Gallimimus
In the Brooder
I am so excited. Today is day 15 for the quail eggs. I have at least 30 live ones. I started out with 54 local eggs but had a transport accident that ended up cracking 9 of the eggs(bringing me down to 45 once all the cracked eggs passed away) 4 were infertile(bringing it down to 41) and then 3 died at varying times for who knows what reason. Bringing me down to my current 38 eggs. I have 8 I can't see into, so they might be infertile, they might be perfectly healthy. I don't know yet! I have nothing else to do and I am getting anxious so I thought, why not make a (Very long; WARNING) thread?
I have had quail before. I purchased 20 A&M's 2 years ago, and hatched 12 chicks, out of 20 eggs, about 7 weeks after I got them. I was hooked! From hatching to laying was super quick. They were friendly, and I love their sounds! I had huge plans for them. Unfortunately, 4 weeks after the first set of chicks hatched, My neighbor's dog got into the quail run. It killed nearly all of the quails. The few that got out never came back or turned up dead over the next week. From there I was left with 10 live juveniles. 8 ended up being roos, so I got rid of all but 2 roos and 2 hens. Unfortunately, the 4 didn't survive the winter. I got a few eggs out of them but decided not to hatch more. That ended my quail journey of 2018.
Fast forward to this year. I saw some bobwhites in a local hatchery when I was getting some new pullets. I got excited and got 8 of them to start. Got home and found out how different they are from Coturnix. I was shocked by how long they take to mature! They are super flighty and bite when I held them to clip wings. They take longer than chickens to mature and hatch. I could have hatched 2-3 generations of chicks from Coturnix by the time bobwhites are even laying! I love their sounds and their colors, but they are not how I hoped they would be, and have almost no qualities of the Coturnix that I love.
2 ½ weeks ago. I found an incredible local Coturnix hatchery about 50 minutes away, but worth the drive! They had an incredible setup, and do their absolute best to prevent any inbreeding and weak lines. They have multiple different runs, each has a group with their own leg band color. They get 3-4 roos per coop(each coop has 10-15 hens) each coops roos are from different breeders, and flocks are culled every year and replaced with new chicks they had hatched out, and then they switch roos again. If that makes any sense. It was so awesome though. Of course, they said there is probably some inbreeding in all lines she has, but it would not be any closely related, making for the best chicks to start a strong healthy flock.
In every coop they have hens and roos of various colors mixed and match. The colors they had are
Snowy, Pearl, Silver, Rosetta, A&M's/Whites, Cream, Wild Type/Normal, Italians, Tibetan, Scarlet/Range, German Pastels, Manchurian, and Autumn Ambers. There can also be Pandas or tuxedos of all of those colors. So many colors, It will be so exciting to see what they come out like(And yes, the breeder made me aware that the colors are a debatable subject. Many people just refer to many of those colors as lighter or darker dilutions of another color. She prefers to call them by their own colors because it makes it easier for her to identify) If all 30-38 eggs hatch, I should hopefully be able to get some form of all colors! I got 3 cartons of 18 eggs from 3 different coops. None of the groups were(closely) related. So I should have some nice and stong birds to start up a new flock. Hopefully, 9 weeks from now, I will have my own chicks hatching!
I put the eggs in at 8:30pm on July 1st. I started counting day 1 as July 2nd. So we should be on day 15 today. Only 1-3 more days until the first hatch! These last few days always seem so much longer than the 2 weeks it takes to get to lockdown. I think because "Lockdown" mean chicks can technically hatch anytime, and that is so exciting to know that you can have chicks pipping any minute. It is so hard not to open the bator up and candle to see if there could be a chick pipped internally. I shine a light through the lid every 1-2 hours. I know nothing is going to happen that fast, but I do it subconsciously and can't help myself!
Anyways, sorry for the super long post. I was just trying to find something to take my mind off of the eggs for a little while. Hey, maybe someone else is in the same boat as me and just trying to read threads to take their mind off of the eggs. I think I have already read 15-20 different threads just today!
Nothing to do now except keep waiting!
I have had quail before. I purchased 20 A&M's 2 years ago, and hatched 12 chicks, out of 20 eggs, about 7 weeks after I got them. I was hooked! From hatching to laying was super quick. They were friendly, and I love their sounds! I had huge plans for them. Unfortunately, 4 weeks after the first set of chicks hatched, My neighbor's dog got into the quail run. It killed nearly all of the quails. The few that got out never came back or turned up dead over the next week. From there I was left with 10 live juveniles. 8 ended up being roos, so I got rid of all but 2 roos and 2 hens. Unfortunately, the 4 didn't survive the winter. I got a few eggs out of them but decided not to hatch more. That ended my quail journey of 2018.
Fast forward to this year. I saw some bobwhites in a local hatchery when I was getting some new pullets. I got excited and got 8 of them to start. Got home and found out how different they are from Coturnix. I was shocked by how long they take to mature! They are super flighty and bite when I held them to clip wings. They take longer than chickens to mature and hatch. I could have hatched 2-3 generations of chicks from Coturnix by the time bobwhites are even laying! I love their sounds and their colors, but they are not how I hoped they would be, and have almost no qualities of the Coturnix that I love.
2 ½ weeks ago. I found an incredible local Coturnix hatchery about 50 minutes away, but worth the drive! They had an incredible setup, and do their absolute best to prevent any inbreeding and weak lines. They have multiple different runs, each has a group with their own leg band color. They get 3-4 roos per coop(each coop has 10-15 hens) each coops roos are from different breeders, and flocks are culled every year and replaced with new chicks they had hatched out, and then they switch roos again. If that makes any sense. It was so awesome though. Of course, they said there is probably some inbreeding in all lines she has, but it would not be any closely related, making for the best chicks to start a strong healthy flock.
In every coop they have hens and roos of various colors mixed and match. The colors they had are
Snowy, Pearl, Silver, Rosetta, A&M's/Whites, Cream, Wild Type/Normal, Italians, Tibetan, Scarlet/Range, German Pastels, Manchurian, and Autumn Ambers. There can also be Pandas or tuxedos of all of those colors. So many colors, It will be so exciting to see what they come out like(And yes, the breeder made me aware that the colors are a debatable subject. Many people just refer to many of those colors as lighter or darker dilutions of another color. She prefers to call them by their own colors because it makes it easier for her to identify) If all 30-38 eggs hatch, I should hopefully be able to get some form of all colors! I got 3 cartons of 18 eggs from 3 different coops. None of the groups were(closely) related. So I should have some nice and stong birds to start up a new flock. Hopefully, 9 weeks from now, I will have my own chicks hatching!
I put the eggs in at 8:30pm on July 1st. I started counting day 1 as July 2nd. So we should be on day 15 today. Only 1-3 more days until the first hatch! These last few days always seem so much longer than the 2 weeks it takes to get to lockdown. I think because "Lockdown" mean chicks can technically hatch anytime, and that is so exciting to know that you can have chicks pipping any minute. It is so hard not to open the bator up and candle to see if there could be a chick pipped internally. I shine a light through the lid every 1-2 hours. I know nothing is going to happen that fast, but I do it subconsciously and can't help myself!
Anyways, sorry for the super long post. I was just trying to find something to take my mind off of the eggs for a little while. Hey, maybe someone else is in the same boat as me and just trying to read threads to take their mind off of the eggs. I think I have already read 15-20 different threads just today!
Nothing to do now except keep waiting!
Still about 2 more days left though. I haven't seen any rocking or heard anything yet. I definitely saw 30 live chicks before lockdown yesterday though. I couldn't see in the others, but based on the size of the aircell I would say 4 have chicks, the other 4 may or may not(1 I am almost sure doesn't) I have one solid color egg that I am really hoping hatches, but it is also pretty small(the egg itself, and the aircell) so I guess just wait and see.
) one of them wiggled when I picked the thermometer up, and the other looked like it may be internally pipped!! Thankfully, no cracks on anybody. I gave everyone a quick once over and all appeared well. I refilled water since I had already opened it anyways. Now I swear, it will not open again until 24 hours after the first chick is out! Hopefully by this time tomorrow night, I can see a pip or hear some peeps happening in there.
So I am happy with that.
