➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[CindyinSD]

View attachment 1756340 View attachment 1756341 View attachment 1756342 View attachment 1756343 View attachment 1756344 View attachment 1756345 View attachment 1756347 View attachment 1756348 View attachment 1756346 Another very long Sunday working but I have around 50 very happy quailies!! Of course the day started with yet another escape by Pi whose name has officially been changed to Houdini as this was at least his 3rd escape! The neighbor found him today on the wrong side of the fence!

What lucky little birdies you have!!!

 

[el dorado quail]

Setting these plus what is laid today tonight.
View attachment 1756833 View attachment 1756834

Think something happened to your blueberries

 

[Kiki]

Think something happened to your blueberries

I hope they hatch jumbo.

 

[el dorado quail]

So is wood ash good for dust baths? Or too lye-y

 

[CindyinSD]

I’ve read that wood ash is good for dust baths. I don’t burn wood any more, so I haven’t tried it. I’d think that if it were too caustic there’d be loads of folks saying, “Whatever you do, don’t use wood ash.”

One thing about dust baths—in nature they would happen out of doors. If the girls are confined a lot of time in winter, it’s nice for them to be able to do their ablutions in the coop and that does require actual dust. We all have to make compromises. I guess I’d say to maybe save the ash for outdoor bathing. It IS really caustic, (which is probably the reason it’s good for getting rid of pests), so I’d be concerned about lung irritation. OTOH, people do use it and I haven’t seen anyone warning against it.

I put some diatomaceous earth in a dust bath in the coop and wish I hadn’t. It poofed up everywhere. IF winter EVER ends, I’m going to pressure wash the coop and never ever use that again. But chickens do bathe in coop, in dusty stuff and appear to do all right. Really, they seem perfectly satisfied to use the deep litter for their dust baths, so that’s what I’ve been going with. They empty out a container of dirt/dust in about a half a day. Simple is good.

 

[RUNuts]

Batch #2 laid first egg at 9.5 weeks.

We have quail eggs.

 

[BReeder!]

I’ve read that wood ash is good for dust baths. I don’t burn wood any more, so I haven’t tried it. I’d think that if it were too caustic there’d be loads of folks saying, “Whatever you do, don’t use wood ash.”

One thing about dust baths—in nature they would happen out of doors. If the girls are confined a lot of time in winter, it’s nice for them to be able to do their ablutions in the coop and that does require actual dust. We all have to make compromises. I guess I’d say to maybe save the ash for outdoor bathing. It IS really caustic, (which is probably the reason it’s good for getting rid of pests), so I’d be concerned about lung irritation. OTOH, people do use it and I haven’t seen anyone warning against it.

I put some diatomaceous earth in a dust bath in the coop and wish I hadn’t. It poofed up everywhere. IF winter EVER ends, I’m going to pressure wash the coop and never ever use that again. But chickens do bathe in coop, in dusty stuff and appear to do all right. Really, they seem perfectly satisfied to use the deep litter for their dust baths, so that’s what I’ve been going with. They empty out a container of dirt/dust in about a half a day. Simple is good.

Mix the ash with sand and dirt. I would try to not have more than 25% ash. That said, my chickens have dust bathed in our fire pit full of ash before and were fine. It was a once time thing though.

 

[Kiki]

Batch #2 laid first egg at 9.5 weeks.

We have quail eggs.

Wanna set some tonight with me?

 

[Kiki]

I like good old dirt and so do all of my dust bathers.

 

[el dorado quail]

Yeah they're gonna be outdoors but I need to do one last burn pile and clean out the wood stove. Might set a small amount aside to put in aviary. We have clay soil so it's dusty on its own but it takes effort to get it fluffed lol.