Housing Quail

 

Recently a couple of people have asked me about getting started with some quail.  

First, I LOVE questions like this!  If a customer has talked to me and become interested in raising some quail for themselves, I feel as though I am doing something right.  Zack Greene at MyShire Farms talks about a three-fold purpose to Educate, Inspire, and Enthuse people in the quail world, and we agree with that purpose whole-heartedly.  If you make the time to ask me questions about quail, I am happy to have a conversation and help you find answers.

A couple of people have specifically asked me about how to house quail.  Realizing the answer was longer than I could manage in a text I got out, took some pictures, dug up some old pictures, and here we go.

The primary options for housing quail are cages and aviaries (with some hybrids along the way).

First of all, aviaries.  This is some type of structure which is at least 6 feet tall.  Typically it will have a portion which is fully enclosed to protect the quail from the weather, and a portion which is more open (think hardware cloth) to let them enjoy the outdoors.  Some people will include different plants in the aviary (please do the research first to make sure whatever you put in is safe for the quail).  It has a door to allow you to go in, feed, water, collect eggs, and just be with your quail.  There is a lot to be said for this method.  Many say it is more natural for the quail.  Being able to go into an enclosure with a bucket, turn it over, and sit with your quail and enjoy each others' company is a good way to 1. get to know your quail and 2. take a few minutes to stop and breathe and just be.  

We used this setup when we first moved to the property we currently have and we enjoyed it.

  

  

As you can see, we used a LOT of salvaged/scavenged materials (some friends were taking down a fence and an outbuilding and we asked for and were given a lot of the wood and metal we used for this).  You might also notice in the first picture that the height of the door is a little peculiar.  The reason for this was that stepping up and over and into the enclosure kept the quail from flying out when we went in!  Feed was provided in a regular plastic feeder like those used for chickens, and water was done using a bucket with "chicken nipples".  We put a couple of concrete blocks in and they used them to hide from anyone who was being too aggressive.  Finding the eggs was a challenge some days!  If we had done this on a more long-term basis, we would have purchased a little claw hand cultivator to turn the dirt/poop/pine shavings.  We did keep pine shavings scattered for them.

There are some negatives to using an aviary and the ones I am going to mention are just our experience.  Some people do not have the problems we had, other people had problems we never encountered; this is just our experience.

• Predators.  We used the aviary before we had the barn cats.  After some time, we would go out to collect eggs and find nothing.  Periodically we would discover a dead quail.  We know quail are masters at finding creative ways to die, but the egg shortage was confusing.  We finally discovered that rats had found a way in and were stealing the eggs.  We discovered this when I found a nest up in this cross-piece.  I was not thrilled to make that discovery!

• Quail Behavior.  For us, the quail were not peaceful, settled, or content in the aviary.  They were jumpy, easily startled, and very difficult to catch.  There are a number of possible explanations for this; the type we had, the fact we had rodents trying to cohabit with them (something that would certainly make ME jumpy!), the barking dogs next door, etc.  But we found that the quail seemed very stressed living in the aviary.

• Daily Egg hunts.  Trying to figure out where they laid their eggs each day was challenging.  I was not a fan of sticking my hand blindly into a concrete block to see if an egg was in there, especially in the summer when the snakes were active.  I was also not a fan of crawling around in the pine shavings/dirt/poop to try to find them.  Quail will sometimes use nest boxes like chickens do, but they are more of a drop-and-keep-going creature.

• The step in.  This may sound silly, but after a while trying to step up and into the aviary became a challenge.  Cletus did stack a couple of concrete blocks for a step when I fussed about it, but I struggle at times with balance and my joints are just not as limber as they used to be so even the blocks were not an ideal solution. 

We eventually came to the conclusion that an aviary was not ideal for us.  The next step in our learning journey?  Cages in the aviary.  This would provide protection from both the weather and predators and (hopefully) eliminate some of the negatives we found with the aviary.  I will write about our use of cages in another post.

I do want to sum up our aviary experience with this.  Aviaries did not work well for us.  They really would not work well for us at this point with the volume of quail we have.  BUT that does not at all mean aviaries would not work for you.  One person I have been talking with wants to give his children the experience of raising quail.  He has an enclosed yard space which is covered and for him, I think an aviary might be ideal.  Another person has a large property with free roaming wild life and for her, an aviary might not be the best option.  It just all depends on what your situation is and what you want.  If you want to spend time sitting with your quail, an aviary would be terrific.  

A few technical points:

• If you do decide to build an aviary, invest in hardware cloth over regular or plastic wire.  Rodents can chew through the plastic wire.  We have also been advised by our pest control guy that mice can enter an opening the size of a dime and rats can enter an opening the size of a quarter.  Barn cats help!
• We also recommend placing either wire or sheet metal coming out 1-1.5 feet around the bottom to prevent anything from tunneling under and up into the aviary.  Alternatively, you could place wire on the ground inside at least 1-1.5 feet.  
• Most people recommend 1.5-2 square feet/bird in an aviary.  So for 15 birds (12 female and 3 male) you would need a 23-30 square foot enclosure.  Spacing is a little different in cages and we will cover that next time. 
• Remember, coturnix quail flush straight up.  Any enclosure must be less than 24 inches or more than 6 feet or they will break their silly little necks.  Since they are masters at finding creative ways to die. 

Boots, the Alpha Cat