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  1. Susan Skylark

    A tale of two hatches

    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...
  2. Susan Skylark

    Neutering male quail: a philosophical discussion

    Has anyone ever neutered a male coturnix (caponized)? I know this sounds ridiculous (it is!). Meat quality isn’t an issue in quail so that isn’t the issue here. Keeping the bird in the dark so he doesn’t sexually mature also isn’t an option, (he’s going to be with the breeding flock or...
  3. Susan Skylark

    ‘Chocolate’ Coturnix!

    So I fell in love with American Pansy (check thieving otter or pipsnchicks for pics/info) and happily got a nice male in some mixed eggs I hatched this spring, his single fertile egg from his first hatch (just nine weeks old at the time) is now a handsome 6 week old gentleman: I crossed him...
  4. Susan Skylark

    Ambassadors of Quail-dom

    It has been a learning experience this summer, my son took his quail to the country fair for 4-h and ended up having to show pigs and a steer too! But then it was also a surprise for the kids with said steer and pigs to have to take their turn at showing a quail, something none of them knew...
  5. Susan Skylark

    Choosing your show birds (a light hearted ramble)

    My family will embark on our first poultry exhibition adventure this weekend, long have we been anticipating this moment (we hatched our first eggs, from some random eBay seller in March 2024, as you can see we have invested heavily in our hereditary show stock). I will also qualify that we...
  6. Susan Skylark

    To bathe a quail

    No, not a dust bath, a real soap and water bath. Peaches took it like a champ! He’s going to the fair next weekend and was a little dirty, or so we thought, but actually he just has some grayish feathers coming in on his head. He will also be my son’s showmanship bird, he was a complete spaz...
  7. Susan Skylark

    Quail pullet egg abnormalities, how long is normal?

    I had lots of wonky pullet eggs from 5-8 week old birds on a 28% protein starter, I hardly ever have a wonky egg since switching to 21% layer feed (birds also start laying at 7 weeks instead of 5), until just recently. I have three 9 week old hens in a separate pen, 2 are celadon and lay normal...
  8. Susan Skylark

    Quail math!

    You start with 10 viable eggs and go into lockdown, halfway through the hatch you notice you have 3 chicks in the brooder, 5 in the incubator and 3 left to hatch. Afterwards you have eleven normal sized chicks. 11/10 isn’t too bad except there are no twins, which means I can’t count, nice...
  9. Susan Skylark

    Statistical proof!

    Sorry about the bad picture but do you notice anything odd about this batch of chicks (one bird that is different), yes that reddish brown guy in the back right, he is an anomaly, these chicks should all be yellow! I kept the hens and the male separate for a week from the main flock before...
  10. Susan Skylark

    No air cell?

    Okay, I’m about to go into lockdown with 10 quail eggs, these are home raised eggs, max 4 days old at incubation, outside temps high of mid sixty when collected, incubator temp stable, a couple infertile but the rest developing fine, these eggs are out of 3 hens so I have multiple eggs from...
  11. Susan Skylark

    Any experience with German Pastel collection?

    I think I’ve finally gotten a little bit of an answer on my mystery bird color, it may be an off shoot of the German Pastel line. This is a collection, not a specific gene, rather it is a bunch of genes that produce a certain effect when combined and it doesn’t always breed true even within the...
  12. Susan Skylark

    A ‘genius’ idea that is pretty obvious to most!

    So I can never remember when I put eggs in the incubator, after 15 hatches I finally figured out I could write the date on the plastic incubator with a dry erase pen! Sort of like the time I invented a joke (what do pirates pay for corn, buck an ear) but apparently it already exists, don’t you...
  13. Susan Skylark

    Most ridiculous features on an incubator, what’s your favorite?

    First don’t panic, the temp is wrong I have external thermometers, also my humidity jumps around something awful but the chicks hatch fine so ignore that too, rather notice the Day 55 of incubation, and no these aren’t emu eggs. Rather it is day 3 of my fourth batch of quail. I can’t figure...
  14. Susan Skylark

    Do quail go grey?

    This handsome guy is Rocky, a year and a half old Italian male, his mask used to be all red but lately has gotten white spots, do quail get gray with age like old dogs and people? He’s certainly lost interest in chasing girls and would rather fall asleep in his recliner watching golf! Just...
  15. Susan Skylark

    Quail keeping: who needs reality tv or a soap opera?

    Keep quail they said. Nice cute peaceful birds they said. I don’t know who they are but they’ve apparently never had an active breeding flock! I only have 20 breeding birds in a group pen, besides the masked butt pecker life in the breeding pen is pretty chill. My nicest biggest bird pecks...
  16. Susan Skylark

    Baffled bird watcher

    I like my wild birds as much as my domestic ones, but I was truly baffled this morning. I had a small yellow bird repeatedly pecking at the window and couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t attacking its reflection and wasn’t a collision victim, but it was determined in its business. Finally...
  17. Susan Skylark

    Peaches, what color art thee?

    This is Peaches (5 weeks old), my son wanted Pineapple but that's a mouthful, I have no idea what color this is. EB base and I think some white but I'm still trying to figure out what this beige color is. The bird may carry Roux and or Fee as well. The mother was this color but never threw...
  18. Susan Skylark

    Actual black Tibetan?

    Black is sort of a weird color for coturnix, most birds referred to as black are Tibetans plus or minus the fee gene, maybe some lab birds with some funky genes or a bird out of thieving otter/SW game birds multi genetic phenotype line (not a single gene but multiple genes that produce a black...
  19. Susan Skylark

    Set it and forget it hatch trial

    With our summer trip schedule this year I’ve got to plan hatches around when we are gone, not just for incubation but I don’t want my bird sitter to have to mess with brooder chicks either. But can you hatch eggs if you are gone for a week but have a stable incubator? Yes, things can happen...
  20. Susan Skylark

    Quail see, quail do!

    I have some babies I wanted to move outside but they aren’t nipple waterer trained (and when I try in the brooder they just ignore it and go for the water bottle). I tried to show these 3 week chicks what to do but they are too busy having a panic attack to pay attention. If they were going in...
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