The hardest part about raising quail is the enclosure. Birds have to be confined, they have to be outdoors (they’re really smelly — don’t even think of keeping them in an apartment), and they have specific needs, like not too tall and not too short. They spook easily and have been known to break their necks on the ceiling of the coop.
In 2020, as COVID became the new way of life, I embarked on this journey to test the limits of self-sufficiency. At the time, I had a cordless drill, a reciprocating saw, a multi-tool and a chop saw that my neighbor gifted to me from her late husband. It seemed like a lot of power tools then.
Now, my tool collection has expanded. Fortunately, because we have been able to save money overall with home repairs, my husband never complains when I ask for new ones. Now, there’s also an angle grinder, a circular saw, a jigsaw, a cordless sander and a hammer drill.
Of these, I like the angle grinder the least. It scares me. I bought it because on YouTube, this lady was building a chicken coop and she made it look so easy to cut hardware cloth, the wire mesh that’s square and more durable than chicken wire. I must have missed the part where all the sparks came flying out. Needless to say, I rarely use it, although I will if I must. It’s used to cut metal. For hardware cloth, I reverted back to using wire snips. It’s easier.
The hammer drill, however, is my new favorite. Turns out I like the circular saw (which I wasn’t sure I would), but I LOVE the hammer drill. It lets me make holes in concrete and it’s EASY. The reason I’m so enamored of it is that I like having two drills and not having to change the bits all the time, and I like drilling concrete. The 8x8x16 hollow tile is the perfect size for quail hidey-holes, and the concrete base makes it hard for predators to dig under. When secured with hardware cloth on one side, it makes a perfect coop base for a ground run.