Introducing The Quail Pod on-ground backyard quail coop plans
Plans for our newest coop design — a ground-level quail coop — are now available! We call it The Quail Pod, and it’s our second design meant specifically for housing backyard quail. The Quail Pod offers the same security and modern style of our other coop designs, yet it’s uniquely suited to housing a covey of quail directly on deep litter. Take a look:
Why keep quail?
Besides being really cute, quail are prolific egg layers that don’t require much space. Quail are also much quieter than chickens, so you can keep roosters (even in the city), hatch your own chicks, and sustain a flock for both eggs and meat.
We’ve been keeping quail for several years now. It’s been a lot of fun, and as our flock has grown, we’ve experimented with housing them in different ways. While domesticated quail do great in housing with a coated wire floor (see our stacked-cage Quail Hutch design), we also tried them on deep litter, which has its own advantages.
Keeping quail on deep litter
Because this design lets you keep quail directly on deep litter, the coop is remarkably easy to keep clean and odor free.
The deep litter method starts with a few inches or more of pine shavings or other fine carbon-rich bedding. As the birds poop, their nitrogen-rich manure mixes with the bedding and, in the presence of moisture and beneficial microbes, begins the composting process. Over time, this mixture creates a deep litter that can eventually also serve as a rich compost in your garden.
Deep litter keeps odor down and saves you time. All you have to do is keep it mixed. Mix the bedding while you’re out gathering eggs, covering any visible droppings. Some quail will even mix it themselves. And keep it a little moist — the water the quail splash around as they drink helps with this.
The only real cleanout you need to do is when you’re ready to harvest compost (though you’ll want to leave some behind to inoculate the fresh bedding with those good microbes).
More about our new quail ground pen building plans
There are several other clever touches that make this coop design not only cozy for the quail, but also easy for you to build and use. One must-have feature is the jump guard screen that keeps these flighty little birds from hopping out as you open the lid. The plans point you the right materials and prep for this so you can see and reach through as you tend the quail.
There’s a lot more to share. Peck into all the details about The Quail Pod ground coop design and plans here. I’m excited to see what others will build. And hopefully it inspires them (and you?) to start keeping quail. 🙂
If you like the design, leave a comment below and/or contact us with any questions. And please share a link or a photo on social media or your favorite poultry forum so that more people can discover it!