Quail, deep litter, and KNF

Hi all,
I'm going to cross-post this on a few other forums, too.  I have a lot of questions about putting quail on a deep litter system.  Here's the deal: I raise quail in small numbers as pets and for eggs.  But quail are messy and smelly, and each half-pound quail makes about 10 pounds of really stinky poop a day.  They also don't roost, so the poop is scattered all over and they walk in it and it stinks and draws flies.  Oh, and did I mention  that it stinks?

What I'd like to do is buy or build some kind of wire pen, and set it on top of a wooden box with no bottom.  Then fill it with shavings, and start a deep litter system.  It would have a small "coop" area for egg laying, but not a chicken type coop.  I usually use cardboard boxes with holes cut in the sides.  This way, I can compost them when they get icky.  This would be outside, on the ground.  It would be covered on top, to keep out rain.

I'm in the city, so the biggest concern regarding predators is rats.  

I've never done deep litter.  Currently, I keep them on potting soil mixed with native soil.  It's the best thing I've found for controlling smells.  BUT, I spot clean every day.  I know how to make compost: I compost all their bedding and poop and get 2 big loads a year.  What I know about composting is that it requires water.  Dry compost just sits, because it doesn't rain here for 6-8 months out of the year.  So I water my compost bin.

I am wary of putting birds on moist compost, because I've ever been taught that wet is really bad for birds.  But there's just no way the poop itself is going to have enough moisture to compost.   Chickens roost, so if their substrate is moist, they aren't living in it 24/7.  

I've been reading up on this Korean Natural Farming method of deep litter started with innoculants made from rice and local bacteria/fungi.  It's supposed to "eat" the poop and keep it from smelling.  The floor becomes a living organism.  Would this work with quail?  Couldn't I just mix in some of my compost for innoculation?  Would I have to water it?  Any ideas?  Anyone ever done this?

I’d look into biochar to mix in at 1-5% of bedding/substrate. It will help with odors, nutrient absorption, inoculation, and the birds will benefit from eating small amounts for digestion (it helps their gut biome much like the soil). California Quail seem to live in fire dependent forests, so the undoubtedly nibble on char in the wild, like many wild animals do. It is easy to make as well, or acquire some charred wood from one of our abundant local forest fires!

Ben Zumeta wrote:I’d look into biochar to mix in at 1-5% of bedding/substrate. It will help with odors, nutrient absorption, inoculation, and the birds will benefit from eating small amounts for digestion (it helps their gut biome much like the soil). California Quail seem to live in fire dependent forests, so the undoubtedly nibble on char in the wild, like many wild animals do. It is easy to make as well, or acquire some charred wood from one of our abundant local forest fires!

They're Japanese quail.  Yes, I was planning on adding biochar.  It's so damn expensive, tho.  I wonder if horticultural grade charcoal would work?

Laurel Finch wrote:Hi all,
I'm going to cross-post this on a few other forums, too.  I have a lot of questions about putting quail on a deep litter system.  Here's the deal: I raise quail in small numbers as pets and for eggs.  But quail are messy and smelly, and each half-pound quail makes about 10 pounds of really stinky poop a day.  They also don't roost, so the poop is scattered all over and they walk in it and it stinks and draws flies.  Oh, and did I mention  that it stinks?

What I'd like to do is buy or build some kind of wire pen, and set it on top of a wooden box with no bottom.  Then fill it with shavings, and start a deep litter system.  It would have a small "coop" area for egg laying, but not a chicken type coop.  I usually use cardboard boxes with holes cut in the sides.  This way, I can compost them when they get icky.  This would be outside, on the ground.  It would be covered on top, to keep out rain.

Update, for anyone interested.

I went ahead and built the box and pen, and filled it with hemp, biochar, and some of the native soil, with a layer of pure hemp on top.   I inoculated it with IMO and LAB, ala the Korean Natural method.   It's taken a while, but it's working well!  I've had a few setbacks, mostly due to rain getting in and making it wet.  I think I've got that mostly solved, altho it's hard to keep it from happening with all the rain we've been having.  There's no smell unless it gets wet.  I use a hand fork and rake it up every week or so, and add a new layer of hemp on top maybe once a month.  I'm pretty happy with it, altho it's more work then everyone said it would be.  But what isn't?

Here's a pic of my setup:

This looks great. They are VERY messy little balls of chaos. I keep mine in an outdoor aviary. About 1/3rd of mine is sand, which makes it super easy to tidy up thanks to a mesh kitchen strainer.

The other half I use pine shavings and alfalfa. Using a little garden rake to turn it and add some new shaving on top every so often.