EEEE!! Fuzzy bitty quail baby!!

[shelleyd2008]

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Yeah, spooky, this is what confused me. You said she was setting on them for a few days, and quit, so you took them away. So evidently one of them she was setting on was developing right on time!

 

[shelleyd2008]

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But it didn't go into the incubator until the 7th. I thought that was the day I had to count from? Cuz if not.. EEEK!

All the eggs I got from the swap were laid around that same time!
-Spooky

Oh sorry! Missed that part! Are you sure you didn't stick one of your own eggs in there?

Quote:
Yeah, spooky, this is what confused me. You said she was setting on them for a few days, and quit, so you took them away. So evidently one of them she was setting on was developing right on time!

shelleyd2008 needs to learn to read ALL posts before responding!!

I would think that since the egg hatched so soon after putting it in the bator, that little mama button was brooding a bit more than you suspected! I had some hatch on day 14 before, but I think day 9(?) is a bit too early! She was being sneaky on you!

 

[spookyevilone]

Quote:
But it didn't go into the incubator until the 7th. I thought that was the day I had to count from? Cuz if not.. EEEK!

All the eggs I got from the swap were laid around that same time!
-Spooky

Oh sorry! Missed that part! Are you sure you didn't stick one of your own eggs in there?

This was one of mine.

Laid sometime between the first and the fifth, totally ignored by the hen until the 6th, then she went broody. The 7th, she was up, ignoring her eggs again and I took them away from her and put 'em in the 'bator. I'm thinking maybe she was setting when I wasn't looking, and doing it much earlier than when I saw it on the 6th.
-Spooky

 

[spookyevilone]

Defying my staring at them last night, no more hatched.

They waited until I went to sleep. Two of the buttons hatched this morning. One was stuck to the shell by a gross, dry, shriveled umbilicus or yolk sack. Since there was no yellow in, I reached in, grabbed the baby, undid the shell but left the dried sack attached, and put the baby back in the hatcher. Then I added more warm water to up the humidity past where it had been before I opened the hatcher, figuring the membrane had gone sticky right before hatch.

EEE! Meepers will have friends!
-Spooky
(pictures forthcoming tonight, must run to work!)

 

[amyquilt]

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I have 7, all paired up except one (not including the new hatch). The pairs want nothing to do with me and will generally run and hide if they see me, although Blue is bold and will come over and "talk" to me. Cricket, I got right out of the brooder and handled a lot. He's still a squirrelly little bugger, but he at least won't go into total panic mode when I hold him. If I let him out, he follows me around, but if I try to catch him, he runs a few feet away, looks at me, and waits until I stop.. and then follows me some more. He likes sitting on my chest while I'm reading. Usually he naps, but sometimes he runs back and forth. Generally, he stays where I'm at, though.

Mine are pets. I'm a vegetarian.. and really, I can't see the bother in trying to process something the size of a mouse. They're cheap to feed, cheap to house, and their poo doesn't stink or accumulate NEARLY as bad as the Coturnix.

I like 'em

They're like having flightless finches. I'm excited to see what colours I get.
-Spooky

OH COOL!!! Am considering some. Do they make pretty sounds???

Also, is it best to keep them in pairs, or a trio, quad as with chickens??

 

[spookyevilone]

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They sound like crickets, mostly. The little roos crow and sound like evil little dolls laughing "HEEE hee heee! HEEEE hee! HEEE hee hee!" or the Pillsbury Doughboy.. "HEE hee!" or a lone forlorn little "HEEeee".

Mine wake up around 7:15am and all the boys call out, so I have a chorus of evil little dolls giggling in my living room to wake me up. I like the noise.

Someone posted a YouTube video with noises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdM0VDAoQs

My Coturnix never make that noise, though. They make a velociraptor "KUKEEEEEERR!" noise. The Button giggle is dead on, though.

When I play that vid, it sets off all my boys crowing.
-Spooky

 

[shelleyd2008]

One of my A&M's does the KUKEEER sound, the other does the 'LOOK AT MEEEEE', I think that one is more annoying! My little blueface cock does the evil doll laugh, but it sounds more like they are cooing. I love the calls the buttons make!

 

[spookyevilone]

Well, the last three eggs were being stubborn. The Coturnix egg wasn't fertile, and neither was one of the button eggs. Egg #3 was making noise last night, and today it wasn't, with no external pip. I figured it for a quitter, so I opened the air hole. I also thought maybe the baby had gotten shrink wrapped due to opening the hatcher to retrieve the other three babies. Sure enough, there was an internal pip but no movement. I cut away enough of the shell that I could see the head, and started to pull back the inner membrane (no veins to be seen anywhere) after rubbing it with a warm, wet q-tip, and the little bugger woke up, looked at me, and started cheeping. Wrapped it in a wet towel, put it back in the hatcher. It's breathing got stronger, then slowed down, then sped up to normal, and seems to go in cycles. I figure Ordeal is spending a lot of energy trying to recoup from near suffocation.

The second set of eggs went in the hatcher. All of them floated. Opened air sac on one, not fertile. Opened airsac on another, there's movement, so wrapped it in damp paper towel and put it back in the hatcher. So there's hope for that clutch. I upped the humidity to 85% to keep Ordeal's butt from sticking to the shell.

Poor little mite

Here's to hoping that tomorrow, I have another yelping little chickie.

Blue's hen is up to 9 eggs, and still not sitting. I'm going to give her til tomorrow and if she hasn't laid egg #10, I'm pulling them and putting them in the 'bator. [edit: They've been pulled and put in the 'bator.]

[edit: Ordeal didn't make it

Kind of expected it. Looks like there was a head deformity as well.]

-Spooky (who has three baby button quail in her gym bra right now.)

 

[BeckyBird]

Spooky, you are so cool! I love to keep babies in my shirt too, lol!!
Have you handled your other buttons since they were young? If so, are they tame as adults? Just wondering, because I am really interested in quail now!
Becky

 

[spookyevilone]

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My others, except one, I got as adults, and they're not at all tame. The one I got right out of the brooder, Cricket, used to be really tame until he found out he was a boy and now he wants nothing to do with me, just paces all the time, crowing for hens.

I'm hoping one of the ones I hatch is female so I can put it in with him.
-Spooky