lost another quail :(

[PatientType]

Availability may vary a lot depending on where in the US you may live. I'm in N. California and I had to drive 50 miles to get to a breeder than had the unmixed Brown Jumbo quail I wanted. Caledon are, likely, rarer.

Interestingly, two of my hens lay blue eggs. I'd assumed they'd all lay eggs of cream & brown speckle patterns since all the quail looked alike.

 

[Nabiki]

Availability may vary a lot depending on where in the US you may live. I'm in N. California and I had to drive 50 miles to get to a breeder than had the unmixed Brown Jumbo quail I wanted. Caledon are, likely, rarer.

Interestingly, two of my hens lay blue eggs. I'd assumed they'd all lay eggs of cream & brown speckle patterns since all the quail looked alike.

Celadons aren't that rare. Myshire has a good line. After someone vandalized my greenhouse and wiped out my celadon line, I ordered some from Zack.

My old line produced about 80%, so about 80% of the hens would lay celadon, the rest would lay speckled eggs. The line from Myshire has produced 100% celadon so far. I have not had a hen from that line not lay blue eggs yet. My only gripe is that the eggs are small. They aren't as fragile as my old celadon line, though, just smaller.

 

[lindy]

i was looking for larger size birds, they are still small probably for jumbo standards

 

[PatientType]

Celadons aren't that rare. Myshire has a good line. After someone vandalized my greenhouse and wiped out my celadon line, I ordered some from Zack.

My old line produced about 80%, so about 80% of the hens would lay celadon, the rest would lay speckled eggs. The line from Myshire has produced 100% celadon so far. I have not had a hen from that line not lay blue eggs yet. My only gripe is that the eggs are small. They aren't as fragile as my old celadon line, though, just smaller.

I should have more clearly specified was referring to local availability... If someone is looking for live chicks or fertilized eggs that can be picked up within driving distance rather than having them shipped.

 

[Nabiki]

I should have more clearly specified was referring to local availability... If someone is looking for live chicks or fertilized eggs that can be picked up within driving distance rather than having them shipped.

How far north in CA are you? There was a place in Sebastopol that sold them (I'm not sure if they still do), and I'm just 25 miles from the CA border.

 

[PatientType]

How far north in CA are you? There was a place in Sebastopol that sold them (I'm not sure if they still do), and I'm just 25 miles from the CA border.

Cool! Another West Coaster... I'm in the Central Valley about 65 miles due east of San Francisco and 30 miles south of Stockton.

I've already got quail, so I'm not looking for more at present. My post was offering advice & thoughts to another BackYard Chickens person.

When I was getting set up, I was fortunate to find a good breeder that had Jumbo Brown birds. Interesting, that breeder raises & sells both ostriches and Coturnix quail. Little eggs and really, really big ones. They're located a ways south-east of Sacramento.

Going forward, I'll likely replenish my flock by incubating my own eggs.

 

[Nabiki]

Cool! Another West Coaster... I'm in the Central Valley about 65 miles due east of San Francisco and 30 miles south of Stockton.

I've already got quail, so I'm not looking for more at present. My post was offering advice & thoughts to another BackYard Chickens person.

When I was getting set up, I was fortunate to find a good breeder that had Jumbo Brown birds. Interesting, that breeder raises & sells both ostriches and Coturnix quail. Little eggs and really, really big ones. They're located a ways south-east of Sacramento.

Going forward, I'll likely replenish my flock by incubating my own eggs.

I lived in the SF Bay area in the same house for over 50 years. I've been in my new place for 3 years now.

 

[isegal]

so my fun project is not fun anymore.

I ordered alot of eggs and only had a dozen and a half hatch( iwas hoping for a 50% hatch rate due to be shipped). then the chicks kept dieing. Im not sure from what. I bought turkey starter with the proper protein, but i didnt grind it. As it seems to be a bad idea, but after loosing a handful i did grind it.

I was losing a bird every other day to every two days. i kept the water lukewarm and put b vit in it sometimes.

I had a 2 brinsea heat plate then added a heat lamp just in case. moved to a room that wasnt used. the temp under the heat lamp was 97 ish and the rest of the brooder(costco bin) air temp was 80s. when they stopped wanting to go under the heat lamp, i turned it off and they had the plates. inside house is 68-73ish.i separated when the 6 older ones were getting too big.

They are fully feathered now. I put the first set(6) outside in the pump house where the temp stays more stable then outside and they are still all alive.

They have a nipple water(rentacoop) with a dish for food that i fill up twice a day.
I just changed bedding into wood pellets a few days back as paper towels were getting too messy even cleaning 2x a day.only one is feather sexable and is a male. the setup is a costco blk bin with a mesh lid. i still have the brinsea heat plate but its not on, i set the water on it and they like standing on it.

I still have the other 6(5 now) inside the house, they were a few days younger. I just had one die this morning. I didnt check on them last night after work because i was so tired and it was 11pm.

So, im not sure if it died because the water didnt work well. its a quail waterer but it didnt come out of the bottom(not sure why). the bottle was half empty so they were out of water half the 12 hour period probably( i gave them fresh water at 6am and its usually 3/4 empty by the evening). They also were out of food, but i didnt think no food can kill them that fast(6am in the morning is when i fed them last).
I just gave them a chick water with rocks in it ,as i know that will work and hopefully they are old enough not to drown themselves this morning.
so frustrated.
They werent crazy thirsty, more hungry but most just scratched it all over like normal. no marks on the dead one and it was my only feather sex able girl in that batch .the other four are males an one brown i dont know. I also changed to wood pellets as the paper was getting to gross and stinking up the house.

\they are 3-4 weeks old now.
what did i do wrong?

i know now to start with cheaper eggs and not spend a zillion the first go around.
Im going to get a sweeter heater and i dont like using heat lamps-it looks like it can handle lower temp even though my house isnt super cold.

I am still debating on to even buy cages for them the way they are dieing and how many boys i have.

I finally decided on 2x3x1 cages from bass 1 inch GAW. i was going to go with 5-6 cages. i havent figured the water system out yet ,but the rentacoop nipple with cup works well for the first batch of quail so thinking of getting more and putting in pvc and somehow hooking to a 5 gal bucket.
i just dont know if i should try again?

They shouldnt have coccidia as they havent been on the ground and i havent fed them anything outside.
payback turkey starter looks like a good feed for protein and the lysin/meth %. i gave up trying to find a soy free one.

You should get one of those bottle waters as I have. It's a shallow dish with a water bottle on top and it only adds more to the dish when the hole connecting isn't full so it's shallow water they can constantly drink from for at least a day without running out or it getting too high