I love this build. What is the distance from the top of the highest cage to the ground? Is the top of each cage plywood? Currently designing my setup and this is very similar to what I had envisioned. Thanks in advance for providing any answers. Do you have any socials to follow or just the TH-cam channel? Would love to see more updates and follow along on your journey.
Well that's a long story... the hen started laying eggs and then one day out of the blue just died. No clue why, she was healthy in the morning and in the afternoon she kicked the bucket. She had 11 of her own eggs in the nest so I tossed them in the incubator real quick. Meanwhile I put a bunch of chicks with the rooster so he wouldn't get lonely and to see what happens. He spends the entire night with his wings spread over them, guarding them like a mama hen!!! So i'm using him as a brooder for chickens right now. And.... two days ago 9 of the 11 silkie eggs hatched!!! So we'll be raising those ones with the silkie rooster. We're very happy with having silkies on our homestead, them and the rabbits are hands down our favorite animals.
@@400footfarm8'm sorry to hear about your hen! I didn't realize that roosters would try to brood, but I guess to a certain extent it makes sense. Reminds me of a wildlife video I saw recently. A pair of barn owls had made a nest, the male was out hunting, and the female decided to go out and stretch her wings, the male came back, and saw the eggs, and clumsily draped himself over them. I recently started both backyard chickens and quail, and so TH-cam recommended your video to me. I had the same thought of using a silkie hem to incubate quail eggs, but mine are still juveniles. Hopefully it works. I found brooding the quail to be very stressful, especially when I had three fatalities right after they hatched. At the same time, that was good, because it kept me from getting too attatched to them. We have a bevy of males to process (out of 11 quail, 9 were male). Our neighbors probably think we are out of our minds. 😅
@@AdelardRen We're all a little bit out of our minds! And yeah, baby quail love to die. I just accept that out of 40 birds or so, I'll likely have 3-5 die in the first week. But in my opinion they are significantly easier to slaughter than chickens are if you're not used to it, they don't have the same personality that chickens do. Plus easy to process. If I'm not keeping the skin on then I can do 25 in an hour with just a pair of scissors.
I just bought 4x8 galvanized steel sheets, .020" thick from my local hardware store, they're about $20 each. I use them for all kinds of things- poop trays, nest boxes, DIY chicken killing cones.... Not sure what's available where you are but you might also want to look up local metal supply stores. I just cut with tin snips as sandwich them with wood and clamps and bend the by hand. Takes a little muscles but not too bad. You can also look into making a diy bender with angle iron.
Thanks! Wire is mostly 2"x.5" mesh from a hardware store. If you're in the states maybe try Tractor Supply? Any kind of agricultural store should be able to at least point you in the right direction. If you're wanting to do something similar the only thing I'd change is having .5x.5 mesh for the floor, and for the breeder cages I'd do one level that has 3 separate sections that house 1 male and 5 females just to reduce fighting as much as possible. I'll have to do some more videos just answering the questions I've been getting.... maybe a review video of my own setup...
Thank you for your video. We will be starting our build later this month. Waiting on a big snow storm tomorrow yet. Hubs is handy at building, but my question is the trays. I saw others buying trays from Auto Zone. But I like yours. What exactly did you purchase to make the trays?
Hey, actually i just bought a 4x8 sheet of .45mm galvanized steel and made them myself. I also made my own brake out of scrap wood and steel to make the bends. I actually need to make a few more trays, maybe i'll do a quick video on how i do them.
Yup, 1 foot exactly. Some say if they're a more than a foot the quail can hurt themselves. I can neither confirm nor deny, personally. They jump explosively when they're skittish though. Edit:spelling
Did you make this completely from scratch or did you have a blueprint you followed? I am trying to get into Quail with the help of my neighbor, and this looks like a very low-profile hutch while still being big enough to be decently comfortable for them and provide a space to give them shelter from the elements. We dont have a lot of bad weather here (we're a coastal region so everything stays relatively mild year-round) but it does rain a fair amount and dont want the little fellows to have to deal with that if they're outside.
I did it completely from scratch and figured it out as I went along. I took some inspiration from other channels like Slightly Rednecked, Myshire Farms and Living Traditions Homestead but I wanted something much denser seeing as I only have 400 square feet at my disposal for raising animals.
Awesome quail set-up!! Looking forward to your next videos describing your hutches/cages in detail!!
I love the way they look.
They are cool birds!
I need about a dozen of these.
It's nice that they have a secluded area to chill out.
Yeah it makes a difference I think!
@@400footfarm8do you have a build video or plans?
Looks very pretty! Nice job!
Thanks! Now working on my rabbit cages and just about done so stay tuned!
Cool set up.
I really like your design, would you consider making a simple blue print to share? Thank you!
Nice! Looking forward to more update videos 😍
That looks awesome!
Thank you very much internet person!
Nice setup!
I love this build. What is the distance from the top of the highest cage to the ground? Is the top of each cage plywood? Currently designing my setup and this is very similar to what I had envisioned. Thanks in advance for providing any answers. Do you have any socials to follow or just the TH-cam channel? Would love to see more updates and follow along on your journey.
That is a beautiful place. What state is this?
How are the silkies working out for you?
Well that's a long story... the hen started laying eggs and then one day out of the blue just died. No clue why, she was healthy in the morning and in the afternoon she kicked the bucket. She had 11 of her own eggs in the nest so I tossed them in the incubator real quick. Meanwhile I put a bunch of chicks with the rooster so he wouldn't get lonely and to see what happens. He spends the entire night with his wings spread over them, guarding them like a mama hen!!! So i'm using him as a brooder for chickens right now.
And.... two days ago 9 of the 11 silkie eggs hatched!!! So we'll be raising those ones with the silkie rooster. We're very happy with having silkies on our homestead, them and the rabbits are hands down our favorite animals.
@@400footfarm8'm sorry to hear about your hen!
I didn't realize that roosters would try to brood, but I guess to a certain extent it makes sense. Reminds me of a wildlife video I saw recently. A pair of barn owls had made a nest, the male was out hunting, and the female decided to go out and stretch her wings, the male came back, and saw the eggs, and clumsily draped himself over them.
I recently started both backyard chickens and quail, and so TH-cam recommended your video to me.
I had the same thought of using a silkie hem to incubate quail eggs, but mine are still juveniles. Hopefully it works.
I found brooding the quail to be very stressful, especially when I had three fatalities right after they hatched.
At the same time, that was good, because it kept me from getting too attatched to them. We have a bevy of males to process (out of 11 quail, 9 were male).
Our neighbors probably think we are out of our minds. 😅
@@AdelardRen We're all a little bit out of our minds! And yeah, baby quail love to die. I just accept that out of 40 birds or so, I'll likely have 3-5 die in the first week. But in my opinion they are significantly easier to slaughter than chickens are if you're not used to it, they don't have the same personality that chickens do. Plus easy to process. If I'm not keeping the skin on then I can do 25 in an hour with just a pair of scissors.
Nice set up. Where do you buy the sheet metal for the trays?
I just bought 4x8 galvanized steel sheets, .020" thick from my local hardware store, they're about $20 each. I use them for all kinds of things- poop trays, nest boxes, DIY chicken killing cones.... Not sure what's available where you are but you might also want to look up local metal supply stores. I just cut with tin snips as sandwich them with wood and clamps and bend the by hand. Takes a little muscles but not too bad. You can also look into making a diy bender with angle iron.
Do you have to climb inside the cage to collect the eggs or does it have some sort of sliding shelf for the eggs to go to the front?
It's only two feet deep so i can pretty easily reach in and get them.
What did you use for the wire? Where did you get it? I really like your setup! Could you send me more pictures or information please?
Thanks! Wire is mostly 2"x.5" mesh from a hardware store. If you're in the states maybe try Tractor Supply? Any kind of agricultural store should be able to at least point you in the right direction.
If you're wanting to do something similar the only thing I'd change is having .5x.5 mesh for the floor, and for the breeder cages I'd do one level that has 3 separate sections that house 1 male and 5 females just to reduce fighting as much as possible.
I'll have to do some more videos just answering the questions I've been getting.... maybe a review video of my own setup...
@@400footfarm8 a video to answer questions would be great! I’m in Arkansas
Did you have a plan , looks great I buy 5.00 plan or 10 plan
Thanks, but no I didn't work from a plan, I just kinda worked from a napkin sketch and figured it out as i went
Thank you for your video. We will be starting our build later this month. Waiting on a big snow storm tomorrow yet. Hubs is handy at building, but my question is the trays. I saw others buying trays from Auto Zone. But I like yours. What exactly did you purchase to make the trays?
Hey, actually i just bought a 4x8 sheet of .45mm galvanized steel and made them myself. I also made my own brake out of scrap wood and steel to make the bends. I actually need to make a few more trays, maybe i'll do a quick video on how i do them.
Are those cages a foot high?
Yup, 1 foot exactly. Some say if they're a more than a foot the quail can hurt themselves. I can neither confirm nor deny, personally. They jump explosively when they're skittish though.
Edit:spelling
Did you make this completely from scratch or did you have a blueprint you followed? I am trying to get into Quail with the help of my neighbor, and this looks like a very low-profile hutch while still being big enough to be decently comfortable for them and provide a space to give them shelter from the elements.
We dont have a lot of bad weather here (we're a coastal region so everything stays relatively mild year-round) but it does rain a fair amount and dont want the little fellows to have to deal with that if they're outside.
I did it completely from scratch and figured it out as I went along. I took some inspiration from other channels like Slightly Rednecked, Myshire Farms and Living Traditions Homestead but I wanted something much denser seeing as I only have 400 square feet at my disposal for raising animals.
Quail will brood in a more natural setting. A wire cage full of other birds just isn't the right setting.
Yeah I get it, I wouldn't want to raise my kids in a wire cage either 😅
Baby quail doesn't need parents to raise them like chickens do. They hatch and start running around and eating later that same day.