Hatching Time - Quail Brooder, 2 Layer, 9.5" tall *REVIEW*

Hatching Time – 9.5 Inch Units (Brooder, Grow Out & Nesting)

Rating: ★★★

Recommended: Yes

Pros –

Easy to pressure wash and clean out

Covers on food trough

Easy clean poop trays

Great for someone who can’t build something

Fairly easy to put together

Great customer support

Every individual part can be purchased on their website

Cons –

Watering cups flood

Water storage tank is too shallow

Food trough can separate and cause gap

Not tall enough in my opinion

Food trough cover gets tweaked & doesn’t line up

9.5 inch Food trough is the same color but different size than the 15 inch Food trough

Heater in Celsius

Directions are not enough, you tube videos needed to be helpful

My Experience

Water Storage (for single and double layer units) - The storage tank has a large footprint but it’s only a couple inches tall so it’s very shallow.  This is a terrible design for a gravity fed system!  A significant amount of water is below the gravity spout.  It needs to have a smaller footprint with a taller tank so the water does not run out so fast.  The 3-layer plus units come with a larger tank and can be purchased separately.  That larger tank should just be standard for all units.  You can make your own for much less money too.

Water Cups – the birds sit on them, causing them to flood and empty the storage tank. They should have horizontal nipples instead of cups.

Height of cage - Seems too cramped for adult birds.  It should be 12 inches in my opinion.

Food cover – I love the food cover but it’s very difficult to put together.  The green pieces that go in the middle to connect them are extremely difficult causing a lot of frustration. It’s a great concept and design but it doesn’t always align and snap into position on the tray/trough itself either. This is a problem because if it doesn’t snap into place and line up perfectly, the birds can get out.  We had baby chick escape this way and not all survived. We ended up drilling holes in tray/trough and tied the cover down to it with string to make sure birds could not escape.

Food Tray/Trough – You need to check it frequently to make sure it’s snugged up against the cage.  We didn’t notice a little gap between food tray/trough and cage until we saw baby chicks running around outside the cage.  Again, they were too cold for too long and not all survived. It only happed once but it’s something to note.  I now check it everyday.  If it happens again, we’ll drill holes to tie them together like we did with the covers.

Height 9.5 Inches – It’s a standard size used by many but I’m personally not a fan of that height for adult birds. I have a 15 inch grow-out that is meant for chickens that I use for my quarantine or bachelor pad when needed. It’s easier to get items in & out due to larger doors and I just like it better all around as a height.  The only problem with the 15-inch units is none of them come with the food tray/trough covers.  I really wish the company would just have the covers be standard with all units, regardless of height.  Or at least have them available to purchase as an optional item.

Size of Food Tray/Trough – I learned the hard way that the trough size is specific to the cage height.  I have 9.5 inch units and a 15 inch unit.  They are Not interchangeable, which I think they should be or be a different color.  I accidentally broke the trough holder on my 9.5 inch cage when trying to put the 15 inch feed trough on it.  They look almost identical.  It was very frustrating. I then put all my feed trays side by side and noticed there’s a size difference.  My mistake and I now know but it was an irritating lesson to learn.

Heater – My only gripe is that the heater is in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit (units are made and distributed from the United States).

Overall

With all that said, I do still recommend the Hatching Time cages. I give it three out of five stars. I just wish I knew all the above first so I could be prepared for the potential issues.  I hope my review saves you all the frustration I went through. I personally only use the Hatching Time cages for Brooders and Quarantine. This is because I’m personally not a fan of raising the birds indoors.  My birds go from the brooder to an outdoor mobile tractor cage.  I put a CozyCoop heater in the house until they fully feather out then I remove the heater.