Flight pen size?

[jimbo&rooster]

i am about to start training toward SH level testing, as such I will obviously need some birds to use and do not want to depend soley on pigeons. I have a local game preserve that has a bunch of quail left over from the fall and He has made me an outstanding deal on them. My question is,.... How big does a flight pen need to be to house say 20 birds at a time? I was thinking of making a 10x10 dog kennel into a pen and putting a small shelter off to one end. would this be sufficient for these birds? my wife has a Lab puppy running around the yard that i assume will do his best to keep them flying.

thanks
JIm

[displaced_texan]

The guy I used to buy birds from had a flight pen that was probably 30' x 100'... Great flying birds.

[nitrex]

The bigger the better! I like some length to the pens so they can really fly some distance. If you're only keeping birds a few days to a week, what you are thinking is probably sufficient. If you plan to keep birds much longer, I would build something much longer. I want good flying birds!!!

Nitrex

[Hotpepper]

Johnny houses concentrate on teaching the birds to fly up, not a distance thing. Makes it easier to keep them as the bottom and sides are hard with wire at the top below the roop, they fly up to see out.

Pepper

[ezzy333]

Johnny houses concentrate on teaching the birds to fly up, not a distance thing. Makes it easier to keep them as the bottom and sides are hard with wire at the top below the roop, they fly up to see out.

Pepper

And birds that have to fly vertically a lot stay in better shape than a short horizonical flight. I've raised them in a barrel and they fly pretty well since they have to fly up and down alot.

Ezzy