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For feeders I started with these standard poultry feeders because I didn’t know better.  They are fine for when the quail are young and small, but not so much when they grow up.

Little Gian Galv Slide Top Feeder For Poultry (Pack of 2)  I found that the quail would toss the feed everywhere which was a huge waste and made a mess. Feed costs money and I like money, so I don’t like wasting feed.

Quail don’t discriminate on where they poop either, so these feeders got nasty quick.  And I had to fill them twice a day.

So I made my own feeders:

These feeders are made from 3” PVC pipe with 2” holes cut into them with a hole saw. The edges of the holes are pretty sharp right after cutting them so I sanded them down a bit so the quail don’t cut themselves.

The end caps are “knockout test caps” which are really cheap and can be found at any hardware store that sells PVC pipe.  If you can, buy these instead of regular end caps and save yourself a few bucks.

I initially glued the end caps on but then realized I might need to take them off for cleaning, so I just tape them on with duct tape now. Screw or glue a short piece of wood to each end cap to keep the feeder from rolling around. Be sure to angle the end caps so the holes are angled upward.

The feeders are deep enough that the quail need to reach inside with their heads to get to the feed. They don’t throw the feed around nearly as much and there is very little waste now. Just don’t over-fill the feeders or they will toss some of it around. Filling them about half way seems to work well for me.

Now I fill the quail feeders every few days instead of twice a day. Oh yeah. In the future I’d like to come up with some automatic feeder where I can pour a full 50 pound bag of feed into some sort of hopper that will release just enough each day.  I’ll figure it out eventually.

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