Quail Relocation Facilities

With recent onset of potential rat attacks, I have had to change the quail's living quarters.  This is where they currently are:

It is a 50 gallon storage tub from my one of my local Big Box Home stores.  (In case you were wondering, they do have water.  I had just pulled it out for the purposes of moving them prior to this picture).

Originally this was my intent for where they were going to live (I had seen quail being maintained in such a tub inside), prior to securing a rabbit cage for them to live in outside.  However, as I think the attack came from a rat getting between the cage and the bed pan and then biting up, into the tub the went until I could bring the rodent issue under control.

I think one of the big advantages in doing it this way is that the quail are not constantly running around on the wire flooring of the cage but instead on the shavings.  It also allows them to burrow into the shavings - and quail love to burrow in, as we have found out!  It also makes them super easy to cover up for the night with little or no concern about attack (yes, I am sure a rat could chew their way in there, but I have put things around to otherwise engage their attention).  This is also a fairly portable set-up - for this picture, I merely put the lid on and moved them from the garage workbench to outside.

The disadvantages, so far as I can see, is that you have to change them more often than I did, both because of their own "business" as well as the fact that they tend to spill the water, which makes it damp - and as a result the smell builds quicker (as you can see, there are holes in the side of the handle, which helps when I button them up for the night.  Also, right now I only have the cover so light is a bit of an issue - I crack the cover during the day but cannot do this too much as they have a tendency to fly out.  Perhaps a screen during the day could solve this issue and would be a fairly cheap solution.

How long will this go on?  I am not sure.  I will be honest in that I sort of like this set up better on the whole as the quail seem to be happier if for no other reason that their feet are not on the hardwire all the time and they can burrow.  I will continue to monitor see how they are doing.  

I have to say on the whole, having quail to this point has been a pleasant experience (with the unfortunate exception that we have not gotten any eggs yet!).  They are small, they are quiet, they are easy to handle, they are fairly cheap to maintain (a bag of feed goes a long way - besides that, I am just paying for wood shavings now).  From what I read, they are easy to skin and eat were you to do that (which these will never have to face - they are pets of Nighean Dhonn and will enjoy privileged status all their lives).  In a great many ways, they see very apt indeed for not only small holdings in general but small urban holdings in particular.