Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Baby quail hatching is done I have 11 babies in the brooder, 9 healthy and strong, one small and weak, but I think it will be fine, and one cannot stand on his feet. What can I do to help it? I had 20 good eggs in the bator after candling. Today is day 20. I did a float test on the remaining eggs and then opened them, They all had dead chicks in them, some nearly fully developed, some small. I had to assist the last two (on the photo) as they could not hatch out. One was in the shell the wrong way and the other just weak, proboably because it was tired from trying for so long. I will be setting some of my quail's eggs tonight to test fertility, hope they hatch

Looks like splayed leg, I had a little silkie hatch a couple of weeks ago with it. Cut a bandaid in half , length ways. Lay the baby on its back on clean surface wrap one leg, then the other leaving the non sticky part between the legs. There is a great thread on here with picks, just search splayed leg. If you catch it early, it should come good. Mine only needed the tape for 48 hours.

 

[satay]

Dead in the shell but fully formed is usually to high or to low a humidity. Glad you got some healthy babies. You could try the bandaid trick but if that doesn't work after a day or two I would cull.

 

[Redoliveberry]

Thank you Fancychooklady and Satay. I taped the legs. Tricky with such a small creature! It is laying on it's side now.
I will give it some time, and make sure it has some food and water.
This is the one that struggled to hatch and I had to hatch it at the end. The head was at the wrong end of the shell.
The other one I hatched is doing well. It is only 8 grams, the rest are between 9 and 11 grams, but it is fine.

The whole hatch was really staggered - first chick out at 4.30 pm on day 18, then nothing for 2 hours, then one more, nothing till midnight, last one hatched at 9pm on day 19.

Most of the dead chicks were not fully developed, two were, only the yolks not absorbed.

I will have to invest in a hydrometer I guess. I don't have one. Brinsea bator has this two compartments to fill with water. One is filled at first and both are filled on lockdown. This is supposed to keep humidity at the correct level.

Thing is the humidity skyrockets when chicks start to hatch !

 

[satay]

Yeah i would get a hydrometer. Humidity does go up when they start hatching i find it does even more so with quails than chickens. I think Bunnings sell reasonable prices Hydrometers. Do you open the vents when they start to hatch? I am not familiar with that type of bator though but if it has vents i would open at least one when they start to hatch. I think you have done well with posted eggs. I hope you have a great hatch with your own eggs as well. You could also try adding some infant vitamins with out iron or a tiny bit of Vegemite to the water should help any weak chicks.

 

[TheChookPatch]

I think I know why my layer pen aren't laying much atm. I catch a huge big rat in there every night for the last week... Two yesterday because the rooster was carrying on and I went to have a look, found and disposed of Mr rat, re set it and found another one in there in the morning. Any ideas apart from poison??? May be I should get another cat. Battle Cat might be struggling to keep up with the battle...

 

[CB and CG]

Yeah i would get a hydrometer. Humidity does go up when they start hatching i find it does even more so with quails than chickens. I think Bunnings sell reasonable prices Hydrometers. Do you open the vents when they start to hatch? I am not familiar with that type of bator though but if it has vents i would open at least one when they start to hatch. I think you have done well with posted eggs. I hope you have a great hatch with your own eggs as well. You could also try adding some infant vitamins with out iron or a tiny bit of Vegemite to the water should help any weak chicks.

Even better yet is using barocca in the the chicks water (Yes I know it sounds strange). Works miracles on weak chicks with leg problems!

 

[appps]

I think I know why my layer pen aren't laying much atm. I catch a huge big rat in there every night for the last week... Two yesterday because the rooster was carrying on and I went to have a look, found and disposed of Mr rat, re set it and found another one in there in the morning. Any ideas apart from poison??? May be I should get another cat. Battle Cat might be struggling to keep up with the battle...

I'm seriously considering one of the battery operated electrocuting ones. Every time we use poison the **** things go and die in my wall somewhere and stink the house out.

 

[TheChookPatch]

I haven't heard of those appps. I might invest a in a few more traps but it seems never ending. They even ate half the fake egg egg I glued to the laying box. They girls have been out free ranging the past week so I have had a few more eggs from them but they are not happy about the rats at all.

 

[satay]

Even better yet is using barocca in the the chicks water (Yes I know it sounds strange). Works miracles on weak chicks with leg problems!

That would work as well it's the vitamin b which is in both Berocca and Vegemite. Vegemite has niacin too which is great for leg problems.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hi Chook, you can make your own traps very easily. I used these bucket traps in teh middle east, and also on mine sites in the north of WA.

Best trap around I think and you can make it from scraps.

Depends on how you feel about termination, depends how you dispose of the vermin. When overseas, we would put some water in the bottom and the rats/mice would drown themselves. On the mines they did not like that idea so the would be captured live and then taken to a room for what they called 'humane gassing' That part is up to you.

No chemicals and it can be placed where the chooks can't get to it.

I just watched the vid, you can also use thick rope as a ramp if you don't have the space for the type of ramp they made.