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  1. Susan Skylark

    Checking for heart beat on eggs

    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!
  2. Susan Skylark

    A tale of two hatches

    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...
  3. Susan Skylark

    Is my duckling ok?

    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...
  4. Susan Skylark

    ‘Chocolate’ Coturnix!

    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...
  5. Susan Skylark

    Is this bad?

    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.
  6. Susan Skylark

    ‘Chocolate’ Coturnix!

    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)...
  7. 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...
  8. Susan Skylark

    Checking for heart beat on eggs

    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...
  9. Susan Skylark

    Is it easier to join two coveys that already live side by side?

    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.
  10. Susan Skylark

    Is this viable or is it a blood ring?

    Might just be the edges of the embryonic membranes, keep an eye on it. Blood rings don’t grow and develop, live embryos do!
  11. Susan Skylark

    Sick baby quail not doing well.

    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...
  12. Susan Skylark

    Jumbo Coturnix Quail Colors

    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...
  13. Susan Skylark

    I know I’m probably going to upset some ppl, but I’m genuinely confused..

    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...
  14. Susan Skylark

    Update on hatchlings

    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!
  15. Susan Skylark

    lost another quail :(

    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...
  16. Susan Skylark

    Egg Candling! Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices.

    Candling obsessively doesn’t bother the eggs, and maybe the best part of hatching. There isn’t a way to sex an egg/chick prehatch and for many species/breeds you can’t even tell for weeks after hatch (certain colors or traits are sex linked recessive and if bred for specifically can tell you at...
  17. Susan Skylark

    Egg turning frequency vs equal timing

    As long as it is 3 or 5 times daily, it can be 10, 8, and 6 hours apart or whatever, don’t rush home over lunch or get up at midnight, they’ll be fine! But according to some study I read you can increase hatch rates by 1% if you turn 87 times a day, personally I don’t think it is worth it but...
  18. Susan Skylark

    Checking for heart beat on eggs

    This is a 15 year old post but an interesting concept. I’d like to know if it is actually feasible, I’d think the sound would be very faint and prone to artifact, but a curious idea!
  19. Susan Skylark

    Should I give up?

    Definitely give her some time, candling is a good idea too, my first hatch for quail was day 19/20, it was supposed to be day 16/17, but a cold incubator delayed it significantly (boy was that a long couple days!). Try to be patient!
  20. 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...
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