Quail Stack Lodging
         


Here is a photo of our first attempt at building our own stack style accommodations for housing quail.

You can easily see in this photo that the wire cages are resting on wooden slats. That was our mistake, as the wider area that the cage rests on allows droppings to build up.

The improved model replaces the wooden slats with 3/8" allthread, which totally corrected the build-up problem.

The cages themselves for Coturnix variety quail are 24" deep, 30" wide and 7 or 8" tall. The wire we use and reccommend is half inch by half inch. All of our cages use this wire, although brooders either need quarter by quarter inch OR something like rubber shelf-liner in the bottom for secure footing. (Little quail feet can become trapped in the larger mesh. Also, small quail, such as smaller Bobwhites or Button Quail can stick their little heads through the sides and become trapped, and will quickly die.)
    
J-clips and J-clip pliers are a must for attaching the components of the wire cages, and a rotary tool, such as a Dremel, works very well at grinding down edges so you (and your birds) do not get scratched up on doors, door openings, feed-through windows, etc.




 

Speaking of the feed-through windows, my next picture shows my feed-through windows so an external trough-style feeder can be used. This system saves space inside each cage and saves time in feeding - no more opening and closing pen doors at feeding time.

Disadvantages: Small chicks cannot use this system, they can walk right out of the holes! Loose birds (or other animals, if they have access) can feed out of the troughs that they can reach. Troughs should be sheltered from rain, which would spoil feed.

TIP: Always feed birds with external troughs from the bottom-most cage to the top-most cage. If you do not, the birds will "rain" food down on your head, in your hair, etc. while feeding. YUCK! Ba-ad little quail, rotten tricks!





Here is a more recently designed stack housing some more Texas A&M quail. This is a Grower Stack, note that it does NOT have external trough feeders.

We call this an "end-loader" stack, because the doors are in the long ends of the cage. The major disadvantage to this design is that it is difficult to reach to the far back of each pen from the door. In some layouts, it may be easier for some or all stacks to be "end-loaders" as opposed to "side loaders".

We manufacture our own dropping trays for our own stacks, as shown here. We found the commercially available type very inadequate for Coturnix varieties of quail. They are "okay" for Bobwhite, but not good. They are also expensive to purchase and the shipping is unbelievable! We have a factory nearby that manufactures metal swimming pool siding, and sells extra at scrap prices. This combined with tin snips, a metal brake, some pop rivets, etc. and you can make some very good three-sided dropping trays for very little! We have found that this metal stands up to the abuse of the very moist, heavy Coturnix manure.

Other good tips to control odor: a dehumidifer in an enclosed building will reduce the wetness of the droppings and help control unneccasary odor. Other than that - clean your dropping days no less frequently than every other day. Spray the trays after they are scraped clean with TekTrol, from a pressurized sprayer. Spray your cages every week with the same, and disinfect feeders and waterers regularly with TekTrol. Your birds will love you for it!

As I can get better photos of it, I will include the "tri-cage" setup that we use for Bobwhite Quail and for Button Quail. Hopefully, I will be adding more soon so keep coming back to look often!



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