➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[Kullas]

Hi everyone! Newbie here.
I just joined byc the end of last week.
It’s been so fun reading this thread from the beginning-it took me awhile
I got my first 8 quail in October, and they have been so much fun. I gave my brother’s family a bagful of the little eggs when we visited at Christmas, and after trying them he asked if I would give him some to try hatching! Well, of course!
Only, then I started having problems with the boy being too rough on the girls & switched him out to try a different one... twice , built a new bigger, comfier hutch and added fun things to amuse them and give the girls some ways to avoid the Mr.
So this weekend I finally rolled up my sleeves and got out my lil incubator that I got “just to test fertility” and put in 9 eggs. Well, today we have 3 cute little heartbeats and 6 blanks. Not what I was hoping, but better than I’d feared! I wonder if I made it TOO easy for the girls to get away from the boy...
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes... the kids keep asking “How much longer till they hatch???”. It’s gonna be a long couple of weeks!

Congrats on the new ones. Kinda sounds you need to let the "mr" have his way.

 

[007Sean]

Howdy @Shortchick, glad your getting the 'quail bug' hope you have a great hatching experince.
The more room you provide for them and the more 'habitat enrichment' you provide the better they will do. Just let them do what quail do and provide complete and balanced feed, plus clean fresh water and things should be condusive to ample production.

 

[Kiki]

Hi everyone! Newbie here.
I just joined byc the end of last week.
It’s been so fun reading this thread from the beginning-it took me awhile
I got my first 8 quail in October, and they have been so much fun. I gave my brother’s family a bagful of the little eggs when we visited at Christmas, and after trying them he asked if I would give him some to try hatching! Well, of course!
Only, then I started having problems with the boy being too rough on the girls & switched him out to try a different one... twice , built a new bigger, comfier hutch and added fun things to amuse them and give the girls some ways to avoid the Mr.
So this weekend I finally rolled up my sleeves and got out my lil incubator that I got “just to test fertility” and put in 9 eggs. Well, today we have 3 cute little heartbeats and 6 blanks. Not what I was hoping, but better than I’d feared! I wonder if I made it TOO easy for the girls to get away from the boy...
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes... the kids keep asking “How much longer till they hatch???”. It’s gonna be a long couple of weeks!

Welcome!
What day are you on?
Maybe the clears are just a lil slow?

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Hey @Shortchick

Exciting times ahead!! Keep us posted on the hatching.. we demand to know every detail

The Mr might have a favourite 1 or 2, they often do that

 

[Shortchick]

What day are you on?
Maybe the clears are just a lil slow?

I think it’s day 4. (I put them in Friday evening.) The only iPhone app I could find counts weird so it’s saying 5.
The clears were so clear and the live ones were so distinct that I started opening the clears. Absolutely zero action in them, so I fed them to a very pleased pup.

 

[Kullas]

I think it’s day 4. (I put them in Friday evening.) The only iPhone app I could find counts weird so it’s saying 5.
The clears were so clear and the live ones were so distinct that I started opening the clears. Absolutely zero action in them, so I fed them to a very pleased pup.

If you set them in the morning I count as day 1 if you set in the evening I count as day 0

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi everyone! Newbie here.
I just joined byc the end of last week.
It’s been so fun reading this thread from the beginning-it took me awhile
I got my first 8 quail in October, and they have been so much fun. I gave my brother’s family a bagful of the little eggs when we visited at Christmas, and after trying them he asked if I would give him some to try hatching! Well, of course!
Only, then I started having problems with the boy being too rough on the girls & switched him out to try a different one... twice , built a new bigger, comfier hutch and added fun things to amuse them and give the girls some ways to avoid the Mr.
So this weekend I finally rolled up my sleeves and got out my lil incubator that I got “just to test fertility” and put in 9 eggs. Well, today we have 3 cute little heartbeats and 6 blanks. Not what I was hoping, but better than I’d feared! I wonder if I made it TOO easy for the girls to get away from the boy...
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes... the kids keep asking “How much longer till they hatch???”. It’s gonna be a long couple of weeks!

I hope your hatch goes well! Maybe the Mr needs a little more time with the ladies.

We've been pickling our eggs but I put 1 in the incubator with some I bought to see what happens. I have no idea how much our roo spreads himself around.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

We have pipping

It's a staggered hatch, so I will be sitting on my hands waiting waiting..

 

[Crazydoglady99]

My first pipper is half unzipped already

I can hear chirping from the bator!! Exciting!!

Gee that grippy mat stuff is awesome, that dont roll around at all!

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Congrats to those with babies pipping!!

@Shortchick
I don't get great fertility rates unless my birds are in trios maximum, because as someone said, they play favorites! That said, unless you're hatching *constantly* or working with a ton of genes like I am it's not really worth the trade-off of stressed hens. I would just expect to set ~2x as many eggs as you want to hatch and keep doing what you're doing.


My "little" babies. A few are due to move into big crate, methinks.

'More white than others' Italian is in lower left, and two of my homebred charcoals (same age as as others! Twice as big as most others, consistent trend ) are in lower right.