Recent content by rachel

First off, I know it's unlikely she'll stay on the eggs the entire time. It's only been three days so far. She's a tuxedo hen in an 11' X 5' aviary with a total of 18 coturnix. They have cardboard nest boxes on the dirt which are covered by dried, tangled masses of vines and have a big boulder...

I would imagine that boxes are shipped in all sorts of directions, it seems unlikely that they are right side up the whole time. I would let them rest in the correct position for 12-24 hours and incubate them. I would be they are none the worse for wear.

Frugal Que- Do you hatch eggs out of your aviary quail? I'm just wondering how good your fertility is with a 10:1 ratio. Thanks!

Thanks peewee. The cleaning and potential parasites were the biggest drawbacks for me. I was planning on putting down straw and just raking that all up from time to time, but I'm also afraid eggs will get buried and lost under it! Being in Phoenix, we seem to have less problems with worms than...

I currently have 3 hutches that are about 2'X3' each. I have a total of 3 males and 8 females right now. (One male per cage) To hopefully make my life easier and their life better I plan on building an aviary that will be 14' feet long and 4-5' wide. A two foot wide section will be for a "safety...

My parents' neighbors have peacocks and gave me some eggs. My incubator is full and I don't think my neighbors (or husband!) want me to have peafowl. I believe they are IB's. They are definitely some type of blue/green if not IB's. Can't vouch for fertility, but they were laid in the past 5 days...

I sell them for $3/dz. It seems unfair to sell them for more than chicken eggs since they are so much smaller, take less feed and produce more eggs than chickens. I know they are a sort of rare delicacy in some areas and that can drive the price up, but the $3 seems fair to me.

Thanks. I'm not going to do the necropsy thing for awhile (hopefully) as she is doing just fine aside from the weird eye. I really appreciate everyone's input so far.

Here are some closer images. I can't find anything else that it could be other than ocular Marek's...

Here is my 15 month old SLW. She has never molted, and I was looking over some of her scraggly feathers and noticed her eyes are wonky. I lost a polish to what I believe to be regular Marek's (couldn't have a necropsy done to confirm, they cost a fortune here--- as in hundreds of $$) about 8...

She is now breathing normally (with her mouth closed) but she is still coughing every once in awhile. She is on grass in a tiny tractor set up for her while she's segregated. I didn't see anything remarkable in the fecal float. There was one tiny parasite thing and a really interesting piece of...

I'm using straw. I will switch her bedding and see what that does. I'm kinda feeling now like it might be some kind of allergy-type thing since she doesn't have any other symptoms and none of the other birds she was with show any symptoms. I have a good microscope and am doing a fecal this...

Update: Have given her the Fenbendazole 4 days in a row. She seems normal except her coughing and gaping have not gone away. She doesn't show any other symptoms (poop is normal, no nasal discharge, eyes look good etc) except a persistant dry cough/sneeze sound, head shaking and gaping. Can...

Thank you dlhunicorn, what kind of reproductive issues would could cause these symptoms? Update: she seems perkier, though the "gaping" and coughing seem about the same as yesterday. She is eating and drinking. Assuming it is gapeworm, how long will it be before I can expect her to breathe...

I wanted some opinions on my chosen course of action here from people with more experience in this dept. I have eight 12 week birds in a small pen inside my main chicken pen. This morning I noticed one of them was fluffed up, tail down, kept closing her eyes, mouth breathing and a little...