➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[R2elk]

I was browsing YouTube and watched a video of a gal doing the string and needle old wives tale to guess the gender of eggs. She admitted that it was a tale, but she was certainly hopeful it would work. I think I’ll try it with my next batch of cream legbars, since they are auto sexing at hatch. Just to prove it impossible. Lol

You could always get an auto sexing breed and cull/sell/give away roosters before they crow.

When younger, my sister did very well with the string and needle test for guessing the sexes of children of women she would meet. Predicting the sex and number of children that were to come in the future was not very good.

 

[Sara L]

That looks like a female (top) and male (bottom) to me but it might take a few more days to be certain.



They'll probably be even smaller than momma, but that's okay, they are adorable and I love those chinchilla coats. Keep giving us pics!!

I am on the wait list for a registered giant chinchilla from a local breeder, but am also looking at a real nice black new Zealand for nearby that just had kits. I love the looks of the Flemish but they are inefficient buggers by comparison to both. I think your cross is perfect, hopefully you get a better meat:bone ratio than purebreds. Are you keeping a son to breed back to her?

I think I'm arranging a stud service with another different local breeder when I get a doe. No spraying boys for me

I was actually planning to keep a daughter if one grows out well. I weighed them last night (15 days old) smallest was just over 11 oz and biggest was over 13 oz.

ETA: I'm hoping to be able to sex them next weekend. Weight goal is to be 5 lbs at 8 weeks.

 

[BReeder!]

Just caught up on 3 days of messages in this forum. It's been a crazy weekend all around it sounds like. I stayed busy here with quail cages, friends, and a family party.
Congrats to those who had hatches!
Also, I seriously want rabbits after seeing the updated on them!
I saw some messages about sexing quail. I need to start doing that soon with mine. The plan is to raise all of my birds to 8 weeks and then cull the males, only keeping a handful of the best males for breeding - probably two JBs and 2 TXAMs and the 1 rescued male who I haven't identified. I'll post a pic later of him for you all. My current question is do you think I'll have birds fighting before I cull at 8 weeks? I sort of want to want to sex them until culling time and not mess with separating out males early unless it is necessary.

 

[Sara L]

Just caught up on 3 days of messages in this forum. It's been a crazy weekend all around it sounds like. I stayed busy here with quail cages, friends, and a family party.
Congrats to those who had hatches!
Also, I seriously want rabbits after seeing the updated on them!
I saw some messages about sexing quail. I need to start doing that soon with mine. The plan is to raise all of my birds to 8 weeks and then cull the males, only keeping a handful of the best males for breeding - probably two JBs and 2 TXAMs and the 1 rescued male who I haven't identified. I'll post a pic later of him for you all. My current question is do you think I'll have birds fighting before I cull at 8 weeks? I sort of want to want to sex them until culling time and not mess with separating out males early unless it is necessary.

Depends on how crowded they are. Mine usually start fighting at around 5 weeks, but if you have a larger enclosure that should be minimized.

 

[RUNuts]

Depends on how crowded they are. Mine usually start fighting at around 5 weeks, but if you have a larger enclosure that should be minimized.

5 weeks. When are you certain of sex? 4 weeks? After seeing all the pictures, I'm sure the red blush will say male, but it is ever so delicate at this point. I was REALLY hoping to keep them all together until the 8 week cull for selection of stud. That means we need another cage. <evil laughter>

Another thing, I provided a wind proof cuddle area and they are sleeping in the far end by the food. I think I'll move the food into the sleeping quarters. Silly little fluff balls.

Kiki - you are back to using the commercial feeders. Did the home made ones fail your use test? I've got a couple in the works, but using the chick feeder for now and they are scattering food all over.

Excuse the mess. This is where they hang out all day. I'm going to remove the cardboard later today with the cleaning.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

I was actually planning to keep a daughter if one grows out well. I weighed them last night (15 days old) smallest was just over 11 oz and biggest was over 13 oz.

ETA: I'm hoping to be able to sex them next weekend. Weight goal is to be 5 lbs at 8 weeks.

I am also falling victim to bunny math. At first I was definitely only ever going to have a single doe, and now I'm like well I definitely need a pair of the purebred giant chinchillas if I'm taking the extra trouble to register them unless I can find a local stud (highly unlikely), and I'm also just in love with this black NZ doe nearby who has huge litters and is a great momma. She's not for sale but she had kits yesterday and all her past litters have turned out tiny clones.

The person who was supposed to trade me rabbit meat for quail teens has potentially dropped off, so I might have a VERY full freezer in a couple months O.O My fingers got a lot better overnight so today might be butcher day for my first small batch. I'm trying to be good and actually harvest three fancy roos I'm very fond of/named as chicks but don't fit into my breeding program. I can't give them the quality of life they deserve with so many, but...I'm sad

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Oh, my dear Eggie is doing okay still. VERY advanced case of bumblefoot at in both feet this point (I feel terrible, I slacked on my foot checks last week or I would have caught it much earlier, I was a bit overwhelmed with school and getting ready for the trip), but she got her first tricide-neo dip yesterday and I swear the outer damage looks better already. She's getting 3x a day dips and fresh towels down every time to keep her clean, so I'm hopeful. Still eating and drinking.

0 wire left in my birdroom, all switched to shavings. Unfortunately, they're all dummies about flinging them into their waterers now so I have some fiddling to do >.>

 

[Kiki]

5 weeks. When are you certain of sex? 4 weeks? After seeing all the pictures, I'm sure the red blush will say male, but it is ever so delicate at this point. I was REALLY hoping to keep them all together until the 8 week cull for selection of stud. That means we need another cage. <evil laughter>

Another thing, I provided a wind proof cuddle area and they are sleeping in the far end by the food. I think I'll move the food into the sleeping quarters. Silly little fluff balls.

Kiki - you are back to using the commercial feeders. Did the home made ones fail your use test? I've got a couple in the works, but using the chick feeder for now and they are scattering food all over.

Excuse the mess. This is where they hang out all day. I'm going to remove the cardboard later today with the cleaning.View attachment 1670283

The dummies are getting inside my homemade feeders and pooping. I cut the holes too big. I'm working on figuring a feeder out still.

Right now I'm playing with boxes.
If...a big if...someone were going to ship eggs would this work?
First two unused pee pads on bottom.

Then two small boxes inside a medium one for support/taking up some room.

Foamy.

Cut up egg carton.

More cut up egg carton wedged in so nothing moves.

Ok? Not ok?

 

[RUNuts]

Why the pee pads? newpaper would do the same. I cram everything full of newspaper. Everything will shift and jostle.

Our favorite delivery driver was playing basketball with the Christmas Candles the company was sending out. I told him it was glass. He said it should be well packed. Um...

 

[Kiki]

Why the pee pads? newpaper would do the same. I cram everything full of newspaper. Everything will shift and jostle.

Our favorite delivery driver was playing basketball with the Christmas Candles the company was sending out. I told him it was glass. He said it should be well packed. Um...

Because I was standing next to the pee pad bag.