Coturnix Quail in raised garden

Anyone have any experience keeping quail in an enclosed raised garden? Originally, I was thinking of dividing the bed into sections and doing succession planting and rotating the quail onto the fallow section. This morning I thought about doing away with the dividers. Here are my thoughts and concerns regarding the no divider approach:

- I would have to provide protection for new plants but I don't think quail would damage an established plant
- Quail may try to escape while I'm working a portion of the garden. I might install a method to temporarily section off the portion of the garden I'm working on.

Any ideas or anecdotes would be appreciated
 

Aaron Yarbrough wrote:Anyone have any experience keeping quail in an enclosed raised garden? Originally, I was thinking of dividing the bed into sections and doing succession planting and rotating the quail onto the fallow section. This morning I thought about doing away with the dividers. Here are my thoughts and concerns regarding the no divider approach:

- I would have to provide protection for new plants but I don't think quail would damage an established plant
- Quail may try to escape while I'm working a portion of the garden. I might install a method to temporarily section off the portion of the garden I'm working on.

Any ideas or anecdotes would be appreciated
 

Hi Aaron!

They will decimate your plants.  They will trample them and/or eat them.  I have never been able to keep any plant alive in my quail pen, and now resort to artificial leaves... sigh.   Their poop is extremely high in nitrogen, and will burn the plants.  And they poop A LOT.  And they will absolutely try to escape.  They have very little homing instinct, they're hard to catch, and they will fly over your fence easily.  And every predator in the world loves them.  They're like feathered meatballs.

Most people I know who do this put them in the raised bed as the crop is winding down.  They'll eat a lot of it, if it's greens, and stir up the soil a bit, and poop a LOT.  Then they let the bed rest for a while so the poop can age, and replant without the birds.  They make a movable cover that can go from bed to bed, and rotate the birds.  Also, you have to be careful you don't put them in with anything toxic, like tomatoes.

Laurel Finch wrote:
They will decimate your plants.  They will trample them and/or eat them.  I have never been able to keep any plant alive in my quail pen, and now resort to artificial leaves... sigh.   Their poop is extremely high in nitrogen, and will burn the plants.  And they poop A LOT.  And they will absolutely try to escape.  They have very little homing instinct, they're hard to catch, and they will fly over your fence easily.  And every predator in the world loves them.  They're like feathered meatballs.

Most people I know who do this put them in the raised bed as the crop is winding down.  They'll eat a lot of it, if it's greens, and stir up the soil a bit, and poop a LOT.  Then they let the bed rest for a while so the poop can age, and replant without the birds.  They make a movable cover that can go from bed to bed, and rotate the birds.  Also, you have to be careful you don't put them in with anything toxic, like tomatoes.

Hi Laurel,

I've reverted back to the quadrant rotational idea. I wonder if there are any heavy feeder plants that would appreciate the high nitrogen content.

Aaron Yarbrough wrote:

Hi Laurel,

I've reverted back to the quadrant rotational idea. I wonder if there are any heavy feeder plants that would appreciate the high nitrogen content.

I would think maybe something leafy?  

Do you have them yet?  Just be prepared for a LOT of poop.  I've never seen an animal that poops as much as a quail.  So, depending on how many you have, and how big the space is, they will cover the area with poop in a fairly short time.  You will probably need to add some kind of dry matter on top, or even more soil.

I know for the first 2 years I had them, I would clean out the whole pen twice a year and then compost it for 6 months (it doesn't freeze here).  I spread it all over my yard, which is pretty much just sand, since I'm right at the beach. Everything grew like crazy, but I did have some problems with soft growth, which got attacked by aphids.  And that was after it was composted.  I'm thinking it may need to be balanced out with something like bone meal?  I don't know enough about chemistry to figure it out.  Maybe I should post this on the composting forum?  Anyway, I watch this permaculture guy Stephan-some Polish name on YT, and he had a whole episode about what attracts certain pests.  And soft growth from too much nitrogen was one thing!  He's really interesting; I always wondered why I have no earthworms, but lots of ants.  It's because my soil is so sandy.  

I love the way I can integrate the quail into the garden, and make it a somewhat closed loop.  To me, this is fascinating stuff.  That's why no one wants to talk to me... sigh.

This is the example of this that comes to mind: https://velacreations.com/blog/quail-nests/

William Bronson wrote:This is the example of this that comes to mind: https://velacreations.com/blog/quail-nests/

Thanks for the link. I've used several of Abe's creations before I haven't seen this post. I might try to reach out to him to see if there were any more developments regarding quail in the garden.

Laurel Finch wrote:
Do you have them yet?  Just be prepared for a LOT of poop.  I've never seen an animal that poops as much as a quail.  So, depending on how many you have, and how big the space is, they will cover the area with poop in a fairly short time.  You will probably need to add some kind of dry matter on top, or even more soil.

The plan is to build the enclosure in February, get some plants started and introduce quail in late March/April. I've tractored quail in the past and if I didn't move the tractor at least every five days or so the grass would be gone. In this case the total enclosure is over 80 square feet so each quadrant is 20 sqft. I think I'll start fairly low density with around a dozen quail. Quail require around 1 sqft per bird so almost 2 sqft per bird should be luxurious. Then I'll tinker timing for rotating the flock.    

Laurel Finch wrote:
I know for the first 2 years I had them, I would clean out the whole pen twice a year and then compost it for 6 months (it doesn't freeze here).  I spread it all over my yard, which is pretty much just sand, since I'm right at the beach. Everything grew like crazy, but I did have some problems with soft growth, which got attacked by aphids.  And that was after it was composted.  I'm thinking it may need to be balanced out with something like bone meal?  I don't know enough about chemistry to figure it out.  Maybe I should post this on the composting forum?  Anyway, I watch this permaculture guy Stephan-some Polish name on YT, and he had a whole episode about what attracts certain pests.  And soft growth from too much nitrogen was one thing!  He's really interesting; I always wondered why I have no earthworms, but lots of ants.  It's because my soil is so sandy.

Stefan Sobkowiak? Yes, he has some good videos. Post away here at Permies. There are some really smart people here.  

Laurel Finch wrote:
I love the way I can integrate the quail into the garden, and make it a somewhat closed loop.  To me, this is fascinating stuff.  That's why no one wants to talk to me... sigh.

I'm sure I'll need lots of supplemental feed but this experiment is more about raising quail in an environment with soil and plants.  


 

So I've built the quail garden. We've only had residents for a few weeks so its still inconclusive how well it will work.

Here's the video:


Here is my blog article that goes into more detail:
Offgridburbia - Raising Quail in the Garden

And here are some pictures:

A two and half month update on the quail garden. I have nine birds and a very large cucumber plant. Fortunately I used heavy duty gas struts for the doors.







I got a hold of some edible air potato bulbils and I'm hoping it will succeed the cucumber plant.

Hello! Not sure if you’ll see this as I am replying a year late to this forum. I saw your video on YouTube and love the idea! How has it worked out for you so far? I would like to build something like this however with a shorter lid. Have you found this height to be okay? How about rain? Do you find it gets quite swampy during heavy rainstorms?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated because I think the design is genius!

Christina Van wrote:Hello! Not sure if you’ll see this as I am replying a year late to this forum. I saw your video on YouTube and love the idea! How has it worked out for you so far? I would like to build something like this however with a shorter lid. Have you found this height to be okay? How about rain? Do you find it gets quite swampy during heavy rainstorms?

Welcome to Permies! I saw your post a couple of days and meant to get some pictures of the current state of the aviary but the weather hasn't been that great lately. I'll get some soon.

The height seems to be pretty good. I haven't had any fatalities or observed any head injuries.

It drains really well. I also put down a layer of wood chips so the ground seems to stay pretty dry. The perimeter overhang is really important for providing shelter during inclement weather.

I've given up on growing grass in the paddocks. Instead I've taken to planting larger shrubs in the cells that quail won't trample. I wonder if I already had grass established it would fare better.

I'm not enamored with the A-Frame structure. The big doors are great for accessing an unoccupied paddock but opening a cell with quail in it is asking for an escape. Fortunately, the quail are easily lured into surrounding paddocks if I need to collect eggs or something. I have plans to rebuild the aviary into something with a more rectangular shape but its not the highest priority on my project list.

I'll post updates here and on my website.