Quail help = /?

Question

Considering im homeschooled my mother has decided on a pretty exciting project for me to do- She's letting me get an incubator & some quail eggs to hatch : )

I do 4-H with horses already & have decided to raise & keep the birds as 4-H projects, too.

Anyways! My question is how can i build an outdoor pen for them? We plan on getting 8 eggs to start with & if all goes well getting more later on.

We don't want to spend TONS of money on building a coop or anything.. So i was thinking something simple like this- http://daisydfarms.com/images/quail_pins.jpg

But i'd also need to add some sort of a roof for protection 'cause they'll be outside.

can somebody PLEASE give me any ideas? What i'd need & how to build it?

Answer 1

The picture in that link looked good, but I'd remove the separators, making it one large pen.  Each bird would have more space, and they wouldn't be separated.  As for a roof, how about using waterproof wood from DIY?  Inside of their pen there should also be multiple food and water stations, toys, bedding (wood shavings would absorb a lot of the scent and fluid from their droppings), and small birdhouses for them to hang out in.