My button chicks, and the last chicks from my coturnix massacre

[FloorCandy]

Here are the buttons at 3 1/2 weeks old, it seems there are 2 darth Vader/red breasted hens, 4 definite dv/rb males. One has red pretty high up on the wings as well, I’m excited to see how he turns out. It looks like 2 of the cinnamon are definite males, the 3rd maybe a hen. The 2 blue faces, the white, and the slate are all mysteries still.

The dv/rb hens are far left and 3rd from left in the pic below. above the second hen is my runt, he’s been looking small and puffy off and on. I’ve been giving him nutridrench. The last slate is still small, but otherwise spunky and healthy, he had splayed at about a week old with the other 2 slates, they rapidly deteriorated and died but he turned around right away.

Close up Mr. red wing, he is center in the above photo, below and to the right of the white one, look more gray in the close up, more black from a distance.

When I moved them to the new brooder I clipped all their wings and thank goodness it keeps them well grounded, these jerks were trying to escape every time I opened the brooder, and they could stay airborn for a good long time, flying around the room.

 

[Canina]

I'm a bit scared to clip, but I lost one of my three to boinking. He (I think) was twice the size of the others, incredibly boisterous and the other two don't jump around nearly as much at least.

 

[FloorCandy]

I'm a bit scared to clip, but I lost one of my three to boinking. He (I think) was twice the size of the others, incredibly boisterous and the other two don't jump around nearly as much at least.

The scariest thing about clipping was I try to hold them gently because they’re so small and frail, and I inevitably lose a few and then have to chase them down and they poop in my house while they laugh at me from above. You can see if the feather is a blood feather by looking at the underside of the shaft, you can see the blood in the feather shaft, and know not to cut it. If you did cut a blood feather, it isn’t the end of the world, just pull out the feather at the base so the whole shaft comes out. I clip all my juvenile Coturnix when I move them outside because young birds scare so easily, especially in a new pen, so if one jets out past me, I can get it more easily. I had a situation where I was filling the water or something and was out of sight and one of my dogs or a stray cat opened the door of my grow out somehow and my juveniles poured out into the yard (normally I have a cinderblock in front of the door because the latch is loose, but I was coming and going). We were able to collect all but one that flew in a locked yard of a less friendly neighbor and they pretended they weren’t home when I knocked. Luckily the rest couldn’t fly far, so they mostly spread into my yard and the neighbors yard. If they weren’t clipped, they would have all been in the woods. I find with Coturnix, after the first clip I don’t need to repeat, since they get pretty calm and lazy once they’re older. I am only on my first batch of buttons so I don’t know if they will be the same way.

 

[FloorCandy]

My first buttons are about 5 1/2 weeks old, here are some fresh pics:

I’ll be selling several of these soon, if anyone wants any and is in range of NJ to pickup, let me know. I’ll be selling 1-2 darth Vader males, the white one, and probably the weird gray oddball I made the other thread about.

 

[FloorCandy]

My first buttons are about 5 1/2 weeks old, here are some fresh pics:

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I’ll be selling several of these soon, if anyone wants any and is in range of NJ to pickup, let me know. I’ll be selling 1-2 darth Vader males, the white one, and probably the weird gray oddball I made the other thread about.

The cinnamon red breasted hen that is right center of the second pic is the prettiest in the group, pictures do her no justice.

 

[Ravenlover]

The cinnamon red breasted hen that is right center of the second pic is the prettiest in the group, pictures do her no justice.
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Gorgeous

 

[FloorCandy]

My second group of buttons is about a week and a half old now. I had most chicks hatch overnight between day 17-18, but I set them in the evening so that was expected. So day 17 was Saturday and on Monday I candled the 5 remainders and it looked like there might be movement in 1 and a couple were too dark to tell for sure, so I left them and planned to empty the incubator the next day. So life happens, I’m not thinking about them, and I wanna say on Wednesday I hear peeping, and one is hatching. I was on my way out the door, there hadn’t been water added for like 1-2 days the incubator was reading 24% humidity. He hatched and had a little shrink wrap beanie on his head and curled toes, bone dry. Since he was so late, I wanted him to have food and water available right away, so I put him in the brooder and hoped for the best. When I got home he was running around fine.

Here he is a little over a week later:

He’s a Thanksgiving miracle haha. His toes are straight, his legs are strong, he’s doing great.

 

[Ravenlover]

My second group of buttons is about a week and a half old now. I had most chicks hatch overnight between day 17-18, but I set them in the evening so that was expected. So day 17 was Saturday and on Monday I candled the 5 remainders and it looked like there might be movement in 1 and a couple were too dark to tell for sure, so I left them and planned to empty the incubator the next day. So life happens, I’m not thinking about them, and I wanna say on Wednesday I hear peeping, and one is hatching. I was on my way out the door, there hadn’t been water added for like 1-2 days the incubator was reading 24% humidity. He hatched and had a little shrink wrap beanie on his head and curled toes, none dry. Since he was so late, I wanted him to have food and water available right away, so I put him in the brooder and hoped for the best. When I got home he was running around fine.

Here he is a little over a week later:
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He’s a Thanksgiving miracle haha. His toes are straight, his legs are strong, he’s doing great.

Love survivors like them