I jokingly suggested a t-shirt gun style apparatus to launch extra coturnix instead of trap shooting (just a joke!) but apparently someone does sell an actual quail launcher, but it is more of a spring or catapult thingy. Maybe check with your local fish and game or dept of natural resources to...
So I had to ‘rescue’ a quail chick the other day, and a couple other times previously, they’ll zip 2/3 of the shell then pop out their heads and feet but get the shell stuck like a crab or snail like pac man on their rumps, wish I had a picture! Do other species do this or just my ridiculous birds?
Be patient! I’ve had quail go 60 hours pip to hatch. I haven’t personally messed with pea chicks but watching a video of a friends brooder I was astonished at how chill they are, my little quail are zipping all over the place and her pea chicks take a minute to blink or turn their heads!
Update, auscultating quail is hard even out of the shell! I got a slight, rapid beat for a few seconds but very faint, and I had the new chick right on the bell, inside an egg you don’t have a chance. Might work for turkeys or emus? Not quail or smaller poultry!
I’ve obsessively candled eggs and still get great hatch rates, the success is definitely inversely proportional to how excited you are about the chicks. Just starting Day 16, six chicks hatched, most pipping (mine usually hatch Day 16, so they are even early). But just as cute as the expensive...
If that is your air cell outline the term is saddled air cell, weird in home grown eggs, far more common in shipped eggs. The yellow tinge is probably just fluid that hasn’t been absorbed yet, there is a dab of yellowish, orangish, reddish liquid in some late term eggs. With the weird air cell...
Expecting quail to act like chickens is like expecting my Toyota to drive like a Porsche! Judge something by what it is or should be, not by what you wish it was! As for escapees, those dollar store bug nets are awesome for catching loose birds or birds in deep enclosures. As for moving...
I’d guess it is an early embryonic death, died a couple days ago, starting to clump up, if the liquid is really sloshy, that would be another clue, eggs should ooze like honey not water. Don’t be afraid to open it and see what it really is, best way to improve your candling.
4 weeks old, the hens look like a typical Italian.
But the boys are gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat but unless they find a home pretty soon they'll have to go in the freezer (yes, I already have an older brother in the breeding flock along with dad and I'm keeping all the hens as well)...
So you buy and ship some expensive eggs and end up with 1 bird you keep out of 40 eggs (saddled air cells, shipping disaster, 25% hatch rate, psycho chicks…) and then you just throw 20 random eggs in the incubator and go on vacation (literally unsupervised for a week) not really caring if they...
So I tried this today with my littman cardiology III stethoscope (the Toyota of stethoscopes) with a double head, I used the neonatal side, and tried four different day 14 quail eggs (1 actively pipping and can hear live chick inside when held to ear). Plenty of artifact ‘heartbeat’ sounds...
As long as you have the floor space, I’d keep the extra boy. I don’t know if the see but no touch method works with quail, usually the change everything and redecorate/new cage in the dark method is best, then just watch for issues, along with hidey holes and plenty of water/feed access.
Aspiration pneumonia (foreign material in lungs) is a possibility if syringe feeding, if it is only water prognosis is fair, food or other material is more serious. Respiratory infection is possible, overheating is another possibility, but since it needed help to hatch, it may have some sort of...
The brown bird is a pharaoh/wild, possibly falb fee (if it is gray instead of brown, hard to tell with lighting). The second bird is a pearl (Italian fee) hen. The pharaoh and top pearl you’ll need a good Brest shot to tell, spots mean a hen, no spots are male. Your two bottom boys may be...
Dr. pol: “my golden retriever is going to die” (dog stands there wagging tail, strangely lives)
American Pickers: Bonnie and Clyde’s motorcycle! Well, a bonnie and Clyde.
Some monster hunter show: on the trail of Bigfoot, but really we’ll spend the whole show hanging cds in trees
My favorite...
They are fun little guys, especially in the brooder, a friend showed me a video of her pea chicks and I wondered what was wrong with them, they just sat there while my quail are always on the go!
Sorry about your troubles. In young birds overheating or dehydration are major issues, while everything on backyard chickens dies of coccidia or merricks something infectious isn’t likely your issue. Also is your feed medicated? Unless you are feeding crumbles you must grind the pelleted feed...