Recent content by wishful suburbanite

Don't put your eggs directly over a vent, you're just going to start drying them out prematurely. Hatching eggs are fine at room temperature. Keep them pointy-end down and adjust their positions occasionally. Eggs aren't even going to try to start developing with temperatures lower than 85...

Old thread, I know, but I was just thinking that myself. Mine might make one attempt to get away and then they'll give up after three seconds and you can just pick them up and they accept it. Some of mine seem to go all ragdoll when I pick them up and don't even kick me or anything. Both my...

That quail set up is really cute. =)

Out of my limited experience, I have one that's slightly deformed with a curled foot and a neck that tend to be held to one side and it's about as big as the others, can flush straight up in the air like the other, eats fine. I also had one that never really managed to stand up straight on two...

Ah, have to admit I'm not doing well at vent sexing either. They're even 5 1/2 weeks old. The males that are crowing have swollen, wet, red vents but I could already tell they were male by their crowing anyway. I know I have more males than the ones crowing, because some of mine are color...

Thanks. Yeah, we do have some tarps laying around for when the rain decides to go horizontal, I guess.

I'm sleeping in the room next to my 5 week old coturnix (they'll go outside as soon as the pen has a bottom). I don't think they're really all that loud, but I guess some things are dependent on your noise tolerance. They're mine, so I'm bemused by them, but if you learned to hate them, I...

I'm about to use a hardware-cloth reinforced rabbit hutch as a quail tractor. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm adding a hardware-cloth bottom, but it will be on the ground, and have backed the much wider bars with hardware cloth as well. It comes with a little house but, in drenching rain...

BRR BRR bweee! Or that's how it hear it. It doesn't sound like they're pronouncing "co-tur-nix" to me. lol

I looked at mine yesterday and part of the screw-on thread is directly above the water hole, so I may have the take that back about enlarging it. On mine it wouldn't make much difference because the jar itself would still be screwed down just as low if I had it in all the way. Hm. Maybe a...

I have that kind too. Using the "quail" base. I notice the water is quite shallow but I hear it glug regularly to refill. I'm supposinging it was designed that way to help keep quail chicks from drowning. I always tip it a bit to hear it glug after I refill the waterer, though. The opening...

Are you sure you want coturnix in your room, even? I'm brooding chicks in my sister's old bedroom, but she doesn't even know about it. lol But it does smell and I change the bedding about every day. It doesn't smell that bad. Not so bad that it would bother me if they were, say, on a...

My goldens were already getting that cocoa throat at 3 weeks. Funny thing is some of those with that coloring also had a lot of chest spots. I may have to grab them and get some decent pictures.

They're cute with that feather duster. =)

If you really want to be sure about what sex you're getting, you could consider buying adult birds. If you want to go with chicks, assume that maybe half are male. Try 8? There's no guarantee, though.