pen size for 10-12 laying quail?

[Bettacreek]

Quote:
This, IMHO, is the best way to do it.

 

[horsechick]

Hi,
Question, I thought you figured square feet by multiplying both sides?

Like a 2 X 4 pen would have 8 square feet, a 2 X 2 would have 4 square feet,
Is that correct?

If so then 1 square foot per quail would mean only 8 in a 2 X 4 cage, is that right?

Thanks all,
Angela

 

[jerseygirl1]

I have a question on this - how many males to females can you have in a 2 x 4 cage? Can I have one male per cage? As it is, I only have one male, no females and am getting more this weekend, just wasn't sure how many males will get along, if at all, in one cage with females.
Thanks

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I have 3 males and 9 females in mine, but it's the 'off' season. I would keep 1 male to 5 females in a community pen, so I guess I need some more girls

But that's not a problem, one male and one female that are in that cage now are jumbo cinnamons, the rest are jumbo browns. I've got another pair of cinnamons in the house, so I can put those in there in the spring. I'll just have to figure out what to do with the 2 jumbo brown males

 

[95yj]

it depends on so many variables and factors, i don't measure any more. eventualy you'll just get an eye for how many birds can humanely go into a cage.

 

[sjshaw1980]

So, starting this thread up again since I didn't get any responses on my new thread, exactly how many quail should humanely fit in a 5x2x2 colony pen? That's 10 square feet of floor space, but another 10 square feet of elevated space. This whole one square foot business is so confusing!
How exactly do you "eyeball it"? I've got 65 eggs in my incubator and my pen setup is still under construction. Should I break the bottom level into two 10" high pens, or should I just leave it b/c of the extra headroom? And if I do leave it for the headroom, are they likely to fly up and bash themselves into the wire ceiling when I go down to the basement to check them?
A little help would be much appreciated...

 

[Bettacreek]

You could do 20 in there. If you can divide it, then do so. I don't know how well they use ramps though, so your best bet is to completely divide it and have two seperate levels, then house 40, lol.

 

[sjshaw1980]

Thanks for your response Bettacreek, I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear. If I divide the whole structure into four sections instead of just two they will all be isolated, no ramps or anything. Each colony section (the bottom) will be 5'x2'x10" (LxWxH) each one to have it's own drop pans, etc, and house no more than 10 birds. There would be 4 breeder cages, each 2.5'x2'x10", each one to house no more than 4 birds, preferably 3 (one cock and two hens).

As a side note, do coturnix REALLY stink as bad as some folks say they do? We brought our hens into the basement for hurricane Sandy, and admittedly, they were a bit ripe after a couple of days. I wouldn't want them living in the house again unless it was a Boston/Nemo-style 36" snow storm, and even then only for the very short term.

Either way, at the moment, we are planning to keep the coturnix in our basement, rather than outside and exposed to elements, neighbors, predators, etc. And I'd like to know if the stink is truly that bad, or if, with proper management and stank reduction techniques, guests would still want to come to my house.

Attached below is a pic of the whole thing still in progress. Its all in my basement now, but if I finish it down there, we probably won't be able to get it out to the garage without some major pains in the butt (i.e. sawing the top half off the bottom half to fit it out the door). Any suggestions on completing the structure as would best fit the max space per bird and stank reduction protocol would be much appreciated.

Thanks! - Suzi-Q

 

[sjshaw1980]