Recent content by Susan Skylark

  1. Susan Skylark

    How to market my quail eggs

    Go to an auction they said, sell birds they said, yeah, we did sell $63 worth of quail but came home with $75 worth of a golden pheasant. Auctions/poultry swaps are dangerous! This is a tough state to sell quail, I’ve got 20 (and also live in a very rural part of this ultra rural state) and...
  2. Susan Skylark

    What color are my quail?

    Manchurian is a homozygous fawn/Italian (has two copies of the gene). Italian has one copy. You do have an Italian in there.
  3. Susan Skylark

    Hormonal Roos in winter?

    I have a neutered male, I’ve heard him crow a time or two when he gets excited, and he shouldn’t have any male urges or hormones in his little quail brain!
  4. Susan Skylark

    Egg Candling Day 9 Help!

    If you have wonky air cells from shipping be prepared for a low hatch rate (25-50%), mentally and emotionally get ready now but also know there isn’t anything you can do to fix it, and you did nothing to cause it, it is just part of shipping eggs, so no guilt, anxiety or fretting over what you...
  5. Susan Skylark

    Pros and Cons of Roosters

    The idea of a flock raised rooster turning out the best behavior wise is intriguing, we see the same issues with bulls in cattle. Dairy bulls are notoriously nasty, being bottle raised they have no fear of people and are perfectly happy to kill you for no reason. Beef bulls are raised by the...
  6. Susan Skylark

    Anybody not turn eggs day 2-3?

    I get 50% hatch rates on No turn hatches (intentional or autoturner failure!), a couple No turn days in very early incubation is unlikely to cause major issues, maybe you’ll lose the random egg but not half your hatch.
  7. Susan Skylark

    Quail egg peeler

    This post is 10 years old, but an interesting ghost! I always wondered how to make pickled quail eggs affordable when it takes me 2 hours to peel 45. If the machine works and you can use it at scale this may be the answer, but for my flock of 20 not so much. I’ll just buy chicken eggs when I...
  8. What factors really influence hatch rates? Things you CAN do to improve hatchability!

    What factors really influence hatch rates? Things you CAN do to improve hatchability!

    Humidity? Side incubation? Turning 97.349 times an hour? Playing classical music? What really matters when it comes to successfully hatching eggs (for the backyard hobbyist not industrial scale poultry!) and what can you actually do to improve things? I’ve intentionally hatched (or exposed...
  9. Susan Skylark

    Confused by chick behavior

    I’ve got quail so I can have 4 generations a year, I’ve been brutal with behavioral culling, only had 4/17 original hens make it to a year anniversary due to zero bullying tolerance. Then I ordered some expensive eggs from one of the main breeders (original birds from shipped eggs too). They...
  10. Susan Skylark

    The Dishwasher

    As long as you want to boil them at the same time or maybe scrambled, the way mine tosses heavy glasses around I’d hate to see what it does to eggs!
  11. Susan Skylark

    Anyone sell eggs in Oklahoma?

    Check your state dept of ag website or give them a call (or board of animal health or whatever they call it). Also check local, county, and city requirements. May vary with species, number of eggs to be sold, whether they are going through a middleman or direct to consumer, etc.
  12. Susan Skylark

    A chick with a massive Air cell.

    You did nothing wrong! Chicks that fail to hatch happen, it is a normal part of life and incubation, making a safety hole or not won’t save 97% of chicks. I had a batch of shipped, saddled eggs last spring that looked very similar, I helped 4 hatch, every single one died, the shipping caused...
  13. Susan Skylark

    Day 19 1/2 and humidity went from 65 to 45 during the night..did this drop just seal their fate?

    I just had pipped quail eggs drop below 25% for a couple hours, didn’t lose any, you’ll be fine!
  14. Susan Skylark

    Call duck eggs alive but with black spots?

    Black is a bad color in highly venous environments like developing eggs, think blood clots, necrosis, and bacterial growth. Keep a very close eye on them, if they start to smell ditch them asap! If the black spreads or the egg contents clump up and get sloshy, those are also bad signs...
  15. Susan Skylark

    How to determine cause of death quail

    Species? Age? Number alive and dead? Any symptoms prior to death? One bird might be a blockage, multiple sudden deaths are more likely to be toxin (noxious fumes, moldy feed, accidental exposure to novel toxic substance like pesticides…), environmental (several days of frozen water, extreme...
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