eHuman
Songster
- Mar 14, 2016
- 502
- 84
- 131
Or, I cooked my quail, now what?
The brooder is set up; water, feed, heat, check. I pick up 18 2-day old Coturnix chicks from a local breeder, 9 A&M, 9 Pharaoh and place them in their new home.
For heat I'm using a Brinsea Ecoglow 20 but temporarily ditched the legs in favor of using what I have on hand to get it properly spaced for the little ones. On one end I used a 3/4" diameter pipe (BAD move), on the other a piece of wood.
To the point. In the evening I give the brooder a once over (Not like there haven't been 5 faces glued to it all day) and see two very unresponsive feet sticking out of the 3/4" pipe. You know, the one directly in contact with the heater? Yeah that one. My heart sank and as I slid the little guy out he initially looked DOA. None of the babies running around looked like they could even fit in there.
I saw faint chest movements and my wife swooped him up and just loved on him. Lots of hand feeding and watering but couldn't lift it's head on its own. By the time we had to go to bed the little guy was pushing laps around the brooder literally, dragging the right side of it's head, not able to lift it. But was the most active bird in the box.
Next morning I go out to retrieve the dead guy and get rid of him before momma wakes up, but I can't tell which one it is. I had to wake my wife to tell her the good news but also for confirmation on which one it was. Ending up smaller than the rest, Hope (as my wife named it) is perfectly fine as far as we can tell, eating drinking and partying with the rest, everyone fine here on day 5.
I offered twice to put it down so it didn't have to suffer. It is the 1st time she has ever given me that look that in retrospect I'm glad she did.
Hope doesn't even have a limp or a cool scar to go with the story. He/she just should not have lived but refused to stop moving and trying. It is for this reason that Hope, whether male or female, is automatically off of the cull list and on the breeding program. Hope's traits are worthy of being passed down.
Pix will have to come another time.
The brooder is set up; water, feed, heat, check. I pick up 18 2-day old Coturnix chicks from a local breeder, 9 A&M, 9 Pharaoh and place them in their new home.
For heat I'm using a Brinsea Ecoglow 20 but temporarily ditched the legs in favor of using what I have on hand to get it properly spaced for the little ones. On one end I used a 3/4" diameter pipe (BAD move), on the other a piece of wood.
To the point. In the evening I give the brooder a once over (Not like there haven't been 5 faces glued to it all day) and see two very unresponsive feet sticking out of the 3/4" pipe. You know, the one directly in contact with the heater? Yeah that one. My heart sank and as I slid the little guy out he initially looked DOA. None of the babies running around looked like they could even fit in there.
I saw faint chest movements and my wife swooped him up and just loved on him. Lots of hand feeding and watering but couldn't lift it's head on its own. By the time we had to go to bed the little guy was pushing laps around the brooder literally, dragging the right side of it's head, not able to lift it. But was the most active bird in the box.
Next morning I go out to retrieve the dead guy and get rid of him before momma wakes up, but I can't tell which one it is. I had to wake my wife to tell her the good news but also for confirmation on which one it was. Ending up smaller than the rest, Hope (as my wife named it) is perfectly fine as far as we can tell, eating drinking and partying with the rest, everyone fine here on day 5.
I offered twice to put it down so it didn't have to suffer. It is the 1st time she has ever given me that look that in retrospect I'm glad she did.
Hope doesn't even have a limp or a cool scar to go with the story. He/she just should not have lived but refused to stop moving and trying. It is for this reason that Hope, whether male or female, is automatically off of the cull list and on the breeding program. Hope's traits are worthy of being passed down.
Pix will have to come another time.
