison to yours - tiny even!

(b) We tend to be hobbyists so do things on a smaller scale.

I also imagine that another difference is that quail are wild game birds in the USA whereas they are not in the UK and must not be released into the wild either.

And perhaps our weather has a lot to do with it too.

Thanks so much for giving us an insight into your wonderful quails housing - I am sure that we are all envious.

Best wishes

Mark I think its a space thing. If I had room for a house that size I would move into it myself so Instead its a smaller quail house with a lot less quails. I do feel their lives are enriched though as I have made an effort to give them things such as hideyholes and undergrowth.

Bronze wrote:Mark I think its a space thing. If I had room for a house that size I would move into it myself so Instead its a smaller quail house with a lot less quails. I do feel their lives are enriched though as I have made an effort to give them things such as hideyholes and undergrowth.

You put it so eloquently Bronze - that is what I was trying to say. With our little gardens most of us just don't have the room do we - but oh how we would love too.

So those of us with 'flocks' of 5 or so - they are just like pets.

Here is a short cut link to my outside mini aviaries with my chicken house in the background.

http://kooringa.com/?cat=37&paged=2

If you click on my link in my signature - you can see more under the heading 'Quail' in the category section.

I do lease a quarter of an acre plot in a field a mile away from me - but I could not have quail up there - too many predators and it is not at all practical.

Until then - I can come back on here and keep looking at Mark's and day dreaming.

Sorry Lottie I didnt even see your post for some reason I forget to 'turn the page'.

whats on your field. You need pigs! If you do get pigs we would be interested on a deal

Sorry back on track

Its only a quarter of an acre - and it is my allotment - so I am almost self sufficient veggie and fruit wise!

Hard work - but I love it!

First off, thanks for the complements, but that was just a sample of the flight pens, that one is not mine. We do build them elevated to help with the droppings and predators. my neighbor and I built one very similar to the photos I posted. I have a co-worker that raises bobwhites for dog trials and bird hunts, his flight pens are inside a barn that is 100' x 200', he raises around 20,000 a year.

mark

That is bigger than the whole plot my bungalow and garden is on

I agree with Mark. Most of the people that I have talked with over the WEB from the USA raise quail for hunting, eggs, and eating. Therefore, they do it large. I am a second grade teacher who got into this teaching life cycles. I got a little "Chick Bater" with 12 Bobwhite eggs this spring. None of them hatched. Being of the stubborn sort, I made my own incubator from a website design from an old soda cooler and ordered some Cortunix eggs from eBay. 9 out of the 12 eggs were fertile and 8 hatched. Because of predators, like black bear (yes we do have wildlife in New Jersey!), fox, coyote, and lots of wild cats, I will be keeping my babies inside. I have an acre of ground (about 200X200 feet), so I could put them outside, but the bears in our area have been a problem with poultry.
Sorry to ramble away form the subject. Well, anyway, I found it very difficult to find information about Cortunix raising from the pet point of view. That's what brought me to this forum. I have my quail in a 30 inch by 18 inch bird cage right now. I have a second cage for when I divide them up. I got the cage on eBay. It was ok except the floor had 1/2 inch by 3 inch grate and their little legs kept going through and they would thrash about. So, today I "repaired" it and replaced the bottom with 1/2 inch mesh. They like it a lot better. I have a lot of little videos and pictures on my web at http://tuesdaynewsday.blogspot.com

Looks a pretty nice size, QTPie, but would it be possible to have them on a solid floor with shavings rather than the wire? Quail love to dustbath, and the wire floors can allow them to get Bumblefoot (a painful infection).

internet_nobody wrote:Looks a pretty nice size, QTPie, but would it be possible to have them on a solid floor with shavings rather than the wire? Quail love to dustbath, and the wire floors can allow them to get Bumblefoot (a painful infection).

Now that I've had this cage for a while I can see your point. The poor little guys try to dust bathe in their food! I just recently put in some "sod" that I grew and they seem a bit more content. On one of the posts I saw your set up with the indoor cages you built. I like how the plastic pans come up the sides so that poop doesn't get all over the floor. How often do you have to clean them out using shavings? I am using the corn husks and am not happy with odor control. I am starting to rethink my plan here and would appreciate any input about what kind of play things that quails like to have in their cages. I also am thinking of something that I could put outside that is bear proof. Any thoughts?

I clean them out about every week, before it starts to smell (since a house that pongs of birds is icky).

With the corn husks droppings for three birds have to be changed every 2-3 days. Or else phew!

batty,
you're garden is amazing,