Mad Scientist Hatch-along: also a quail science project

[Susan Skylark]

Day 16: three quarters are pipped, hopefully chicks tonight or tomorrow!

 

[Susan Skylark]

2 out, another close, everybody pipped!

 

[Susan Skylark]

This wasn’t what I was expecting! Morning of official hatch day 17, ten adorable balls of fluff (3 red heads!) and two taking their time (but definitely alive). I wasn’t expecting the red heads, wasn’t sure what to expect with the experiment. Roux or red is a sex linked recessive in quail, I love it but didn’t think any of my boys carried it, nice surprise this morning! As for the study, it apparently does not matter to quail whether you refrigerate the eggs or turn them, no difference between groups in development, embryonic death, or hatching difficulty. Out of 34 eggs 2 were infertile, 4 died between day 3-6, and the rest either went to hatch or were culled before day 13 to check development and not overwhelm my brooder capabilities! 12 went to hatch and look to be 100 percent normal and healthy. This is a very small sample size so you can’t draw any statistical conclusions but it is really interesting, these little birds are tough! Some of these eggs were in the fridge and not turned for a week and they still hatched without complication. Also not sure how well this will apply to other species, maybe other temperate galiformes but may be different with subtropical birds (button quail, etc) whose eggs will never be naturally exposed to cold temps. The sage grouse start breeding in march, still cold and prime blizzard season but they still hatch eggs! Thanks for following along!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Some of the mad scientists!

 

[TeresaW]

Are these coturnix? Regular or jumbo?