Paneubert's Quail Aviary Adventure

[DK newbie]

That square block - is it grit or what exactly is it?
They sure look happy and healthy, even if they are not laying yet

 

[paneubert]

That square block - is it grit or what exactly is it?
They sure look happy and healthy, even if they are not laying yet

It is just your classic/store bought "Flock Block". Weighs something like 20 pounds and cost about 20 bucks. Supposed to be more of a treat for free ranging chickens, but I figure it won't hurt to give it to the quail. Since that photo was taken, they have probably eaten about a third of it. With 30+ birds, I don't think it is acting as their primary diet, which is good. Their consumption of the higher protein crumbles has decreased, but I free feed them with two 7 pound feeders, so they can eat as much or as little as they want 24/7/365.

On another note, I made a Craigslist post about babies for sale (not that I have any yet, was just looking to see if people would be interested) and I already got about 10 people who wanted anywhere from 10-20 on average, and one who wanted 50-100. So......being the enterprising person I am, went on Ebay and bought 120 mixed color eggs for about 60 cents each just to keep things flowing until my ladies start laying. Going to hope for a high hatch rate and sell them for 3 bucks each at a young age. Hopefully I will get some pretty babies that I can keep and sell off the majority/the rest. If not, I might have WAY too many birds in a few weeks. Like WAY too many.

 

[paneubert]

Yikes......my 120 eggs already delivered. I ordered them Saturday. Not sure how that is possible, but they shipped USPS from Ohio to Seattle in 48 hours.....all of which were basically a weekend. Just normal old USPS Priority Mail. Not overnight, not 2-day, nothing special.

Not complaining.....but..dang. Glad I have the incubator already warmed up. Going to run home and see how they look coming out of the box. I will do an "un-boxing" like I did last time and will post photos.

 

[paneubert]

Out of 120 eggs, 118 where intact. One was leaky (and had already started to dry on the foam of the packaging), and the other cracked when I took it out of the foam (it felt really thin shelled).

Box....

Box in a box......

Foam in a box in a box....

Tons of eggs....

And they are in!

 

[paneubert]

Troubles of an incubating parent.....

The built in thermometer reads 99.5 with the probe right about where you see it (black line on the left of the control panel and about halfway down the rows of eggs). Old school red liquid thermometer in the upper right corner reads something like 101-101.5, which is what concerns me the most. The digital temp/humidity combo you can barely see at the very bottom, below the bottom row of eggs reads something like 95......which concerns me a lot, but less than the super high temp on the other thermometer So......yeah. I need to just choose a temp and go with it.

 

[paneubert]

Weather is getting better and that means the boys are starting to battle. I am going to have to do some culling/giving away. Went out today to find one of my teenagers sitting on top of the little shed/windbreak I had built them. Thought that was weird because they never "roost" or fly up to anything. Noticed one of his eyes is shut/hurt and he has a little bald spot. Bummer. He seemed ok, but was obviously trying to get away from someone by going up there. I think I will probably put him in a dog kennel within the coop for a bit.

 

[paneubert]

So.....should have sexed them all earlier. Haha. Nice Craigslist lady and her boyfriend came over to buy some birds and she offered to help sex what I have. Figured it would be the only time a second person would be around who knew what they were talking about. Turns out I am about 50/50 males and females, which just goes to support the cause of injuries I am starting to see, even if I am not seeing any vocalizations or obvious fighting yet. Looks like I need to start getting rid of some of my boys. Or create a bachelor aviary....

 

[paneubert]

Well, I am down to 7 quail in my aviary. Mostly as a result of selling them off, but also from culling a nasty male. I am up to 3 birds with eye injuries, including one who I swear is a female. Since I wanted to stop the carnage, I sat out there for a long time and finally saw the bad boy. As if to confirm it for me, he stared at me and crowed super loud. Up till now, all the fighting has happened when I am not there, and everyone has seemed super happy with each other whenever I am around. It was really frustrating. So now I am down to 7, with 118 in the incubator. Haha. End of the month might see me with over 120 quail. Upside is that the money I have made from selling the adults is more than enough to buy another 120 mixed color eggs after this batch hatches.......hopefully. I am getting paranoid that I cooked these eggs in the first few days when the temp was higher than I wanted it to be.....

On another note, my new "brooder" came in the mail. It is a raised garden bed. Haha. I thought I had done the math and that it was significantly larger than my old orange and white panel brooder, but as you can see, it is not that much larger. But it is metal, which is nice. I plan to add 4 foot tall 1/2 inch square hardware cloth around the perimeter, with some regular chicken wire for a roof. The roof pretty much only there to keep the babies in and maybe to support a tarp or other shade. I wanted something I could move outside in the summer when the weather is nicer that would still be somewhat predator proof. 12 inch high metal sides with hardware cloth going higher should do it. Especially if I put this on the concrete patio. Easy to hose off as well...

 

[paneubert]

Brooder is set up with the hope I have some babies to put in it around Friday/Saturday.

Might regret having it on a table, but this is downstairs where the dog spends most of his time. So it is already stinky. That PVC light hanger is way over-engineered. Haha. I did not realize how thin/puny the one was that came with the "Orange and White Panel" type. This one is a 3/4 inch PVC pipe inside a larger 1 and 1/4 inch. Drilled some holes thru them both so I can raise and lower it and stick a bolt thru it. I am guessing the one that came with the other brooder is something like 1/4 inside 1/2 inch.

Puppy Pee Pads for now, but will probably end up doing something like a sheet of plastic with some shavings on top of it. We will see. I don't actually think they will be in there for long.

Chick feeder and waterer for scale. Folded up towel to simulate a baby under the heat so I could take a laser thermometer reading. It has only been warming up for about 20 minutes and it is at about 90-95 degrees, which is about right. The pee pads read in the mid 60's.

 

[paneubert]

Really bad photo, but it is a Pre-Easter miracle!