Monday, November 26, 2012

Housing Coturnix quail


So today i bought the hutch i will use to house my quail!  It's very nice and LARGE so it will be good for plenty of quail. The dimentions are 5 feet by 2 feet so it should be plenty of room for 20+ birds.
 I bought it from a local company, because a lot of the Hutches and cages available online seem pretty low quality. OR should i say... QUAIL-ity! Har. Har. Har. No really. I'm kidding. Don't worry.

Time for a few snazzy facts about housing Coturnix quail!

                  1. The minimum size is 1 square foot of floor space for every quail. Some people give more space and some people give less. Many people keep their birds on only 1/2 square feet per bird. But 1 square foot is a good minimum. 

               2. The roof should be either under 18 inches high, or over 6 feet hight. ( This worries me slightly, because the roof of this hutch is a bit high. I might have to put padding on the roof so the little guys don't bonk their heads to hard. ) The reason that you you need a lower or very high roof, is that nervous quail sometimes fly up really quickly and bonk their heads on the roof! 

              3. The wire spacing for the floor should be 1/2 inch. Any bigger spacing and the quail's little feet will fall through!

             4. Coturnix are super cold hardy but there should be somewhere draft-free with solid sides where they can huddle away from the cold. 

            5. Having a wire floor with a pull out tray is much best- it is supposed to make cleaning much easier. Don't worry, these little birds are much better adapted to living on wire then chickens are!

That's all for now! The eggs hatch in 4 days :)

4 comments:

  1. Great information! My husband wants to have quail so this is a great post for us. Thanks for sharing!

    Clicked over from Tilly's Nest :)

    Tammy
    ourneckofthewoods.net

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  2. I love your blog! New fan here. Please come visit me and share at my Farm Girl Blog Fest: http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/2012/11/farm-girl-blog-fest-11.html

    Lisa
    Fresh Eggs Daily

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