My backyard Coturnix coop and urban farm

[beakmaster]

Love it. Nothing like eating your own grown food and birds. Beats the socks of the crud the stores sell. I have been gardening hardcore for about 6 yrs and raising quail for about a year. The more time spent doing either just makes me wanna expand more and more. My wife is Air Force and we move every few years. My gardens have been as small as 20x8' and as large as a half acre. I grow mine from seed mostly to save money and quality. I purchased a 4' grow light to start my tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, ect. In the event a service tech or someone that doesn't know me well comes in the house I always show them my veggies so they don't think I am growing dope. LOL! If you a lot it adds up buying from the store. If you don't compost you should try it. Table scraps and quail poo compost is free and makes the green grow.
Noticed you have rainwater tanks. I have done this also and have been toying with the idea of making them into a simple aquaponics system. Well I could go on forever. Nice job.

 

[Sess]

Lovely coop! I actually wanted to build one myself but my parents aren't keen on the birds for some reason yet my father bought 3 more quails for me himself! I'm hoping when my family inherits The ranch my grandpere left us we can move up there and restock it with animals again since my horses and quails are down here, I'm thinking this would be a cool project for me and my dad to do all these coops are giving me wonderful inspirations!

 

[Kirtus]

Very nice setup. Do you have problems with quail getting out with such large doors? The reason I am asking is I have temporary doors on my coops as I decide how I actually want to do mine.

 

[James the Bald]

I especially like the rain water collection system you've got there. Nice.

 

[Reedgirl20]

I've done the aquaponics for the first time this year. It works amazing, you should defiantly go for it.

 

[beakmaster]

What kind of fish do you use? I am planning a small system, maybe a 50 gallon drum for the fish tank and 2- 10" totes for the veggies. I wanna grow a fish that I could eat but I don't need to feed expensive food. Maybe a worm bed will be the first project to have a food supply, what do you do?

 

[Reedgirl20]

I didn't want to experiment with an expensive fish while I was getting cycled so just started with some gold fish. I have since added some large koi. I just feed koi food but am trying to get a BioPod system to attract some blacksoldier flies for larvae to feed out. I let it overheat though so having to start over. My aquaponics is a 100 gallon stock tank and two 50 gallon grow beds. It grows way more lettuce then I can possibly eat and also have strawberries and cucumbers growing.

 

[beakmaster]

Sounds great. I think I am gonna try using some sunfish, blue gill or maybe crayfish. I am gonna raise worms to feed them and catch minnows with a trap as a treat for them every once in a while. I am gonna grow some spinach once I get it going.

 

[LJpnw]

Here is another way you can use that cage you used as a brooder for the quail. I use my cage to clean up weeds in tight places my bigger quail tractor does not reach.




I simply use the bottom as the top if its hot or rainy.

Anyways you have a great urban setup going there.

P.S. Straw bales make amazing raised beds. You hit them with water and nitrogen and in 2 weeks they are ready for you to plant directly into. They break down over a year or so and feed your plants without you needing to do anything but water. In a year or so they are composted and your growing in compost. When they are done they are like 6" deep so you can just stack another on top. Stack them two thick and you have a weed free grow bed and your plants are waist level so you can keep an eye out for pests. .

 

[freeflyin]

Could you post another pic from above of the part of the PVC feeder that is in the cage? I just want to see how it all works! It's such a great idea!