➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[muddy75]

first hatch is a “yeller” more pips evident now too!!

 

[mixedUPturk]

I think I am going to keep a few groups with one make and four or five females.

This is how i run the majority of my pens with like how @RUNuts said using the larger pens for grow outs as the eventual plan.

tibetans, tuxedos, red range, rosettas, silvers, pastels, and recessive whites (inc texas am and jumbo white) are main groups not feather-sexable

pharaoh, roux pharaoh, sparkly, pansy, pearl, snowy, falb fee, italian, etc are typically feather-sexable

*feel free to make additions/corrections in my list*
fyi:auctions are active

Sounds pretty good to my eye!

Oh so ill be setting w u soon too!

 

[Nabiki]

I'm getting too into this. My base coop is finished, but I'm still working on the runs. I'm also realizing that I'm going to end up with two flocks, at least for a while, so I just bought this thing to keep the flocks separated until I cull down to the ones I want to keep for eggs and breeding.

I'm going to have to cull two roos soon. I'm starting to hear crowing from the coop, and there are currently 3 roos and 3 hens in there.

 

[RUNuts]

This is how i run the majority of my pens with like how @RUNuts said using the larger pens for grow outs as the eventual plan.

How big are your pens? How many birds in each pen?
I've got 4 cages/coops that are less than 4 square feet each. 4 birds, I think, are pushing it. 3 may be better. But I've only tried 3 in these. 4, 5 or 6 may work? Maybe not. Zack suggests 1 square foot per quail. But also says 1.5 square feet is better.

I don't know...

What definitely won't work? The previous flock with 1 rooster and 5 hens, he was wearing all 5 out and crappy fertility (4 out of 40 hatched). Heat?

 

[ShrekDawg]

I think I am going to keep a few groups with one make and four or five females.

This sounds like a good idea.

tibetans, tuxedos, red range, rosettas, silvers, pastels, and recessive whites (inc texas am and jumbo white) are main groups not feather-sexable

pharaoh, roux pharaoh, sparkly, pansy, pearl, snowy, falb fee, italian, etc are typically feather-sexable

*feel free to make additions/corrections in my list*
fyi:auctions are active

Very helpful!! Thanks! Kinda wanna only get feather sexable ones but then I’d probably check for foam anyway to be sure haha

The rare colors one or even just the mixed color one from Myshire include a lot of non feather sexable ones, right?

This helps me a lot thank you.

X2

first hatch is a “yeller” more pips evident now too!!

Yayyyy!!

This is how i run the majority of my pens with like how @RUNuts said using the larger pens for grow outs as the eventual plan.



Sounds pretty good to my eye!

Oh so ill be setting w u soon too!

You are going to have a lot of chicks

How big are your pens? How many birds in each pen?
I've got 4 cages/coops that are less than 4 square feet each. 4 birds, I think, are pushing it. 3 may be better. But I've only tried 3 in these. 4, 5 or 6 may work? Maybe not. Zack suggests 1 square foot per quail. But also says 1.5 square feet is better.

I don't know...

What definitely won't work? The previous flock with 1 rooster and 5 hens, he was wearing all 5 out and crappy fertility (4 out of 40 hatched). Heat?

Thanks, this is helpful. I was planning on square foot per bird but perhaps I should go with more, especially if the fertility is better with less birds in a pen anyway, so can give them more room. But idk. 1.5 wouldn’t be hard to do or maybe even just 2 for easy math haha

But I guess it’s kind of like chickens, how everyone says 2 square feet or even sometimes only 1, is enough for them and how you can supposedly fit like 20 in every one of those tiny prefab things, but then most people actually say it should be at least 4 or I’ve even seen some people say 5 or 6, that the 4 number is for smaller/scrawny birds like leghorns. Mine have 4 now. They had a tiny prefab coop and run before and seem much happier in the new digs!

I guess the more room the better!

So might try to do the same for the quail. Can’t hurt. Other than maybe needing more cages but that’s okay.

 

[muddy75]

How big are your pens? How many birds in each pen?
I've got 4 cages/coops that are less than 4 square feet each. 4 birds, I think, are pushing it. 3 may be better. But I've only tried 3 in these. 4, 5 or 6 may work? Maybe not. Zack suggests 1 square foot per quail. But also says 1.5 square feet is better.

I don't know...

What definitely won't work? The previous flock with 1 rooster and 5 hens, he was wearing all 5 out and crappy fertility (4 out of 40 hatched). Heat?

sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation to see what works best for you!! I personally would give the trio in a smaller cage a try!!! depending on how much less than 4sqft and how large your birds are.....they may be happy 3:1 in the smaller cages.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

@CoturnixComplex runs the small breeding groups.....i’m not absolutely sure about my current male:female quail ratio post-massacre, but all mine in aviary setting and had 90%+ fertility at peak laying. but with smaller breeding groups in smaller spaces, there is much higher risk of overbreeding/aggression

Yup! Most did fine with 1:1 and 1:2 but I got sooooo tired of monitoring them and switching out the handful of troublemakers.

My fertility levels did change when I added more hens (a few that had 100% fertility levels before dropped because the male was busy with his new shiny instead), but not by enough that I'm not willing to just set a few extra eggs.

I think the sweet spot is probably 1:3-1:4 for maximum peace + fertility.

 

[mixedUPturk]

How big are your pens? How many birds in each pen?
I've got 4 cages/coops that are less than 4 square feet each. 4 birds, I think, are pushing it. 3 may be better. But I've only tried 3 in these. 4, 5 or 6 may work? Maybe not. Zack suggests 1 square foot per quail. But also says 1.5 square feet is better.

I don't know...

What definitely won't work? The previous flock with 1 rooster and 5 hens, he was wearing all 5 out and crappy fertility (4 out of 40 hatched). Heat?

I have 6 cot quail pens. I have the triple hutch that is 3 cages, 2 ft sq each give 4sq ft per cage. As long as i keep the sand baths full theyre happy things at 4 hens 1 roo. The hens start getn worn down despite the dust baths at 3:1. Then i have one cage on the ground that is 4 ft long and 18 inchs deep. I have 5 hens 1 roo in there. Hes a sweet randy fella(my pansy ) and he gets the job done without wearing them out at this ratio. So ime it kinda depends on ur birds' personalities. Then the PVC thing is about 7 ft long 2 ft deep. I have grown out up to 20 in it but thats crowded at adult sizes, and then i went down to about 12 but if i only had one male in there at that ratio id bet fertility would be in the pooper, havent hatched from that pen yet. This is where i want to grow out babies as well as the last cage is about 6 ft x 18" and i have kept up to 30 growing in there before i started getn more cages n splitting everybody off. Im getting more of the smaller cages one of these days. There will be 7 holes at 2 ft squared and 3'x2' under a trampoline frame hoop roof shed. Gotta make the DH go take it apart to haul it out here. Almost all of my pens have either been CL finds or freebies that ive refashioned. Im not real handy but i can always watch the classified ads. W the chickens included im running 15 pens currently.

ETA yes the heat thatll always screw things up

 

[mixedUPturk]

sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation to see what works best for you!! I personally would give the trio in a smaller cage a try!!! depending on how much less than 4sqft and how large your birds are.....they may be happy 3:1 in the smaller cages.

Yup! Most did fine with 1:1 and 1:2 but I got sooooo tired of monitoring them and switching out the handful of troublemakers.

My fertility levels did change when I added more hens (a few that had 100% fertility levels before dropped because the male was busy with his new shiny instead), but not by enough that I'm not willing to just set a few extra eggs.

I think the sweet spot is probably 1:3-1:4 for maximum peace + fertility.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yup! Most did fine with 1:1 and 1:2 but I got sooooo tired of monitoring them and switching out the handful of troublemakers.

My fertility levels did change when I added more hens (a few that had 100% fertility levels before dropped because the male was busy with his new shiny instead), but not by enough that I'm not willing to just set a few extra eggs.

I think the sweet spot is probably 1:3-1:4 for maximum peace + fertility.

Do you think if they were just out together from the start the fertility might not drop? Since he will have had them all along instead of having “new” girls all of a sudden?