Setting up a quail house — space, bedding, dust bath, security

A quail house needs little, but what little it needs, it needs properly: enough floor area per bird, a dry floor with bedding, a dust bath, cover to withdraw into, several separate feeding and drinking places and a catch that will hold against a marten. Height is secondary, and with quail it is kept deliberately low. Everything beyond that is comfort for the keeper, not for the birds.

Space per bird

How much area a bird needs is the first question and the one most often answered wrongly. In hobby keeping people commonly reckon on about 0.2 to 0.3 square metres of usable floor area per bird; in aviary keeping it is well above that, in commercial systems well below. This range is a figure from experience, not a regulation.

What the law requires is not written here. Minimum dimensions, registration and hygiene requirements are regulated differently by federal state and district, and what counts is the information from your responsible veterinary office or district administration. Ask there before you build — a query costs a phone call, a rebuild costs a weekend.

Two additions that matter more in practice than the bare square metre:

• Usable means usable. The area under the feeder, the drinker and the dust bath tray does not count. Count it in and you are keeping the birds closer than you think.
• The group decides too. Too many cocks make any area too small. One cock to three to five hens is usual; anyone not breeding keeps hen-only groups with no cock at all — often the quietest option.

Height: why low is an advantage

Quail fly up almost vertically when startled, without a run-up and without steering. In a high house they pick up speed as they do so and hit their heads against the ceiling — head injuries are the most common avoidable accident in quail keeping.

From this follow two clean solutions and one dangerous zone in between:

1. Build low. So low that flying up is not possible at all; in practice such houses are in the region of 30 to 50 centimetres of internal height. For a ground bird that is no deprivation: quail need no perches and no climbing levels.
2. Build high and make the ceiling soft. From head height upwards, a net or a gauze fitted under the hard ceiling absorbs the impact.
3. In between — roughly knee height to hip height with a hard ceiling — is exactly the zone in which the birds take a run-up and hit unchecked.

Build low and you have to think of yourself from the start: a removable lid or a large flap over the whole area. A house you can only reach into through a small door does not get cleaned, it gets put off.

Floor and bedding

Wire floors are unsuitable for hobby keeping. They cost the birds everything that makes up their behaviour — scratching, dust bathing, pecking in the substrate — and encourage injuries to toes and foot pads. The whole area belongs under bedding.

The surface underneath decides the smell. Bare wood soaks itself full and smells permanently after one season; lay in a tray, a sheet of PVC or a metal sheet and spread the bedding on that. If the house stands on bare ground, a dig-proof barrier belongs underneath.

Low-dust wood shavings, hemp or flax straw bedding and spelt husks have proved themselves as bedding, deep enough for scratching. Damp hay and bark mulch hold water and go mouldy. For everyday use: dry beats deep — a thin dry layer is better than a thick damp one.

The dust bath

Quail care for their plumage with dry, fine dust. The dust takes up excess skin oil that would otherwise clump the feathers, and it disturbs feather lice and mites purely mechanically. A dust bath is therefore plumage care and prevention in one, not entertainment.

• What belongs in it: dry, fine sand, play sand or bird sand for instance. Many keepers mix in a little dry garden soil or cold wood ash from untreated wood.
• Diatomaceous earth is often recommended and works against mites, but it is a fine dust that also burdens the lungs of birds and keeper. Use it sparingly, not in the closed box, and never raise it into the air.
• The container: shallow, with a low rim, but big enough for a bird to turn round completely in it and lie on its side.
• Keep it dry. Wet sand is no dust bath. The tray stands best under cover and not next to the drinker.

Cover and visual screening

Quail are ground birds from terrain rich in cover. An empty, evenly lit area is not a space to them but exposure — the group stays restless and presses against the walls. Structure costs almost nothing:

• Branches stood up, tufts of grass, wisps of hay, a willow arch, a box on its side, a piece of board across two stones.
• Always two ways out. A hiding place with only one opening becomes a dead end in which a low-ranking bird is cornered and harried.
• A dark, quiet corner becomes the preferred laying place. Quail build no nest, but they prefer to lay in cover — and you then find the eggs in one place instead of twelve.

Feeding and drinking places

The rule is: more places than necessary, spread around the space, never all in the same corner. Where everything is concentrated at one point, a bottleneck forms that high-ranking birds occupy — and whoever needs it most comes last.

• At least two separate feeding places, more for larger groups. As a rule of thumb about a third of the group should be able to feed at the same time.
• Set them up at the birds' back height or raise them slightly. That saves feed, because less is scratched out, and keeps droppings out of the bowl.
• With the drinker both systems have their side: bowls are self-explanatory, but they get dirty and wet the bedding. Nipple or cup drinkers stay clean, but a failure is only noticed when the birds are already thirsty. Anyone changing over offers both for a while.
• For chicks, fill every open drinker with marbles or pebbles so that they do not drown.

Security against predators

A quail house is a laid table for marten, rat, weasel, fox, cat and bird of prey. Most losses happen at night.

• Aviary mesh rather than rabbit netting. Hexagonal netting can be bent open and torn open. Spot-welded mesh is the basic equipment, close enough at the bottom that a rat or a weasel cannot get through.
• Wire thickness before mesh size. A fine but thin mesh is no use if the wire gives way.
• Think from below. Fox and rat dig. Either mesh under the whole area or a strip folded outwards in an L shape, weighted and buried.
• Catches that need two movements. Martens open simple sliding and turning catches. Karabiners, turn buttons with a safety catch or a bolt with a split pin will hold. Doors should close flush.
• A tight roof. Against birds of prey and against rain at the same time.
• The evening check is the cheapest protection: walk round the house once and put your hand on every fastening.

Cleaning: daily, weekly, rarely

Two notes on that. Disinfectants only work on clean, dry surfaces — applied over dirt they are money lost. And if you find grey or reddish crumbs in the joints, the birds are restless at night and show pale head skin, talk about diagnosis and treatment with the vet instead of treating on the off chance.