Building a Safe Quail Habitat - Part 2 The Build

You can find the first part of this article here, which covers the siting, design criteria and materials and measurements for and of this build.

One of my dreams for my quail and which actually came into fruition after this build was for them to sit and raise their own chicks. Above is my Golden Italian quail, Caramel concentrating on doing the former! In the third and final part of this article, I'll look at the particular plants and structures I chose to complete the environment.

Preparing the Site and Laying the Bottom Board

The Bottom Board each made from a single large pallet length were laid in position and the earth was adjusted accordingly. At the end of the build a layer of brick was dug in to butt up to this board to prevent ingress from rats. It has worked so far!

Support Posts

These as previously stated were made of a long pallet wood plank cut lengthwise and then sandwiched together with nails.

The posts were then pointed at one end and driven into the ground in their designated places i.e. where they would support the windows.

Fitting the Outer Facing Board

Another long pallet length was fitted to the top of the posts on the outside face so as to be vertically inline with the bottom board.

Preparing and Fitting the Windows

The casement windows have a central vertical weatherstrip attached to one of the pair both on the inner and outer face, approximately a 4" length was removed from the top and bottom of the window, so as to permit the inner and outer board to fit snuggly against it.

Fitting the Windows

The windows rest on the bottom board.

They are sandwiched between the outer and inner board at the bottom and inner and outer barge boards at the top.

These boards in turn are screwed to the posts. This is why the posts are cut to the exact window thickness.

In the final segment, I'll share how the polythene was attached but the above and below images are most useful to illustrate these two stages of the construction.

Gable End

This comprises just outer boards, to which are screwed laths to sandwich the polythene.

Diagonal braces stiffen the structure.

Roof Carpentry - Construction

In order that the four roof trusses should be identical, a jig was created from two pallets, so that each truss could be replicated easily.

Each truss comprised 4 standard pallet planks nailed to 'stops' and a ridge plate. These were sandwiched between the planks at the bottom and top respectively.

The stops were trimmed to the slope line of the trusses with a saw once they they were nailed together as were the ridge plates (picture above). This is much easier than trying to gauge the slope and cut each stop and ridge plate beforehand.

Roof Carpentry - Fitting the Trusses

The first truss to go on was the one that butted onto the end of the existing greenhouse and was screwed to it.

The second was the one that fitted to the opposite gable end. This truss was screwed through the 'stop' to the top barge board of the house carpentry.

I then ran a string between these two, so as to make sure that I had all the other trusses in line.

I also ran a plumb line to check for vertical levels too.

Fitting the Wire and Roof Ridges

The wire was fitted to the first pair of trusses with planks to hold it into place. This was also to facilitate the screwing in of polythene covers in the Winter.

Two lengths of long pallet wood planks (purlins) were screwed either side of the ridge to join the trusses and form a rigid roof structure.

Fitting the Polythene

In some of the images above, I have shown the polythene already in place but in this final segment, I'll just go through how that was achieved. 

The polythene was positioned and held in place with spring clamps and then screwed to the roof trusses with pallet plank laths.

The edges of the polythene were secured with narrower laths and screwed in place (see detail below)

In the next and final segment, see below,  we will look at planting up, with suggestions for vegetation and fitting out the environment with ideas for additional features. 

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

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

 

© 2021 Sue Cross

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Building a Safe Quail Habitat to Encourage Natural Behaviours and Joie de Vivre

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)

The thickness of the frames you choose is crucial, as this sets the thickness of the posts, which were made from sandwiching together two pallet uprights. I will explain this further when we come to the section on fitting the windows. These planks, we can find easily at plumbers, glaziers and general carpenters.

 

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.

For the supporting frame of the greenhouse boards and roof purlins 18 extra long pallet planks 8' (2540mm)

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

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

 

© 2021 Sue Cross

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