Lost all but 3 adults.

[FloorCandy]

Yesterday I went out to find 3 dead birds from my snowie celadons. Both males were dead. I saw no evidence that anything got in, it looked like one got grabbed thru the wire, and the other 2 broke their necks. I cleaned it up, checked the cage thoroughly for any tunnels or anything and considered myself lucky that I still had 6 hens. Today I go out and they’re all dead, the other adult cage, all dead but 3. Most of the k dales are dead, all the snowie celadons, and all but 3 regular celadon hens. I have the black k dale indoors, and 2 celadons - mihawk my broody and one Italian. It’s really devastating, it was probably a rat or rats, I haven’t seen any, but idk what else would kill them all like that and not eat them. I have some grow out birds, hopefully I can salvage something. Aragorn is ok, he’s in male jail, so I have 1 full celadon roo left. I’m gonna move him indoors. My beautiful egyptian tux, all my Tibetan tuxes, my brand new scarlet tuxes, all dead.

 

[Nabiki]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Do you have weasels in your area? They kill just for the joy of killing. I could also see them reaching through a gap and grabbing birds.

This year has been year of vermin for me and so many other people I've been talking to. I've had a serious rat problem, ants have been invading my house non-stop, flies, and moths too.

 

[FloorCandy]

Did I mention that the river flooded my town a few weeks ago? A train got stuck in the flood, and they couldn’t shut one of the flood gates because the train was right across the gate track. We are at the highest point in town and didn’t lose our home, luckily, but the water table significantly raised. Last week I dug out all the damp bedding because it wasn’t drying, I laid down gravel, then sand, then new bedding on top. It was staying dry, and I felt the gravel added some more security. I think they squeezed in thru the door, I didn’t find any breaks in the hardware cloth and no holes or tunnels.

 

[FloorCandy]

I haven’t caught any rats yet, but I secured the door in the one cage and added a couple “test subjects”. They did fine for 3 days and nights so I added about 20 more juveniles from the grow out, and everyone was fine this morning. This weekend I’ll work on the other cage, and add a couple fresh test subjects. Hopefully they’ll do fine as well.

On a happy note, my 3-4+ week old Albinos were giving off some crows, and I officially have my first albino rooster. I was previously crossing the hens back to their dad in hopes of getting a roo, I had read some vague things about albinism being sex linked, and my experience seems to support this. Anyway it’s nice to have something going well with the quails again.

 

[FloorCandy]

No weasels, but a few weeks ago my town, and everywhere around me, flooded. I’m on top of high ground, so luckily we didn’t flood and lose everything, but there’s a swamp with a small creek just behind us. I think the river vermine came into town and travelled the creek. The many stray, feral cats In the woods were driven away by the floods, and I haven’t seen many since. I’m taking the remaining birds inside and I’m gonna set traps in the cages, hopefully I’ll get something. There were literally houses where people were getting taken out of attic windows into rescue boats, so some kind of pet snake or even more exotic stuff isn’t out of the question, since it hasn’t been very cold yet.

I’ve seen possum scat, but there’s no way one could get in. I checked very thoroughly for holes or tunnels and found nothing. In one cage they were piled up, but I don’t know if they were moved or if they piled up together in fear. A raccoon couldn’t get in without leaving evidence like broken bungee cords holding the door or something, the doors were closed and unharmed, bungees intact. The only thing I can think of is a rat, that maybe squeezed between the door and the hardware cloth, it feels like the bungees hold it pretty tightly closed, in over a year, it’s never been breached, and I had a possum trying for a while. I’m hoping I’ll catch the culprit, I looked thru the bedding as best as I could, but I didn’t find any abnormal droppings, but it was pretty gorey so I didn’t get all the way in there. It’s raining now, so I can’t shovel it all out until tomorrow. But maybe the remaining evidence will make them feel confident enough to come back and get snapped.

 

[Lilyofsalen]

Yikes, that really sucks. Do you use 1/2 inch hardware cloth? I have had issues with predators reaching in and maiming/killing birds through 1/2 but not 1/4. I lost 3 of Roselina's chicks and several others had injuries.

 

[FloorCandy]

Here are what’s left of my snowie celadon project:

there’s 5 hens, luckily the Italian, Mihawk the messy tux, and the black k dale were all inside recovering from rough love. They had a blue k dale male who was getting too aggressive with them, I just recently moved him to male jail and put his other 3 hens outside because they weren’t being bred at all, (turns out he’s super racist). Those hens are dead with the rest, but at least I have my broody and 1 Italian left. The silver manchurian is my boy Apollo. He’s my favorite, but I haven’t tested if he has 2 or 1 copy of celadon, so I’ll be setting his eggs in a few weeks to see what his daughters lay. I thought I lost all the Tibetan tuxes, but the one in the photo was hiding. She has a broken wing, I set it as best as I can, but she holds it high and it isn’t quite right, but I’ll let it be because she seems much more calm right now. I thought she was gonna die of a stroke from me examining her for injuries earlier. I’m gonna call these ladies the “almost breakfast club”.

 

[Nabiki]

I have incubated them both together, but I prefer to incubate them separately. The button eggs prefer a higher humidity than the coturnix. For your best hatch rates, do them separately.

The one time I did them both together, I kept my humidity low since I had more coturnix eggs in there.

 

[007Sean]

I've incubated buttons and Bob's together, but moved the buttons to a hatcher for the last 3 days of incubation.
I incubate all my quail eggs at 100°F and 43% Rh and increase to 55 to 60% for the last 3 to 4 days of incubation...infact, I incubate my pheasants at the same perimeters.
As @Nabiki , says, I prefer to incubate them separately too!...sometimes theres not an option for incubating separately.

Sorry to hear of your losses!

 

[ButtonHoarder]

I'm sorry, that really sucks.