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It is desirable to install drinkers and feeders for quails outside the cage. Thus, the birds will be able to eat comfortably without scattering food, plus it will always be clean inside the cage. Feeding equipment is sold in any specialized store. But for the sake of saving money, you can make it yourself. Nipple drinkers for quails and bunker feeders are considered the best option.
Requirements for drinking bowls
A high-quality quail drinker is made from environmentally friendly materials that do not emit toxic substances. The inventory must be safe for quails and humans, and also easy to clean.
Do-it-yourself drinking bowls for quails should be comfortable for the bird during a watering place, and convenient for a person to maintain. For quails, it is necessary to ensure a free approach to water, especially during a hot period. 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 drinking bowls
The simplest are quail drinkers from a plastic bottle, fixed on the outside of the cage. To do 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 inventory, you can try to make more serious designs for a watering hole.
Making a nipple drinker
Now we will try to figure out how to make a drinker for nipple-type quails. To work, you need a PVC pipe and a set of nipples.
The popularity of the nipple drinker is due to several factors:
- water-drinking quails 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 along with water.
The manufacturing process of the nipple design is simple:
- Take a piece of plastic pipe. One end is closed with a plug, and an adapter is placed on the other end. It will connect to a ball valve mounted on a barrel of water.
- Holes are marked along the pipe in steps of 25-30 cm. To get them on the same line, it is convenient to use a HDPE pipe. It has a blue stripe on a black background. Sticking to it, you get an even marking of the holes.
- According to the diameter of the nipples, a drill is selected and holes are made on the pipe. Each nipple is screwed in, additionally winding the fum tape.
Now it remains to connect the pipe to the water container and bring it to the cage. For a better effect, drop eliminators can be installed.
The video shows the drinker-dispenser:
Primitive drinkers from PET bottles
Instead of an open container of water, it is better to put a drinking bowl for quails from a bottle in a cage, and then it will suit not adults, but chicks. The young are very mobile, so the structure must be attached so that it does not turn over. It is ideal to hang the drinker so that the chicks get only to drink water.
Model №1
The photo shows the simplest drawing of a drinker from two PET containers. One bottle is cut in half, and in the lower part near the bottom, windows are cut out slightly larger than the size of the quail’s head. Below the window should remain a side. This bowl will contain water. On the neck of the second container, where the thread is located, one or more wedges are cut out. Next, the bottle is turned upside down with a filed neck down and inserted inside the cut off second half.
To draw 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 pour water into it.
Model №2
The next model of a homemade quail drinker involves 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 pick up the appropriate size tin can with a protective coating inside.
Now, adhering to the drawing, two rings are cut out of plywood. They are fastened in one structure opposite each other. The diameter of the lower ring is made smaller than the thickness of the PET bottle. The container should freely enter the second upper ring. The finished frame is fixed in the cage. Inside the rings made, a bottle of water is inserted upside down, and a metal bath is placed under it.
Other types of drinkers
If homemade drinkers do not suit you, they can always be purchased at the store. Let’s look at a few common models.
Vacuum drinker
This inventory can be called a half-made do-it-yourself quail drinker, since its lower part is bought in a store. The design consists of a PVC tray, with fastening in the center for a glass jar or a plastic bottle. A tray is wound onto a container of water and turned over. Due to the difference in atmospheric pressure, water will be added from the container to the bowl as the quail drinks it.
Automatic drinker
An autodrinker is justified in large farms. If at home the number of livestock resembles almost quail farms, this automatic inventory will be indispensable. Water will be independently supplied to all drinkers as needed. The owner can only occasionally check the container, and if necessary, fill it.
Micro cup drinkers
The microcup drinker for quails works according to the principle of scales. The mechanism itself resembles the internal structure of a toilet bowl float. When the cup is filled with water, under its own weight it sinks to the bottom, blocking the valve through the pipe through which water is supplied. When the quail is drunk from the 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, cup drinkers for quails can be considered automatic.
Quail feeders
Making a quail feeder with your own hands is as simple as making a container for drinking water. Material can be found at home. Most often it is the remains of construction work.
Bunker feeder
The most convenient quail feeders are considered 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 guided by the dimensions 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 it is fixed with self-tapping screws. Two rectangles are cut out of plywood, from which the front and back of the bunker are made.
The finished quail feeder is fixed outside the cage so that the quail only reaches 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 dispenser, an electric drive and a timer. The automatic feeder works without human intervention, the main thing is that there is food in the bunker. The timer, according to the set time, starts the electric drive, which opens the bunker damper. A certain amount of feed is poured into the tray through the dispenser, after which the flaps are closed again.
The video shows the automatic feeder:
Conclusion
You can make drinkers and feeders for quails with your own hands no worse than store-bought ones. And if you make friends with electricity and turn on your imagination, inventory can even be automated.