I’m back, new eggs on the way!!!

[cosmosue]

You definitely have some life! I also wait to pull early quitters or clear eggs for about a week because I almost pulled some one time and I changed my mind - the next day they had a heartbeat! So now I wait just a tad longer it also happened this time. I was 70% sure this tiny little egg was a quitter or just a dud and I ALMOST pulled it, and I thought - nah give him another day or two! Sure enough he had a tiny heartbeat the next morning and he’s doing fine now! Lol!

I think I found an early quitter this morning I’ll give him another 1-3 days and same with the egg with a hole - I think his hole is just too big, he did have a heartbeat but I think he’s given up now as well. I have hatched them with holes before but it’s always 50/50 so I think I’ll toss these two guys in the next couple days to be sure. Had they been my eggs I prob would have just tossed it to begin with but I wanted to give all the purchased eggs a fair chance.

 

[cosmosue]

Ok sorry one more post because I am catching up to you in replies and have to answer before I forget!!!

Brooder. You asked me what I use for a brooder? Ok I just use a big old tub from Walmart lol depending on how many I am hatching that is the size I use. But when they are tiny tiny babies I will use a smaller size like I’m not sure how to describe this but it’s a grey Tupperware tub that you would store maybe some sweaters in for an attic? Lol? I line it with paper towels for first week and change as it gets dirty I keep it in the office where I work (at home) and I keep a heat lamp on it with a digital thermometer (first week only really) after that I remove the thermometer and just keep the light but I judge where they are going, are they too hot or too cold and then I adjust it, it’s gotten like second nature now the position of the clamp on heat lamp. I eye ball it after the 1st week. I do what they want me to do. I use a small bowl of food at first with ground up crumbles. Then move them over to larger crumbles and mix in smaller ones I ground up if I still have some left.

I use shavings 2nd week+ over paper towels. It makes for easy cleaning I just roll up the towels and toss the whole thing in the bin and replace.

Now if I have a lot of babies I move them to a much larger tub week 2. If not I might wait or just leave them in the smaller tub if it’s not too crowded. They all sleep together anyway, so long as they have room to run around and get away from each other.

I use a small glass bowl of marbles for the first week. I gradually remove some marbles. The marbles in glass attracts them and they always find the water because the pretty marbles lol.

First day I use bottle caps! Ha! I put like 2-3 bottle caps with water around the tub! I usually use those until day 2...

I also usually use bottled water because I can keep a bottle next to the brooder in my office and fill as needed. Same with a small bag of food.

So a big tub, small bowls, marbles, ground up gamebird feed if the crumbles you find are too large, paper towels, shavings second week onward, clamp on heat lamp... digital thermometer... cover

I make it sound like some huge operation it’s really not.

The cover that comes with the tub won’t be useful at first because they can’t jump that high. But as soon as you notice they are jumping you need the cover. I cut out the plastic center of the cover and I use screening instead, and then clamp the light back on. Problem solved. No getting out.

I don’t have many empty aquariums I do have 1 but it’s small. I told my husband we should have kept the biocube we had but we tossed it. Would have made a really cute brooder. I wish we had it now but it would have been super annoying to clean it, we had saltwater fish for like 8 years.

So yeah big plastic tubs on my office floor and let me tell you it’s distracting as anything to work and hear peeping and want to play with them!!!!! I made a cute video once it’s on YouTube it’s short because the rest of them wouldn’t go out the hole... I’ll post the link below lol I have other quail videos as well as sea monkeys and parrots.

Oh also as the get bigger I switch up food bowls to larger and larger and also the water same thing or I use a clip on water feeder. Like I said I just do what they dictate me to do. I’ve onlh lost one healthy baby and he got wedged somehow between the bowl and edge I’ve no idea what the heck happened and I was super sad I didn’t catch it in time.

I edited for typos

 

[cosmosue]

I was going to order a small rabbit hutch for inside for a brooder and cover the sides until they were large enough not to stick the heads through and get stuck but I decided not to because I didn’t feel like dealing with it. So tubs it is. It’s easier for me. I might still get the small cute rabbit hutch for inside for later before I can move them out. It’s so cold out there now I figure it will be at least March for us before I let them outside. By the time they hatch, and grow to full feather, etc etc I’m looking at March I think. Unless it’s reallh warm I just keep them inside til about 6 weeks. Some people do sooner some later it’s just what works for each person, same with brooder set ups, coops, whatever.

I keep small pens of small amounts of quail instead of a large run. I keep sets separated out so I know which eggs are coming from which hens, like mentioned my jumbo browns I want kept clean away from mating with mixed colors for meat birds. Then I have some grow out pens and some mixed pens etc well I will have new pens soon, right now I’ve got 4 (2 meat bird pens, 1 California, 1 mix) but with the addition of new colors comes......new pens..... lol.

 

[mixedUPturk]

Wow thats alot of info Thank you!

Ive seen the tub setups and that is handy. We already have the tanks tho, w good screen reptile lids i had about a dozen of them til the flood. Planning on using two 40 gal and one 30. Lots of ur little tips i use too, great info! i have the blender ready but dont want to open the food yet. I didnt see you mention it but im sure you also put down paper towels Over the shavings for day 1. I have the 1 qt quail waterers still and intend to use those.

Im not sure what im gonna do outside, wk 2 onward if its still cool. Much less if i was to put them out earlier. March is far too long off lol. I know what your talking about keeping an eye on them and moving the light based on how theyre acting. I supose my options are to either move the A Frame close enough to run an extension cord or ill just have to make DH clear up some of the back porch. So i can watch and be sure theyre sheltered and safe with heat. I will use several breeder pens later as well as the large coop/run but theyre not set up for elec. I intended to use the largest for grow out, beyond light before breeder cages, but last night they forecasted snow for today so i started worrying.

 

[cosmosue]

Yeah I don’t have electric out there either - well I mean I kinda do but not really set up for the pens unless I had to which we could rig if we HAD to but we don’t so I just keep them in.

Yeah I posted a lot of info but yep I use only paper towels for 1 week, it’s just what I was told to do when I first got quail so it’s just what I’ve always done, I’m sure others do it differently, but then after a week I add shavings on top of the paper towels so I can roll it all up or If it gets really messy I just dump the whole thing into a trash bag and wipe it down.

Aquariums would be nice because you can see through them so yeah I wish we had our cube still and maybe I will get a big one at some point it’s not that expensive, I would like to be able to see them through the sides! But I bet I’d always be wiping it down LOL


Sigh... halfway to lockdown!

 

[mixedUPturk]

sorry i couldnt reply yest my family is sick w high fever

That sounds like exactly what im dealn w if i Had to i could run an extension cord to power the structures in an emergency but these arent even permanent structures.

Your paper towel routine makes alot of sense. Ive always used the dirty shavings to fill in mud holes in the yard but i dont think paper towels would hamper that.

Before the flood i had a whole unused "garden" bathtub that i used for the fluff butts. An eye hook in the ceiling supported the light and i lined it with feed bags for the same purpous. I always knew it was time to put wm out when they started hopping out

Yea thats what i was thinkn bout the aquariums we can see thru them. I have twin 2 yr olds an a 1yr old so theyll be able to safely veiw them.

You should wait to aquire a tank when petsmart has its "dollar per gallon" sale, u could get a brand new tank for a great deal suposing yall have a petsmart otherwise though im sure you could get a secondhand one for about that price. I havent bought a new one at full price in years but i am kinda cheap

 

[cosmosue]

Wow ok I didn’t know they had a special like that so I could get a big 55 gallon for... $55! Lol

I’m in SC there was flooding here a few years back but it did not affect us.

And yeah I’ve seen a lot of tanks on Craigslist. It would be nice to have one instead of a tub. I’ll keep an eye out for that sale you mentioned.

I checked a few eggs last night since I am keeping an eye on these two early quitters pretty sure they are done but the other 21 are doing really well and moving around a lot in their little eggs I just love them. I found one that was really in a visible spot so I took a quick video and you can make out an eye ball lol!

I can post here it’s too large but I did upload to YouTube lol

 

[cosmosue]

How are yours doing?

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Wow ok I didn’t know they had a special like that so I could get a big 55 gallon for... $55! Lol

I’m in SC there was flooding here a few years back but it did not affect us.

And yeah I’ve seen a lot of tanks on Craigslist. It would be nice to have one instead of a tub. I’ll keep an eye out for that sale you mentioned.

I checked a few eggs last night since I am keeping an eye on these two early quitters pretty sure they are done but the other 21 are doing really well and moving around a lot in their little eggs I just love them. I found one that was really in a visible spot so I took a quick video and you can make out an eye ball lol!

I can post here it’s too large but I did upload to YouTube lol

If you can find one, a 40 gallon breeder tank will give you the most floorspace for your buck

Get one of those metal reptile screen tops and you'll be set!

 

[mixedUPturk]

Ahh too cute! Def a lil EyeBall!

Ive still only candled the one time, but last night i triple checked temps still dead on

I think in your little office setup a 55 gal tank of fluffy butts would be Perfect unless u wanna get Work done