➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[Nabiki]

i probably couldn’t have!! but chances are he would’ve outbid you regardless.....he’s one of the regulars!

I resisted. Another chance will come along or in a couple more weeks my falb fee should be laying. Considering how randy that silver male has been, I think I'll start saving some eggs a couple of weeks after they start laying to see what kind of pretty chicks I get from my own flock.

 

[BReeder!]

Here's a pic of the progress on the tiered cage. I am really happy with how it is coming along. The top cage is complete except for the folding egg tray I am going to add to the front along the bottom where the gap is going all the way across. I would have installed the doors on the other two cages, but I didn't buy enough hinges.

 

[BReeder!]

I will be putting our eggs in lockdown in the morning. It is day 15 for the first eggs in this staggered hatch. The last eggs are on day 13 I think (I think I only added eggs for 3 days. Oops, I forgot. ) There are 40 eggs total. I am just too tired to go candle them and remove the turner tonight.

 

[CindyinSD]

I need opinions... 1 or 2 doors on the front of a quail cage? Ideal dimensions for the doorway?
The cages I'm building are 4ft wide. I want to be able to reach everywhere in the cage, but I don't want a huge opening. I was going to put two doors in the front of each cage, but now I'm thinking catching birds will become a nightmare - I'll reach into the right side and they'll go to the left and vice versa. Perhaps a long, narrow door to minimize the area of the opening while improving my ability to reach everywhere from one opening? Thoughts?

You might extend your reach by using a little quail-sized “landing net.”

You speak of double “French doors”... That makes me think of doors hinged at the side. Maybe you’ve already considered this, but I think my first instinct would be to make the door(s) hinged along the top, to swing in and hook to the top of the coop while I was working in there. I’d try to come up with something that would hold them to the coop ceiling by friction and come loose with a firm tug.

 

[BReeder!]

You might extend your reach by using a little quail-sized “landing net.”

You speak of double “French doors”... That makes me think of doors hinged at the side. Maybe you’ve already considered this, but I think my first instinct would be to make the door(s) hinged along the top, to swing in and hook to the top of the coop while I was working in there. I’d try to come up with something that would hold them to the coop ceiling by friction and come loose with a firm tug.

I hinged them at the side. Swinging inward, whether hinged at the top or side, seems to me like a risk of the birds escaping as I try to close the door. Perhaps that's just my clumsiness though. And swinging outward when hinged at the top is just frustrating - that's how our current cage is designed.

 

[CindyinSD]

Yes, I didn’t see the latest pics before I posted that. Rabbit cages are generally hinged as I described... or the ones I’ve had commerce with are, anyway. However the doors in that case are just cage wire, so easier to do. They even make special clips to hold the doors up to the ceiling.

The wood framed ones are so attractive. In fact your whole cage complex looks great. You could do quail condos as another side income. I’ll bet you could sell them.

 

[Maiahr]

Pfew! Good - a small part of the the newly hatched were given to the customer and I have less to clean and feed.
I am sure you guys know that but I have made some observations on this batch.
I had eggs from 3 different suppliers in the same incubator, same conditions.
1 group of eggs - really bad most white broilers & Manchurians. Very high mortality and malformed chicks. Several with splayed legs.
2 group from the other supplier - 75% hatch rate, very very small chicks, I have one that hatched with assistance, she (I am sure it is she as she is a fighter) is now 2 days old and 5.60 grams. Doing well.
3 group supplier - very happy, healthy chicks, no malformations, no sickness and no mortality.
And overall I noticed that all the died after hatch were either Manchurians or whites, I have not lost a single tuxedo or pharaoh. Does anyone else have the same experience?

And just when I said I will NEVER set so many eggs in the incubator, I have a customer who wants a 100 hatched chicks.. I am tempted but I will have to negotiate with him...

@el dorado quail I also have several with crustiness on the back, I just left them, not doing anything, I am sure it will go away. Does not bother them.
@BReeder! Now, are you counting the days from 0 or from 1? I count from 0 and I do lockdown on day 14, never tried anything different, but I may risk next time with an earlier/later lockdown, just to experiment.

 

[BReeder!]

Pfew! Good - a small part of the the newly hatched were given to the customer and I have less to clean and feed.
I am sure you guys know that but I have made some observations on this batch.
I had eggs from 3 different suppliers in the same incubator, same conditions.
1 group of eggs - really bad most white broilers & Manchurians. Very high mortality and malformed chicks. Several with splayed legs.
2 group from the other supplier - 75% hatch rate, very very small chicks, I have one that hatched with assistance, she (I am sure it is she as she is a fighter) is now 2 days old and 5.60 grams. Doing well.
3 group supplier - very happy, healthy chicks, no malformations, no sickness and no mortality.
And overall I noticed that all the died after hatch were either Manchurians or whites, I have not lost a single tuxedo or pharaoh. Does anyone else have the same experience?

And just when I said I will NEVER set so many eggs in the incubator, I have a customer who wants a 100 hatched chicks.. I am tempted but I will have to negotiate with him...

@el dorado quail I also have several with crustiness on the back, I just left them, not doing anything, I am sure it will go away. Does not bother them.
@BReeder! Now, are you counting the days from 0 or from 1? I count from 0 and I do lockdown on day 14, never tried anything different, but I may risk next time with an earlier/later lockdown, just to experiment.

I count from 0. Hatching seems to start on day 17 and finish on day 19.

 

[Maiahr]

There have been studies done about this.
Effect of providing light during incubation
Effects of LED lighting during incubation
Exposing broiler eggs to green, red and white light during incubation

Thank you for these articles! So, now.. I have a plastic lid/top on one of my incubators.. How do I get white and red light in it??? I could cut part of it and replace with glass and then put a white bulb outside to shine inside? How much white is white? I didn't see any lumens in the article.

I count from 0. Hatching seems to start on day 17 and finish on day 19.

So you count from 0 and you do Lockdown on day 15.. have you noticed any difference in hatchability? With me they always start hatching exactly on day 17 and always finish hatching 24 hours later.

 

[Maiahr]

Oh, I may have missed it.. I am still looking for that paper/information on mixing Coturnix colors and hatchability..? @CoturnixComplex do you have any info on that?