Today was fresh straw day in the quail digs. What a mess! I’ve been using the compressed fifty-pound blocks of straw, as they store better and they smell nice. The straw is super soft and silky, and the birds seem to love it.
As far as the storing better part of that… yah. I made a huge mess while opening a new one today, and now I could sleep on that in the shed, as the quail nestle into the rest in their coops.
Curious quail. 
Headed for the nest boxes. 
Their favorite sunny corner.
There is a deep layer of all-purpose sand that is the floor of each quail pen. It is said that quail smell, and yes, they sure do, if their homes aren’t cleaned often. Mine are cleaned each day, with a small rake and a cat litter scoop. Once in a while, I add some Horse Fresh and diatomaceous earth to their sand. The pens aren’t stinky. With the addition of straw in their sheltered coops, the pens actually smell pretty pleasant.
Here are some of my newest birds. Three were hatched here, and the other eight I recently purchased. The gold, silver and rosetta tones will be such lovely additions. I have been leaving the Cozy Coop heater on for much of the time in this pen, as these birds are so young. They are molting, but will need to have a warm coop until they get through that, at least.
Snuggling by the Cozy Coop. 
There be treats in there.
Even with the cold weather, which has come early, the quail spend most of their time in the open run areas of their pens. But even those areas are wrapped in 8 mil vinyl, to protect against the wind and winter elements. Next summer, I’ll have to make some permanent, reusable frames for the vinyl.
Right now, I’m building an indoor quail hutch out of 2×3’s and the fence posts left over from another project. There are four chicks in the brooder, and they’ll have to overwinter in the hutch. There are three levels to the 2’x4′ hutch, so in an emergency, I could bring in two pens of birds for that, and put the third in a makeshift indoor pen.
Only one of my hens is still laying. This is because they require twelve to fourteen hours of daylight or artificial light to lay. I want them to have this natural break, but I may add some string lights to their pens when we get close to spring.
We had eggs to spare with six hens, so I’m excited to see how we do with the new additions. I keep the eggs for us in an egg skelter, on a counter. My husband is giving up his extra fridge to keep eggs for others in.
And my daughter is already planning out that I need to make more quail pens in the spring, for the extra roosters we have.
