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.
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 :)
