➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[ShrekDawg]

Gurrrrl I know all about burn permits. I live where the wildfires happen. Why are you not ready for quails yet if you have 2 and a half acres?! I wish I had that much space I could rule the world..with microagriculture!!

cause I still need to build cages!! And also some of it is wooded. But even the yard/around the house is huge, so I really should have more animals LOL

But I only got the chickens about 4 years ago (end of October) and was strictly limited to 8

Although I did order them without telling anyone and probably could have ordered more

Anyway, I was good and strictly stuck to it and tried to control myself.

Until.... I convinced my parents to let me get more and added 5 more in April.

But we talked about it a lot and I let my dad help with choosing the breeds and let him name the one he chose lol we ordered them so he didn’t physically choose it from a bin or anything but he chose one of the breeds.

Anyway, so, my numbers are slowly creeping up. Chicken math is setting in. But it took me 4 years for my dad to admit he likes the chickens and let me get more

Actually, he’s said it before, it’s obvious he loves them, but didn’t want more lol I convinced him.

But he talks to them every morning and even refuses to eat them. I refuse too, they’re my pets and will stay forever, but he used to always joke about eating them if they didn’t produce or stuff like that. He doesn’t even joke anymore. He loves them too much. Although I think that’s partially cause a friend told him old chickens weren’t good eating but still haha he would never eat them now. Still scared to go in the pen though. says they peck him.

Soooo.... he’s a work in progress.

But we’re making progress lol

We’ll start small. Literally and figuratively. quail are next. Just another bird so not much different from chickens and super small so cages are fine and he’ll barely notice them. And my mom is fully on board with this one.

Then eventually I’m thinking rabbits, goats, sheep....

Ducks I think will be the hardest tbh. He HATES ducks lol

Anyway, this probably won’t all happen, hopefully I’ll be moved out before then, so may end up just being chickens and quail for a while, but.... you know.... eventually....

Gotta have dreams, right?

That said, the garden this year is HUGE and I am growing way more vegetables and way more types of vegetables than ever before!! Usually I just grow tomatoes and sweet peppers lol last year I did grow an eggplant.

This year I’m trying beans, cucumbers, peas, eggplant, summer squash, etc. plus the tomatoes and peppers. Sooooo many peppers this year. And way too many tomatoes as usual lol

So... I’m already kind of on my way to the micro agriculture/backyard homestead thing.

OH!

And we planted some blueberries and grapes this year too haha they probably won’t produce until next year though. Still small.

Your links worked fine for me.

Really? So weird they worked for some and not others. Glad they worked for you though.

Also...I am so close to finishing the aviary. I promise I'm actually doing all this stuff and not some crazy person who makes up crazy stories on the internet for entertainment

you don’t sound like that at all!!!

Absolutely...just let me know exactly how many hatch on hatch day.

GUYS!!!!!

Why am I just now thinking of doing this:
I could have been doing this the whole year!View attachment 1881285

Well you know now.

Cause we are not all IT experts )) This looks great, is it an app or a file?

X2

It's an app made by one of our BYC buddys.
@mill-j

It's called HatchKeeper

I love it.

Awesomeees

The short handle improves your leverage with heavy, damp bedding, etc. I do generally use a digging fork rather than a pitchfork for that sort of thing, but I thought it was just a short pitchfork. I didn’t know it had a special name. I chose it this time because it was shorter... and also closer. The pitchfork with the long handle makes it easier to pitch dry, lightweight hay farther.

Thank you! Very helpful and informative hahah

The world of tools is so vast

Trueeee lol

I also measure the weight of the eggs before I put them in the incubator and then I am only keeping those quails who came out of the largest eggs. My goal is to make selections that lay the largest eggs. I started with eggs 7-10grams, I am now in the 10-12grams range and I have some eggs in the incubator that are 14grams.

Wow that’s awesome!

Oh boy guys guess what?

I just accidentally won an auction.

Assortment of colors.

It is no accident when you actually put a bid in. Auctions can be every bit as addictive as incubating is.

how many?

Actually the auction queen Muddy accidentally won the auction... I'm just stealing some eggs from her.

i dodged the bullet on the smaller batch as the auctions were basically going at half price yesterday....i put in 1 bid on final auction with hours left and didn’t get outbid!!! so 120 eggs and I twisted @Texas Kiki arm to take 30 of them!! (being shipped to her directly)

Sure seems like she has an addiction problem!

I am so excited.

No...she doesn't. I promise. She is perfect!

So says the enabler.

Who is benefiting from the addiction

yes i admit i do have a problem!! but between my poor hatches in July and my raccoon attacks, I’m trying to get my flock rebuilt and matured before cold weather sets in....no more bidding for me for a while now!!

So you say now.

were just teasing , but id like to know how many you hatched and how many u put in the freezer if u have those numbers i bet its been a great yr for healthy poultry to eat at your house!

Probably so much meat!

Go to the first post and look at my Google sheet. I think I have all but her last two hatches on it

Wow lots of quail.

Hey man what are friends for?

Yea see im only at about 70 less than @muddy75 and my winter hatches will more than make up for it




Well in that situation i would have put the baby down rather than sell it with its hatch mates. You can use like painters paper tape to attach to the good leg positioning the splayed leg where its suposed to be. Ima dig up my pics in a moment. In my experience though even with all that work "putting shoes on ants" it seldom corrects, and its better to just go ahead and make the decision either to grow it out on a solid surface til first proccessing day of its age group Or put it down immediately if looking to raise them soley on wire with as little fuss as possible. Depends on your goals and what the birds mean to you as individuals. Ive tried three times just this year. All three were failures. The first one i grew out until proccessing, she was the Biggest quail id ever seen at 18ozs. I guess she just parked herself at the feeder half the day. The other two i culled at only 1 wk old when it was clear theyd have a lesser quality of life.

That is a good point

It has definitely been a “learning curve” year.....prior to Jan 1 my quail flock was 7 pharaoh. I have hatched over 250 chicks this year. My current flock (aviary, grow-out, brooder included) is around 60. I have lost at least 100 to flooding,predators, hatch/brooder-related, and other deaths (like the oyster shell mistake) have butchered another 60ish in addition to other poultry.

Wow that’s a lot of quail!!!

And that is why I have not been bidding.

Aha so Queen Mud is your dealer too.

I was cleaning pine needles out of my garden bed, and as I was picking them up, I thought, "I bet the quail would like these," so I started putting them into a largish box. I got enough to fill it about halfway, then I cut a notch in the side so they could get in, and they seem to be having a ball scratching and pecking their way through the box. There may have been a few bugs in there. There is a lot of wing flapping and hopping happening too.

OMG so cute! lol

 

[sarabeth485]

So it is day 19. Three hatched day 17. Seven hatched day 18. One has hatched day 18. Three are left without pips that are probably a no go. Three have pips but are not doing anything except tormenting me with their tiny beaks at the opening. I just want to crack the things open. Anyone have odds on if they’ll actually come out of the darn shells? (One is breech though. So there’s that )

 

[muddy75]

So it is day 19. Three hatched day 17. Seven hatched day 18. One has hatched day 18. Three are left without pips that are probably a no go. Three have pips but are not doing anything except tormenting me with their tiny beaks at the opening. I just want to crack the things open. Anyone have odds on if they’ll actually come out of the darn shells? (One is breech though. So there’s that )

how long have they been pipped with beaks sticking out??

 

[sarabeth485]

how long have they been pipped with beaks sticking out??

24ish hours give or take

 

[sarabeth485]

Just checked on them again. One decided to make a break for it and is about three fourths of the way zipped.

 

[muddy75]

24ish hours give or take

i’m trying hard to be patient as well....have had some pipped with no progress and 1 has even rolled its eggs around a few times.....I had forgotten how hard it is to control/maintain lockdown humidity in the J12 so I’ve accidentally spiked it a couple times!

 

[muddy75]

Lost 2 more quail today....1 big healthy 2 week old and 1 hen no clue why....the hen was acting a little off this morning but no signs of wounds—-just slightly lethargic/sleepy. I found her this afternoon in same spot—-ground side bloody and fluid leaked from her beak area when I picked her up. my guess is that maybe she was killed by the other birds because “sickly” ???
when I tried to reintroduce one with injured leg yesterday, she was instantly bullied and I tried to put her in with the chickens and the rooster started bullying her.....so I left her in the hospital/grow-out cage.

 

[sarabeth485]

i’m trying hard to be patient as well....have had some pipped with no progress and 1 has even rolled its eggs around a few times.....I had forgotten how hard it is to control/maintain lockdown humidity in the J12 so I’ve accidentally spiked it a couple times!

I use the J12 too and this batch was around 30-35 during incubation and 65ish during lockdown and hatch.

 

[sarabeth485]

So the breech actually made it out pretty much on it’s own. I had been oiling the membrane to keep it moist and that enlarged the pip a bit but otherwise I didn’t assist. Has curled feet but otherwise looks ok so far. Hopefully that will improve with time as it is brand new.

I helped another out only because it had zipped all the way around but the membrane was too dry to “pop”. That one looks to have a yolk sac issue so we’ll see.

 

[el dorado quail]

cause I still need to build cages!! And also some of it is wooded. But even the yard/around the house is huge, so I really should have more animals LOL

But I only got the chickens about 4 years ago (end of October) and was strictly limited to 8

Although I did order them without telling anyone and probably could have ordered more

Anyway, I was good and strictly stuck to it and tried to control myself.

Until.... I convinced my parents to let me get more and added 5 more in April.

But we talked about it a lot and I let my dad help with choosing the breeds and let him name the one he chose lol we ordered them so he didn’t physically choose it from a bin or anything but he chose one of the breeds.

Anyway, so, my numbers are slowly creeping up. Chicken math is setting in. But it took me 4 years for my dad to admit he likes the chickens and let me get more

Actually, he’s said it before, it’s obvious he loves them, but didn’t want more lol I convinced him.

But he talks to them every morning and even refuses to eat them. I refuse too, they’re my pets and will stay forever, but he used to always joke about eating them if they didn’t produce or stuff like that. He doesn’t even joke anymore. He loves them too much. Although I think that’s partially cause a friend told him old chickens weren’t good eating but still haha he would never eat them now. Still scared to go in the pen though. says they peck him.

Soooo.... he’s a work in progress.

But we’re making progress lol

We’ll start small. Literally and figuratively. quail are next. Just another bird so not much different from chickens and super small so cages are fine and he’ll barely notice them. And my mom is fully on board with this one.

Then eventually I’m thinking rabbits, goats, sheep....

Ducks I think will be the hardest tbh. He HATES ducks lol

Anyway, this probably won’t all happen, hopefully I’ll be moved out before then, so may end up just being chickens and quail for a while, but.... you know.... eventually....

Gotta have dreams, right?

That said, the garden this year is HUGE and I am growing way more vegetables and way more types of vegetables than ever before!! Usually I just grow tomatoes and sweet peppers lol last year I did grow an eggplant.

This year I’m trying beans, cucumbers, peas, eggplant, summer squash, etc. plus the tomatoes and peppers. Sooooo many peppers this year. And way too many tomatoes as usual lol

So... I’m already kind of on my way to the micro agriculture/backyard homestead thing.

OH!

And we planted some blueberries and grapes this year too haha they probably won’t produce until next year though. Still small.



Really? So weird they worked for some and not others. Glad they worked for you though.



you don’t sound like that at all!!!



Well you know now.



X2



Awesomeees



Thank you! Very helpful and informative hahah



Trueeee lol



Wow that’s awesome!

























So you say now.



Probably so much meat!



Wow lots of quail.







That is a good point



Wow that’s a lot of quail!!!











OMG so cute! lol

What is this giant 400000 quote post omg