all who are hatching quail

[RichardandTresa]

Friday, 11:30 AM update:

The little guy I helped out of his shell is doing GREAT! I transferred all chicks except the little guy and another late hatcher to the brooder and all brooder chicks are doing great.

Not much movement on the incubator eggs. Humidity and temps have really shot back up within a minute or two when I've opened it up. There are two distinct pips that have been there since yesterday and the openings look pretty dry... I'm thinking they're not going to make it. One egg is in zipper mode although I am also thinking it may not make it... I can see movement through the zipper crack, but no beak.The membrane around the zipper looks pretty dry... Again, against all that I've learned (especially since the one I helped looks great), I may snip a tiny bit at each end of the zipper to see if this helps it hatch.

No sign of movement in the remaining eggs.

I have a question:

Today is Friday. At 3:30 PM today, it will be 18ea, 24 hour periods since setting the eggs in the incubator. How long would you wait before calling it "done" (giving up on any others hatching)? I was thinking a total of 22 days... (Tuesday at 3:30 PM.)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Oh yeah, I did "get past" my dispatching "block" and have a few bags of Quail in the freezer. Tresa cooked up this dinner with everything except the rice and Sushi fish eggs, coming from our garden and Quail (Quail eggs used in the sushi). Now we can't wait to raise and harvest more! (Seems ironic how much I care for these guys emotionally yet so eager to eat them! LOL!)

Thanks again!

Richard

 

[pjquail]

Hey Guys, just thought I'd give you an update:
Out of my 20 fertile eggs I had only 6 successfully hatch (the eggs were shipped and the incubator was home made, so it had some flukes I'm now aware of...) As some of you know, I had to assist the 6th chick because his shell membrane was naturally thick. I waited until I absolutely knew he couldn't do it on his own, (he had been fighting for 2 1/2 days),and I had heard lots of people say:"...oh, it's just survival of the fittest...", &, "...You just have to prepare yourself for chicks dying, you can't help it..." (which is only 1/2 true) so I made the last 1/2 of the zip-line and pulled the top off about 1/2 way (I wouldn't have if he wasn't so exhausted) and I knew I couldn't give up because as soon as I pulled the top off just a little, he opened his eyes and peeped at me, and that's saying to me: Please don't give up, I'm almost there. So he finally hatched out and he had issues-both feet were deformed/crippled, one eye looked 1/2 shut, his neck was kinked all the way over so his head always touched his wing because he had been in the shell for too long), and he could barely move (he rolled over on his sides to move around...), and last but not least-he was the size of a NICKEL and was the smallest egg in the batch. So I made him a little nest of towels and kept the temperature to HIS level and not the eggs, because I knew he was the last chick (1 week late). 24 hours later, I put him in with the other chicks (as big as a golfball now!) and 4/6 of them picked on him mercilessly! So I made a barrier of hardware cloth and put him on 1/3 and the others on 2/3 and looked what happened-he PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEPED all night because he wanted to be with the other chicks, so I did the next best thing and put PJ the sweetest quail ever, in with him and they immediately were besties and PJ taught him everything-how to walk, socialize, eat, drink, and be a normal chick! So then he got silver dollar sized and I put him in with the others and they did not mess with him the least bit. Now he is getting big and is livin it up with his bestfriend-the biggest, oldest chick in the group, hahaha, and his feet, eyes, and neck is normal too!

Everyone is getting their adult feathers in and I finally got some chinchilla dust bath sand and put in there last night, and they were curious and would fly over it, and walk in it, but finally one chick took a sand bath and now everybody wants one! They are about to turn 3 weeks old on Sep. 24-29 and are doing FABULOUS! I'll post pictures soon!!

 

[chickwatcher1]

My ebay quail haven't reached jumbo size at 11 weeks. Average 9-10 ounces. I hached a bunch of their eggs and these are one week old and average 45 grams.

 

[RichardandTresa]

PJ Quail:

I just had the same experience! First hatching using a modified little giant. helped one chick out of it's shell (more developed and mostly out but still stuck). That chick made it into the brooder with little issues.

Last egg had a 1/3 zipper, but the membrane had dried out and it was obvious that it was totally stuck... Listening to the peeping, seeing it's beak trying unsuccessfully to break through brought me to the same emotional interpretation of "Please don't give up on me."... Going against all that I've read and learned about letting mother nature take it's course (but armed with the "exception to the rule" based on the success of helping the previous chick out), I cut open the zipper and partially cut the rest of the shell. It came out but with a crooked neck and deformed feet... the lower body was not wet like the others evidencing that he had been in there too long and had dried out. I helped further a few hours later to find that part of the shell had stuck to him... carefully pulled the shell away from his body only ti find him laying on his side, kicking feet to move (on his side)... I really had no hope that it would make it. The next day, I found him drinking water from the humidifying water fill tray that was exposed beyond the rubber mat I had placed in the bator for the hatch...

At 2AM I checked in and he was upright, limping along on a curled up foot. I placed a wide plastic bottle lid in with crushed feed and he went straight for it, still devoid of most of it's feathers/fur... What a hard swimmer... My heart was fully captivated by that time (not "thinking" in terms of what I read, what I learned or what I "knew" should have been the right course to let him go...

He was also the size of a nickle and looking down into the brooder, I thought he'd never make it to that size and had already begun planning a small table top cage/habitat for what I thought would become our "pet" quail...

This morning I looked in and he had grown a "little"... fattened up from his emaciated look and starting to look like a quail chick... comparing again to the chicks in the brooder gave us more hope... Tresa reached down and picked up the smallest chick from the brooder and placed it in the incubator with our little "hopeful one"... No pecking, only curiosity between them both... The one from the brooder began chirping (distress), and our "little hope", began giving the new buddy a tour of the incubator... "here's the food.... Here's the water..." too cute!... Tresa's watching now (just to be safe, but it's wonderful watching our little one stay close to his new buddy and learning to "socialize"...

Tresa will pull out the transplanted chick when she gets ready to do some 'farm chores", but it looks as if we'll be placing our "little miracle" into the brooder with the rest in a day or two...

I know there is so much "science" to all of this, but isn't it wonderful when we're faced with these little miracles that mean so much?

Congratulations on your success... Nice to hear from another how our hearts captivated by these little guys enough to "break the rules"!

Best,
Richard

 

[crazyroo102938]

I have mixes of coturnix and Texas a&m which make tuxedo hatching next week

 

[Kherome]

Last week's hatcher showing off his new feathers that are coming in.

 

[COsteveo]

My ebay quail haven't reached jumbo size at 11 weeks. Average 9-10 ounces. I hached a bunch of their eggs and these are one week old and average 45 grams.

I'm in the same boat. Mine top out at 9.5oz. Would love to get some JMF eggs but I hear there's a 3 or 4 month wait on them right now...

As winter approaches I am going to downsize and line breed only the biggest and best. Then back to full-on production mode around the end of March.

 

[chickwatcher1]

Yeah, I need to save my biggest of the herd and order some studs. These ebay people. I expected at least 12 ounce birds, was hoping for 14. But 9?? Paleeze.

 

[PunkyReid]

Started my first incubation last night. 16 more days to go. I would like to get a couple chicks from 22 eggs. fingers crossed.

 

[montanaquail]

Yesterday was day 7 for my first hatch ever. The little guys were obviously alive when I candled them. So cool! I did wind up tossing 18 clears, but for shipped eggs, I'm happy with my success up to this point. Another week and a half to go!!!