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Storing Quail

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 9:09 pm
by wfkgsps
For those of you who live in town, how do you store quail? I've got a nice set-up with kennels and a pigeon coop, but a flight pen is out of the question. What other options are out there? Pictures would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Re: Storing Quail

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 9:13 pm
by Sharon
They are in a large pen in my garage. Shhhh.

Re: Storing Quail

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 9:31 pm
by snips
A Johny house might be the only way to go, at least they can still fly but not need alot of room.

Re: Storing Quail

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 6:45 am
by rapid fire
build you a fairly tall johnny house and only put your perches up high so they have to fly up 5 or 6' to see out and get some fresh air. My birds don't like to fly from you too much, but when you get them up, they fly pretty well. They would work really well out of a launcher.

Re: Storing Quail

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 7:32 am
by RayGubernat
wfkgsps -

It kinda depenmds on how long you want to keep them, and how many.

When I lived in the 'burbs, I used to buy my quail 10 - 20 at a time. I found I could keep as many as a dozen quail in a modifed medium dog crate for two weeks with no problem and a little longer occasionally. the way I used birds that was three or four training sessions.
Medium is the largest size that comes with a handle on top, BTW. The handle is nice.

What I did was to make a raised platform for the bottom of the crate out of plywood, with four 1/2" X 1/2" wood risers screwed to the plywood and hardware cloth with 1/2" holes(so9metimes called rat wire, I think) staped to the runners. The platform just fits in the bottom portion of the crate an yet is just small enough to fit through the crate door(for cleaning) when diagonal to the door opening.

The raised plaform keeps the birds out of the droppings for a good while. If i were to do it over, I would make the wood risers 3/4 ", since a fifteen birds can generate a surprising amount of poop.

I then cut a roughly square hole out of the top rear of the crate sized so that I could put in and take out both the waterer and feeder(s) as well as stick my whole arm in there(approx 8"- 9" square) and installed a door by screwing a piece of plywood using a 1/4 carriage bolt and a fender washer inside and out. I rounded that corner so it would swing up and out of the way and back down closing over the hole. When the plywood door eventally warped, I screwed an L shpaed piece to the side opposite the 1/4" bolt to keep the quail from knocking it open. A quart plastic waterer and a couple of round feeders and done. That setup has lasted more than 15 years.

If you need to house more than that, a breeder suggested that a 4' X 4' X 5' coop could hold as many as 50 birds for as long as you wish. That sounded a bit small to me, but he said it would work and the 5' height was enough for the birds to use their wings a bit without killing themselve by banging off the roof.

Oh yeah, if you want to make sure that your birds are flighty, keep them in the dark the day you use them. Apparently that gets them all nervous and jerky and they will fly rather than sit.

Hope some of this is of use. Sorry, but I don't do pictures.

I currently have a 6X8 X8'high pen whose walls and top are made from panels of 1" X 1" pressure treated lumber covered with chicken wire. The floor is made of 4 X 4's, 2ft on center covered with 1/2" hardware cloth, so i can slide it out to clean it. It is inside an unused turnout shed and I can keep 100 birds in it for a moderate period of time or 50- 60 birds in it indefinitely.

RayG

Re: Storing Quail

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:06 am
by Shadow
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here's some pictures of the one I built- I bought 8 quail- used two of them to see if my 4 month old would point and retrieve

so I kept the rest as my pets- then moved them and the cage down to the farm-
I put a devider in because the 4 males were constantly on each other argueing over the females
they started laying eggs- I've got some in an incubator- they have continued laying eggs and tending their nest
oh- I let two of the males who hadn't paired up loose- they come and visit every morning and evening-
also- wild quail and even this Blue Quail come visiting- my intention is to let the chicks mature and release them

very easy to build- 8'X2'X2'- out of treated lumber with heavy wire netting from Orschelin- and a sliding door

don't laugh now- but I've had them living on crushed up dog food since I bought them