Mama Hen

Mama Hen

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Quail Condos, cages for the backyard flock.

In our city we are limited in our chicken family size to 10 chickens. There is however no limit to quail. I did a ton of research at http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/48/quail and decided that it was something I could handle. After a little begging and pleading and some amazing dinner and desert bribes my husband caved to let me have Quail.
 I Picked up 10 A&M quail yesterday and thought I would leisurely build the quail condo.  Wrong! In all my research I did not read that Quail stink to high heaven! After one night in my bathroom I and my husband had had enough and I set to work building the quail condo. Why not DH? Well he is amazingly handsome, brilliantly smart (we call him the walking encyclopedia). How ever he was not blessed with the ability to constuct things like quali condos. 

So with my limited skills I set to this task.

We started with a bookcase that was roughly 2x3. I used what Home depot called firring strips to build up with edges first. This created about a 2 inch deep spot where I plan to fill with sand. This will be the flooring of my condo. I have seen people who built chicken coops and use sand and they are able to scoop it like a kitty litter box, so I am hoping fo the same effect. 


I built a framed door that will open down. My husband suggested a little chain to keep it from flopping open, Go Honey! Thats a great idea and I will add that after my next trip to Home Depot!

Next I added a little hok and eye type closure. Now as I mentioned my quail are going to be kept in a garage or my back yard which is fenced with a 6 foot block wall, so there really not much of a chance that they will get eaten. We dont have raccoons or possums here. If you live in an area with these types of critters you would want to rethink this type of closure and go with something more safe. 


Next step is to paint and add the hardware cloth, 1/2 inch to the door and the back of the Quail Condo. I had to stop for the day because my little princess( baby Zen who is 8 months) had had enough of daddy.  Im only planning on finishing 2 condos right now but I plan on building out 4 of the shelfs to condos and then leaving one shelf for supplies. 




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