California - Northern

[chiqita]

We had a big scare this morning, around 11am my DH just happened to look out the window and saw an adolescent bobcat slinking up the driveway. He was going straight for the chickies who were about 20 yards away. We ran him off and gathered the girls in the coop. No more free range time unless I'm sheparding them! We will build a run now but I really didn't want to NEED one!!! Gah. Who knew that living in the woods and having fat fluffy tasty treats running around all day would attract predators! I am just so thankful that we happened to catch the situation before any birdies got hurt.

Oooooh! Bobcats are evil. We have one that migrates through here when she is going to her den to have babies. Everyone is in cages for January. This year she got Louie my huge wonderful marans rooster. His son is just making over the girls now. They are tenatious and nothing scares them. Make sure your runs are hardwire and not chicken wire!

HI! Back from Disneyland and sitting on my porch was my Hova Bator 1588 with egg turners and 30 quail eggs from GQF. Yay! So I am testing your desire for pictures....

. These are boring but I think two others on here may have just ordered the same thing, AND hatching experts, I have a question or two, of course. Here was the box and the egg box. They came the same day, probably because of the weather shipping delay. They kindly advised me right on the box how long I have before they "expire". Not as if any of you haven't seen one of these before..... but still for those of you that just ordered yours! I thought their packaging of the eggs was sort of minimal, but there wasn't a cracked egg in there...... and my second question stems from this notice on the instructions. My first question is, I know these are quail eggs, (and they kindly shipped the Coturnix eggs instead of the Bob Whites as I asked if they could in the "comments" section of my order online), but they have these eggs in the carton in all different directions. I am assuming I should follow the "shipped eggs" instructions in the hatching 101 thread and let them sit on the counter with the large end up for a day or so? For those of you with quail hatching experience, any input is appreciated. My second question is..... although I have read and re-read the hatching guidelines, as soon as I read the information on that yellow tag about humidity all the other information I had read just left my brain.... all that was left was a vague recollection that you all use higher humidity rates at lock down than what is said on this little yellow notice displayed with MUCH prominence on the instructions. Comments??? Anyone???

And since my pictures weren't as exciting as live animals, I just posted small pics.

Put them in now! The biggest enemy of quail eggs is dehydration. They have been sitting for a while anyway. If your worried don't turn em for a few days. You want them all large end up in the turner then just turn it on in a few days. If the are too many of them double stack for the first 10 days then candle. Mario is home sick and they put him on antibiotics. He's in a bad bad mood. I will post more later!!

 

[ThePaganJew]

We've gotten most of the materials needed to build our incubator so it should be up and running in a week or so if I can find the time. Then I'll just need to do a test batch...whatever will I do?

The good thing as well is a friend of mine in Lincoln may need some some extra incubator space do hatch out chicks and ducklings from time to time. So while I won't be able to keep them all I do get to hatch out adorable fluffy things. Also, how do I know if one of my girls really is broody? She hasn't laid an egg for me yet but two days ago I caught her in the nest box sitting on one of the other girls eggs. I took it out so she has no more eggs but she won't leave the nest box really and gets grumpy when I try to move her. I know she's gone broody quite often for my friend who I got her from but I didn't think she would do this before even laying an egg here. We've also started a large coop/run project using a dog run we can expand with extra space if we need to. I have for sure gone a bit chicken crazy. At this point I'm just desperately trying not to let chicken math run rampant.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I do the same with my Araucana. I just hatched a couple of chicks that were clean faced and had a few residual tail feathers. Assuming they are girls, they'll lay a beautiful blue egg, but were going as EE's. I ended up giving them to a friend that wanted blue layers for his egg flock.


Cute chicks and congratulations on your hatch. If the roo is a RIR and there is a RIR hen, then Dusty could be pure RIR. If Max's father is a RIR, then Max would most likely be an OE. Coming out of a blue egg he/she can't be a RIR.

well they might go in with one of my dark layers too

pretty olive eggers. Now my white empordanesa are domanint white so I am not sure if the chicks would just be white... Hmm maybe with the crele pene. Actually I may put a easter egger in there and breed some pretty EE .... Hmmm Jason no just your focus breeds lol.

My incubator is being shipped today via FedEx!!! I can hardly wait for it to get here!!!

yeah !!!! congrats post pics when it gets there

Congratulations! They're cutie's for sure!
Thanks, I'll contact her. I really want to concentrate on the dark egg.

I knew the only real way to get an Ameraucana was from a breeder, I just didn't realize that if both parents were Ameraucana but not a recognized color they were then EE's.
Ah, that's where I was confused, where two Ameraucana's don't always create an Ameraucana. I've read the heated debate after debate but missed this specific detail. I assumed that if you purchased an Ameraucana from a breeder of Ameraucana's you had Ameraucanas. No wonder there's so much confusion.

I love the blue or Lavender Ameraucana's with the dark egg layers. my Barnevelder lavender ameraucana olive eggers where so pretty and the lighter Barnie egg made for a real pretty olive color

Actually Ameraucanas from breeders that are poor examples of the breed or have disqualifying faults (such as lack of a beard) are sold as culls, and still called Ameraucanas. They will breed true to color (color mixes will not) but will pass on undesirable traits, therefore are not suitable for breeding.

Those heated discussions about it on the Ameraucana thread are unpleasant.

lol yep. The thing that turns me off most from breeding them is that. Everyone is a expert but no one can completely agree on the Ameraucana thread.
I had someone say I was incorrect calling 2 true ameraucana varieties that where crossed and not to standard easter eggers.
He said they are Non Standard Ameraucana . I said I dont care what they are called but until everyone can agree on what to call them there are going to be alot of people
getting had and sold non standard ameraucana that are really truly Easter eggers with completely other breeds in them and there daily 40 posts of easter eggers will continue.

Oooooh! Bobcats are evil. We have one that migrates through here when she is going to her den to have babies. Everyone is in cages for January. This year she got Louie my huge wonderful marans rooster. His son is just making over the girls now. They are tenatious and nothing scares them.

Make sure your runs are hardwire and not chicken wire!
Put them in now! The biggest enemy of quail eggs is dehydration. They have been sitting for a while anyway. If your worried don't turn em for a few days. You want them all large end up in the turner then just turn it on in a few days. If the are too many of them double stack for the first 10 days then candle.

Mario is home sick and they put him on antibiotics. He's in a bad bad mood. I will post more later!!

you need a new rug

 

[threadgeek]

Quote: Wow! Until we get our run built I'm not letting them go more than 50ft from me. Unfortunately we live on hilly land so building a run is going to be a pain.

Oooooh! Bobcats are evil. We have one that migrates through here when she is going to her den to have babies. Everyone is in cages for January. This year she got Louie my huge wonderful marans rooster. His son is just making over the girls now. They are tenatious and nothing scares them.

Make sure your runs are hardwire and not chicken wire!

Sorry about your rooster. I agree that we will need to have some sort of stiffer wire for the runs.

On an unrelated note... what is the appeal of quail? Do people typically raise them for meat?

 

[liz9910]

I always wonder the same thing about quail lol

 

[threadgeek]

I always wonder the same thing about quail lol

I'm embarrassed to ask!

But this thread is so friendly I don't feel too dumb asking it!

 

[gryeyes]

I always wonder the same thing about quail lol

I'm embarrassed to ask!

But this thread is so friendly I don't feel too dumb asking it!

Oh thank goodness! I feel so much better now - I thought I was the only doofus who didn't know what seemed so obvious to everybody else. Whew!

 

[UrbanChickenSF]

Thank you everyone for the information about how often you collect eggs!

I am loving all of these hatching pictures. I am tempted to hatch my own chicks instead of mail ordering them.

 

[threadgeek]

I couldn't wait for a response... turns out someone else on this forum already asked why people keep quail...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/396224/ignorant-about-quail-why-do-people-have-them-hunting

According to people's responses in that thread, it seems that they have a fast grow-out rate (8-9 weeks to laying), lay well, and you can also eat them. Its like a hyper chicken, just smaller!

Phew, I feel so much better now that I know this. I would consider keeping them if I was into raising birds for meat.

 

[ronott1]

I couldn't wait for a response... turns out someone else on this forum already asked why people keep quail...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/396224/ignorant-about-quail-why-do-people-have-them-hunting

According to people's responses in that thread, it seems that they have a fast grow-out rate (8-9 weeks to laying), lay well, and you can also eat them. Its like a hyper chicken, just smaller!

Phew, I feel so much better now that I know this. I would consider keeping them if I was into raising birds for meat.

They do not crow either so you can breed them in town.