Quail Cage

[pkbirdog]

I'm going to build a quail cage and was wondering what I should use for the bottom of it.

Just ply wood? Or something with holes in it?

Should I put straw down for them?

Paul

[duckn66]

Heavy hail screen is what mine is. Large enough sqaures to let droppings fall through but yet allow them to walk and keep predators at bay. No need for straw. Lean a small 1ft by 2ft or so piece of plywood against the side for them to get under at night.

I assume this is a johnny house set up???

[pkbirdog]

Not sure what a Johnny house is. Basically I'm building a box to put quail in for training. I'm just going to use some material I have around the house, 1by 1s and 2by 4s. I'm thinking something like a rabbit cage. I read some stuff on the Internet that you want 2 square feet for one quail. Is that right?

[bwire]

There are a couple of threads on here about the use of a johnny house with pictures. Take a look at these:
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=29877

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=23704

There are others. Just search for johnny house and you should be able to get some good information.

[pkbirdog]

So I was going to build it kinda small. 6' wide, 3' deep and 4' tall.

Looking at the second thread you posted, should I build it taller so I can walk into it?

Do they need it bigger so they can fly around? The way I am doing it now, they will only be able to walk.

Also, do they need sunlight?

[bwire]

They will need light and room to fly. If they can't fly then they won't do you any good to train with. With the JH I built (and the others) the quail fly up to a ledge at the bottom of the wire. This helps them be strong flyers.

Some people used wire on the floor but I used plywood and put sand on the floor. I haven't had any problems with it but you can use whatever you like.

[EK Cottontop]

+1 on the sand. When I switched to sand the quail seemed to look better and were healthier.

[RayGubernat]

I built a quail coop that has worked quite well for me.

It is 8X12 by 8' high. The floor was a pressure treated 4X4 box witha a 4X4 down the middle. I put a second 4X4 about 8" inside the door so I could have something to step on. Every 2ft. I toenailed a 2X4 on edge.

I covered the floor with 1/2" hardware cloth. The openings are large enough for the droppings to fall through but small enough to keep vermin out. The walls and ceiling are chickenwire stretched over a frame of pressure treated 1X1's and screwed together.

The whole thing slides in and out of an old run in shed that was sitting out there. A couple times a year I pull it out, shovel out the droppngs and slide it back.

I second the sand recomendation. I have a big plastic bin with sand in it, inside the coop. The birds run through it, dust in it, get grit from it and I very rarely lose a bird now. Without the sand, the mortality would start about two to three weeks after I put the birds in and get worse until they were all dead even with medicated feed. Now I don't medicate at all and have kept quail in that coop for six months.

RayG

[DonF]

Just a holding cage where you keep them for training will become a disappointment. Like everyone is saying, they won't fly well. No if you have a place outside to train on, I built a small recall pen that i could set out and keep birds in. Then turn them out every day to fly and strengthen their wings. Not as good as a johnny house but really portable and inexpensive.

[bwire]

Be careful with the chicken wire. The first JH I built I used the hardware cloth and everything went fine. I built a 2nd one out of scrap and used chicken wire on the top 1/3 of the pen and a raccoon was able to reach through and kill some of the quail. I had a small 2x4 leaning against the ramp to keep the recall funel closed and I think it climbed up the 2x4 to reach into the pen. I put two more layers of chicken wire on and everything has been fine since then. I agree with what the others have said about the sand. I have lost very few birds to sickness in the 3 years I've done this using the sand on the floor.

[pkbirdog]

I dont have a place to set out a recall box for an extended period of time. Most of my training will be at an alfafla field near my house.

My JH is about complete and I'll finish it tomorrow. Its 6'tall, 6'wide, and 4' deep.

How do you feed the quail? Do you just throw the feed on the sand or should I build a feeding tray up off the ground?

Thanks for all the help.

Paul

[bwire]

You'll need something to keep the feed dry and clean. I used a pvc tube that you can see in one of the threads I posted a link to. I had to make the hole smaller than the one in the picture, about the size of a quarter seemed to work well. I think others had good results using a bullet feeder from lion country supply (if I remember correctly). Good luck and have fun. I had good success with the quail I released and I still find them after I released all of them in early December. I was able to get a good picture not too long ago: