TENNESSERED
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« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2010, 05:22:44 PM » |
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Hello Abby, I've raised Japanese quail for over 40 years and still like them the best of all my quails. I think you will find that your quail will be much happier and live longer if you do indeed put them on the ground in their own little pen. Your idea of building a separate pen inside of your chicken pen is a good one. They will have a double barrier against predators. You have to be careful because predators will like to snack on your quail a lot. I have my jumbo brown japs a pen built into the end of one of my pheasant houses. It is 6' by 6' and almost 10 feet high. You don't need that much height, but I have doves living in the pen as well. You need to have a good solid roof on it to keep them in and keep snackers out. I would suggest metal. It will last a long time and keep your quail dry and healthy. A simple frame structure made out of 2 by 4's would be all you need with 1" chicken wire around the outside. You also want to put up a solid barrier around the base of the pen at least 16" high to keep racoons and cats from reaching through and eating your quail through the chicken wire. If your chicken pen is predator proof than you don't have to be quite so careful with your quail pen. Have fun with your new birds. By the way their eggs do taste great and if you make them into deviled eggs for you next church potluck everyone will ask you how you could get such cute little chicken eggs!
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