Content
It is advisable to install drinkers and feeders for quails outside cells... Thus, the birds will be able to eat comfortably without scattering food, plus the inside of the cage will always be clean. Feeding equipment is sold at any specialty store. But for the sake of saving money, you can make it yourself. The best options are nipple drinkers for quails, and bunker feeders.
Requirements for drinkers
A high-quality quail drinker is made of environmentally friendly materials that do not emit toxic substances. The equipment must be safe for quails and humans, and also be easy to clean.
Do-it-yourself drinking bowls for quails should be comfortable for the bird during the watering, and convenient for a person to maintain. For quails, it is necessary to provide free access to the water, especially in the hot season. Even if the drinker is installed inside the net, you need to take care of a protective fence that will prevent droppings and bedding material from entering the water.
Self-made drinkers
The simplest are drinking bowls for quails from a plastic bottle, fixed from the outside of the cage. For this, the bottle is placed horizontally and a small fragment is cut out of it. It turns out a kind of trough. However, in addition to primitive equipment, you can try to make more serious structures for a watering hole.
Making a nipple drinker
Now we will try to figure out how to make a nipple-type quail drinker. For work, you need a PVC pipe and a set of nipples.
The popularity of the nipple drinker is due to several factors:
- quail drinking water always remain dry;
- the resulting kind of autodrinker relieves the owner of frequent control over the availability of water;
- nipple drinkers simplify the process of introducing medicines or vitamins to quails with water.
The process of making the nipple structure is simple:
- A piece of plastic pipe is taken. One end is closed with a plug, and an adapter is pushed onto the other end. It will connect to a ball valve mounted on a barrel of water.
- Holes are marked along the pipe in increments of 25-30 cm. To make them on the same line, it is convenient to use a HDPE pipe. It has a blue stripe on its black background. Adhering to it, you get an even marking of the holes.
- A drill is selected according to the diameter of the nipples and holes are made on the pipe. Each nipple is screwed in, additionally reeling in the fum tape.
Now it remains to connect the pipe to the container with water and bring it to the cage. For the best effect, drip eliminators can be installed.
The video shows the dispensing bowl:
Primitive PET bottle drinkers
Instead of an open container with water, it is better to put a quail drinker from a bottle in the cage, and then it is suitable not for adults, but for chicks.The young are very mobile, so the structure must be attached so that it is not overturned. It is ideal to hang the drinker so that the chicks only get to drink water.
Model No. 1
The photo shows a simple drawing of a drinker made of two PET containers. One bottle is cut in half, and windows slightly larger than the size of the quail's head are cut out in the lower part near the bottom. A side should remain below the window. This bowl will contain water. One or more wedges are cut out on the neck of the second container, where the thread is located. Next, the bottle is turned over with the sawn neck down and inserted into the cut-off second half.
To collect water, the bottle will constantly have to be pulled from the bottom cup. For convenience, you can cut off the bottom of an inverted container and fill it with water.
Model No. 2
The next model of a homemade quail drinker provides for the manufacture of a metal bath. It can be made rectangular from galvanized sheet, food grade aluminum or stainless steel. All joints are fixed with rivets. It is easier to choose an appropriately sized tin can with a protective coating inside.
Now adhering to the drawing, two rings are cut out of the plywood. They are fastened into one structure opposite each other. The diameter of the lower ring is made smaller than the thickness of the PET bottle. The container should enter freely into the second upper ring. The finished frame is fixed in the cage. Inside the rings made, a bottle of water is inserted with the neck down, and a metal bath is placed under it.
Other types of drinkers
If homemade drinkers are not satisfactory, they can always be purchased at the store. Let's take a look at a few common patterns.
Vacuum drinker
This inventory can be called a half-made quail drinker, as the lower part of it is bought in the store. The structure consists of a PVC tray, with a center mount for a glass jar or plastic bottle. A tray is screwed onto a container with water and turned over. Due to the difference in atmospheric pressure, water will be added from the container to the bowl as the quails drink it.
Automatic drinker
The autodrinker is justified on large farms. If the number of livestock at home resembles almost quail farms, this automatic inventory will be indispensable. Water will be independently supplied to all drinkers as needed. The owner only has to check the container from time to time, and, if necessary, fill it.
Micro cup drinkers
The micro-bowl drinker for quails works according to the principle of scales. The mechanism itself resembles the internal structure of a toilet cistern's float. When the cup is filled with water, under its own weight it sinks to the bottom, blocking the pipe through which the water is supplied with a valve. When the quail is sipped from a cup, it becomes light and rises. At this time, the valve opens and a new portion of water is collected. According to the principle of operation, quail drinking bowls can be considered automatic.
Quail Feeders
Making a quail feeder with your own hands is as easy as making a container for drinking water. The material can be found at home. Most often these are leftovers from construction work.
Bunker feeder
The most convenient quail feeders are considered to be of the bunker type. To make it you need a piece of galvanized profile and a sheet of plywood:
- So, for this quail feeder, the lower tray is made from a profile. The workpiece is cut to the required length. Usually they are guided by the size of the cage and the number of livestock.
- The side shelves of the bunker are cut out of plywood in the shape of a seven. After turning over, the parts will resemble a boot.
- The lower part of the inverted sevens is inserted into the sides of the profile, where they are fixed with self-tapping screws. Two rectangles are cut out of plywood, from which the front and back of the hopper are made.
The finished quail feeder is fixed outside the cage so that the quails reach only to the feed tray.
Automatic quail feeders
By its design, the automatic quail feeder is made according to the bunker analogue. The only difference is the improvement of the model by adding a proportioner, an electric drive and a timer. The auto feeder works without human intervention, the main thing is that there is feed in the bunker. The timer at the set time starts the electric drive, which opens the bunker gate. A certain amount of feed is poured into the tray through the dispenser, after which the flaps are closed again.
The video shows an automatic feeder:
Conclusion
You can make drinkers and feeders for quails with your own hands no worse than store ones. And if you make friends with electricity and use your imagination, inventory can even be automated.
