They sell bird crates to transport. There was a poultry supply place in the thumb.
Depending on type of bird but I've kept them for a couple weeks in my crate. Mine is the larger size for pheasants and I keep 6 quail and a small can for water and another for seed and I throw chucks of bread in with them and never had one die before I could use it 2-3 times
They can be kept in a cardboard box no problem, but as mentioned above, the longer they are cooped up, the worse they fly. You want strong fliers for a young dog's first bumps IMO. Strong fliers are tough to come by with a lot of game breeders, and many opt to keep them in flight pens for some time to get strong on the wing and more wary of humans. I have had much better luck with chukars over quail. Quail are often crummy fliers in my experience, which is why many guys that train with quail use flight pens.
If I were you I would simply try to find some strong fliers and just keep them in a box with holes and try to use them that same day. Find training grounds or cover close to where you buy the birds and just get it done there. Some people that sell birds are willing to help out by suggesting places to do the birdwork close to where they are, or even sometimes letting you plant the birds on their own property. I've noticed that trainers, bird breeders or preserve owners sometimes will let you use their own homing pigeons in their own launchers in exchange for feed. Pigeons eat a ton and sometimes simply buying a $20 bag of feed for them is enough for a guy to let you plant 5 in launchers to get a young dog introduced to birds.
Of course it depends how HOW MANY (?), but most often (under a dozen?) you can use a large cardboard box with some smaller holes cut in it on all sides for airflow. Cut a three sided square door to put them in and out and you can duct tape it. Keeping them cool (shaded) is the most important thing. For events they put some cut up apples inside the box overnight so they can get both some nutrition and moisture from the apples that way ... it way less messy and they usually spill the water, anyway. Keeping them a day or two even three days like that is NO PROBLEM at all. It is done all of the time. I would NOT invest in buying a transport box for just occasional use! Save your money. When done, just throw the dirty cardboard box away. Boxes are readily available for FREE at the grocery store. Birds are a nasty mess!!
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