I've already just touched on this habitat in my article on encouraging pair bonding and nesting which you can find, here but below you will find a detailed account of the design criteria and physical build. Just to reiterate though, the reason for this build was to create an 'open', natural environment, where my quail would be safe to pursue their wild breeding and sleeping habits, i.e with the illusion of an open space but without the threat from predators. Once my quail started to pair bond and create designated nesting sites, I realised that despite their trust in me, any interference on my part, such as putting them away at night, or covering the nests, interfered with the quail's behaviour patterns and disrupted their relationships. Thus they needed to have a stable and safe environment.
Choice of Site
As you can see below, in our forest garden, we didn't exactly have a great deal of choice as to where to site the quail safe house!
The choice of making it an addition to an existing building was an obvious one for three reasons:
- the quail already knew this greenhouse space, in fact it was there preferred one and they had started to nest in it,
-
it was protected from the prevalent Westerlies by the back of a neighbouring longhouse,
-
it additionally had the trellis arbour adjoined to it and this would allow yet another space for the quail to use, during the day, as it is potentially open to predators after dark.
Design Criteria
This new quail home/greenhouse was to have very specific criteria due to its unique position and function but these are actually in reality minor in structural design and no way preclude it from being useful for a multitude of purposes including just growing 'predator-free' food. In particular round here we have field voles, who have a brilliant and clever way of eating root vegetables by hollowing them out slowly and methodically, so you don't realise what's happening until all of a sudden a whole row of beetroot, for example, will suddenly wilt and keel over!
Here are the criteria for the quail safe house:
- all year round outdoor living
- an environment that encourages pair-bonding
- safety from predators above and below
- a planted environment, which will sustain itself
- an environment which encourages the proliferation of arthropods
- a roof that could be partially open (or covered) to allow access for rain and direct sunlight (vitamin D₃)
- a windproof environment except from the South (we get Atlantic breezes)
- an illusion of being open and spacious but without dangers
- natural materials which blend well with our forest garden
- would not interrupt the view; so built on a slight angle to blend into the vista or enfilade, which flowed from the trellis arbour, and existent greenhouse*
- easy care and maintenance
- can be built of recuperated/recycled materials
- can be added on to an existing and favourite greenhouse of the quail to allow for them to access that additional space when vegetables/fruit were above quail height**
- big enough footprint to allow a group of 12 or more quail to feel unpressured and able to form their own mini territories.
- allows the rose bushes at the side of the planned extension to get good access to light
* Garden Room with a View
** The recycled glass window at the end of the greenhouse was to be removed and replaced with a doorway to access the new build quail house. This was the greenhouse the quail seemed most at home in!
Materials & Measurements
The design (and thus the materials needed) is informed by the dimensions of the window frames to be used.
For example, we had already recuperated 3 identical pairs of double-paned, single glazed casement windows. These frames measured as follows:
Each pair was:
width 60" (1535mm)
height 57" (1440mm)
thickness 1½" (35mm)
For the rest of the material I drew from our collection of untreated pallet wood, you can find all the information on identifying untreated pallets and breaking them down for carpentry here on our other site: The Green Lever and there is a link to the relevant articles at the end of this one (plus more chicken coop designs).
The breakdown of the pallet wood used is as follows:
For the roof: 16 standard pallet wood planks of ¾" (20mm) thickness, plus...
For the stops and and ridge connecting pieces a couple of pallet planks or uprights of 1" (25mm) thickness
For the support posts for the walls 9 uprights - this is because each upright can be cut in half lengthwise to furnish one post.
Laths cut from pallet wood (approximately 1 standard pallet) to attach the polythene.
200 micron UV-Stabilised Horticultural Grade Polythene 130ft² - 12m²
Chicken wire (optional) to cover between the first and second roof truss. This is then covered in Winter with screw on frames of polythene (see film)
Screws and Nails
I had already changed the recuperated window at the back of the existent greenhouse for a homemade pallet wood door, some time previously. You can see this door below left in an image we took partway through the build, with the Site Manager looking on
in Part Two which you can access here, we will look at the detailed step-by-step build.
Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube, Odysee or BitChute Channel or even supporting us on Patreon or
Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie!
© 2021 Sue Cross
RELATED ARTICLES
Creating A Safe Quail Area Part 2 - The Build
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Tips and strategies for raising natural organic quail chicks
A Few Guidelines for Collecting Pallets
Pallets - The Low-down - Where, What and How.
How to Dismantle Pallets for free Carpentry Wood
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see part 2! I have 7 quail in a pen with about 30 sq. ft. They're on dirt. They've been in there for over a year, and I never see any broodiness. I had 2 males with 8 girls, but the males fought. So now I have one male to 6 ladies. I go in and scoop every day, and I still get problems with ammonia if the dirt gets even a little wet. How do you deal with that? How do you keep something like this clean and odor free? How do you collect the eggs? I'd love to e-mail you about this. Do you have a direct address?
Hi there, are you the same Fiesta Cranberry who uploaded that great picture of your cockerel Bruce to my Instructables page? If so, you can send me a private message via Instructables, just click on my icon or name and it will bring up my page and at the top is a 'Message' box where you can send me your email address.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to your quail, I think your space needs to be movable perhaps like a chicken tractor, I have a really large greenhouse as you can see and it is planted up. In the Winter I add layers of leaves, so there is constant activity, either them scratching up soil or worms and other invertebrate breaking everything down. Are your quail indoors in the pen or outside? The action of the weather makes a difference too. I've never had a problem probably because I'm directly on the soil and outside.
Re aggression, you may need to increase their access to invertebrates, particularly in the breeding season, to get their nutrient levels up and thus their nervous systems balanced. I've actually learnt so much more about nutrition and deficiency from keeping quail. They have an almost instant reaction to nutrient imbalance and equally you can get them quickly back to optimum health, of both the physical and nervous system by remedying that. Often in a group of quail you may be feeding them a good balanced diet but part of their hierarchy is that those highest in the pecking order get the optimum quality food, so it's good to observe them to make sure everyone gets a fair share. Amino acids, particularly L-methionine and the B complex vitamins as well as selenium all have an effect on mood and the former particularly on aggression, it is directly linked to feather pecking and other bullying-type behaviour in poultry. There is so much to learn, just by observation and experimenting with getting the diet and environment just right. Sometimes it can be a strategically planted shrub that has made all the difference in nesting behaviour. It's all about creating the illusion of space too, so they feel they have room to behave naturally.
As for eggs, well mine have designated nesting areas and they will wait until they get back to them to lay. Once or twice though, someone has found an egg in the verges of the lane outside our house where I had the quail free-ranging!
All the very best from a rather rainy day in Normandy, which is why Part Two should be out shortly - I am indoors for once - hugging the woodstove and writing this! Sue xx