He does everything wrong...gets a great hatch

[obxWaMi]

Quote:
A woman I got chicks from says that she has hunters buy 100 quail at a time. They put them in a huge pen at the edge of a field on their property with food and water enough to last them until they are ready to be released. They don't even check on them in that time, except from a distance to see that the pen is still intact and then they release them to populate the area for hunting.


Congrats to your DH for his good luck.

 

[jettgirl24]

I'll be interested to see how my first hatch turns out... I think I was a bit too obsessive for the first 8 days, them we went out of town for 3 days in which time my mom came over to check them once. Now that we're home I'm trying to take the hands off approach. My friend just had a 100% hatch a couple months ago out of the same LG I'm using now and I know her humidity was way off. She had no hygrometer and an acurite thermometer. I filled the wells like she told me to and was getting 75 to 80% humidity before I set my eggs. She must have done something right though cuz she has 19 adorable polish chicks running around!

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
I've got some baby button quail right now about 12 days old, and 80 more quail eggs, Coturnix and more buttons, in the incubator.

I could never eat something I raised. All of my babies are pets -- they're far too much work, too expensive when you consider all of the costs, and too much of an emotional investment to eat them. I don't have anything against those that do, but I couldn't. I guess it's sort of like the fabled old Chinese proverb -- save someone's life and you're responsible for it. Well, bring them into the world, and I feel that I am responsible for giving them a good life. And, in my book, that wouldn't include the ax. So, I just hypocritically shift the blame, guilt, as well as the mess and gore onto someone else and buy my meat.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Quote:
eta...sorry so many questions. lol

Nope dont use it, my hatches are always staggered. Pop a few eggs in, couple days later pop a few more in, week later pop in a couple more.

I dont know what humidity I use...I dont look at it.

. I just keep water in the little trays in bator...sometimes they do run dry though so...

I dont mean to sound flippant. I just really dont have a hatch plan or hatch rules.

 

[slackwater]

Quote:
eta...sorry so many questions. lol

Nope dont use it, my hatches are always staggered. Pop a few eggs in, couple days later pop a few more in, week later pop in a couple more.

I dont know what humidity I use...I dont look at it.

. I just keep water in the little trays in bator...sometimes they do run dry though so...

I dont mean to sound flippant. I just really dont have a hatch plan or hatch rules.

CF - do you have a turner? Or do you turn manually, such that you wouldn't have to worry about removing them from the turner before they hatch (which most people would do during lock down).

 

[Camelot Farms]

I hand turn. Which is why I can do those staggered hatches. As a group hatches, I pull those chicks out just before they start playing pinball with thier room-mates who are still in the eggs...lol.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

I staggered my last (and only successful thus far) hatch as well. Hand turned and had one group hatch about 5 days before the other. Candled them up to day 19 as well just because I was obsessive. First two cycles in the incubator, following the rules explicitly: none alive at the end. I guess sometimes rules were made to be broken...and sometimes rules are the only way. you decide what works best for you

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

I have 50 quail in the bator now...I'm kinda watching the temperature but I don't have anything in there to read the humidity so...

This is my first batch to ever incubate so I'm gonna hope for the best. I just refill the little tray at the bottom every couple days. It's an automatic turner so I try not to get obsessive over the incubator and try to pretend it's not there.

Mine are due on the 25th, so here's hoping I get a good hatch.

 

[aduplantis]

I raise Quail as well as Chickens. I hatch some, sell the Quail and their eggs. People buy them all the time. I have a sign in my front yard. My last hatch was 67 Quail. Good Luck !!

 

[FenDruadin]

Ya know, it could have more to do with the species being hatched than the species (ahem, gender) doing the hatching. We've found that quail are pretty hard NOT to hatch. We pretty much always have 90+% hatches with them and we do practically nothing for the eggs but keep them warm. Just had one hatch recently from a small batch (four eggs, ha ha! My son wanted to put them in) that we didn't think were even fertile, so we ignored them completely. The one that turned out to be fertile hatched in the turner and we didn't even realize it until it was fluffed out, dry, and crying to come out and eat already!

Duck eggs, now. That's another story. I do have good hatches with them, but they have to be babied during the hatch itself.

As for what to do with 100 quail--easy! Eat 'em. They are so simple to harvest and take up so little room. We have a little outdoor run where chicks go at about two weeks of age to live until they are six weeks old, and then we select a few to keep for eggs and breeding, and eat the rest.