Unsecure chicken perches

[beach chick]

OH should be making my new quail pens shortly. at the moment, to make life more interesting they have flowerpots on their sides to run in and out of, and some short sections of old drain pipe to hide in. plus food and water, obv...

 

I did try putting in some offcuts of yew branches for them to sit in, but they seemed very unimpressed, and as I didnt have much they only had 1 small branch per run. til I get my new runs, I have 6 in a standard eglu run, 2 in a rabbit ark and 4 in a wire pen. plan is I will have 2 colonies of 6 each.

 

any ideas about how to make their pens more interesting/comfortable? I dont think they roost do they? they mostly seem to scuttle about or lie down....

thanks!

[Guest]

somewhere for them to dust bathe and hanging greens maybe?

[beach chick]

one lot are on bare dry earth, and they like dustbathing in that. the others are on grass, and are moved around every few days because they are just so messy! and they treat anything like greens with immense suspicion. someone on another site suggested silk plants, so I'm going to see what I can find, cant keep decimating the rather piddly yew bushes we have!!

[beach chick]

got some plastic plant stems from the florist yesterday - they look a bit pathetic, but the quail seem to like having them to skip in and out of!!!

[beach chick]

added sand baths today, playsand in un-holey garden seed trays. immense suspicion all round!!! however I now have 2 colonies of 6 each, and that has gone well. phew

[Janty]

I grow mixed salad leaves (or hubby does) in trays for the quail. They eat the leaves then dust bathe in the soil that is left.

 

I also have some of that flexi wooden garden edging bent over the top of the plant pots for them to run up and down. They love that...I've hung some feeders up higher so that they can stand on top of the flexi edging and have a munch.

 

Then I have a wicker cat basket that they sometimes sleep in. They also lay the vast majority of their eggs in the basket. One lot of quail have a basket with a raised opening. They merrily hop up and down and I fill this basket with aubiouse.

 

I also hang millet sprays and seed balls up for them.

[MiseryBusiness]

Thanks! I tried the millet spray and they loved it! Might try the wicker basket soon too.