My first Quail. A mini blog.

[pac]

Finally!
I haven't seen her eat yet, but she finally went into the enclosed portion of the hutch.
A pic through the window

 

[Nabiki]

I haven't seen my girl go into the enclosed part of the hutch all day. Or eat either. But she was right in front of one of the feeding ports, maybe an inch away, as if looking in that direction.

I'm hoping she learns quick. Without a group of birds walking around and interacting she has to figure everything out on her own. Unless I help her and shoo her into the enclosed section. But she seems to be warming up to me more in the hutch than when she was in the brooder. I don't want to shoo her anywhere.

It's getting down in the low forties tonight. Hopefully she at least figures out there is a warmer area with pine shavings. And food.

She'll be fine.

 

[gummylick]

Yeahhhh! She getting the place ready!

 

[pac]

She was still in there this morning so far.
She's bound to start looking for food soon.

Meanwhile...
Batch 2
Two were hatched this morning! I figured today or tomorrow. Depending on how you count days.

One is very active, the other wants to be active but can't quite get his legs under him yet. He sort of drags his butt around. Straight toes and not splay legged, so maybe he's just weaker than the other and will come around as he dries out. Or maybe they are like this right after they hatch. It would be nice to see one actually hatch. None of the other eggs look like they are ready yet (no pipping).

 

[pac]

I finally caught one in the act! Number three. I watched him hatch start to finish and took video along the way. If anyone is interested I can post them.

I put the two others in the brooder

It's hard work hatching!

And here's number 3 a couple hours after breaking free.

Now that I know what they look like freshly hatched, I wouldn't doubt if the first two hatched late last night rather than in the wee hours of today. Especially the one.

 

[pac]

And then there were four.

 

[pac]

Number 4 has this white thing hanging off the side of its rump. I didn't want to risk taking him out and losing heat, or pulling on it when I should be ignoring it...
So, any ideas? It doesn't seem to be bothering it, but the one pecks at it once in a while. Of course, they're pecking at everything. These two are pretty scrappy.

 

[Nabiki]

Number 4 has this white thing hanging off the side of its rump. I didn't want to risk taking him out and losing heat, or pulling on it when I should be ignoring it...
So, any ideas? It doesn't seem to be bothering it, but the one pecks at it once in a while. Of course, they're pecking at everything. These two are pretty scrappy.

View attachment 4109645

You will sometimes find this stuck to the inside of the egg after the chick hatches. In this case, it just stuck to the chick. Nothing to worry about.

 

[pac]

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it was some undeveloped tailfeather or something.
But it's gone already

I hope it was OK to separate a chick from it's egg, too. It was dragging the egg around behind it with some kind of brown spindly thread thing. Umbilical? Do birds have those? I noticed another one on the outside of one of the hatched eggs.

I put the other two in the brooder. They went right to eating. And it's easier to get around than on that shelf liner in the brooder. I am giving that second thoughts. Sometimes it looks like even their beaks get stuck in those holes.

 

[Nabiki]

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it was some undeveloped tailfeather or something.
But it's gone already

I hope it was OK to separate a chick from it's egg, too. It was dragging the egg around behind it with some kind of brown spindly thread thing. Umbilical? Do birds have those? I noticed another one on the outside of one of the hatched eggs.

I put the other two in the brooder. They went right to eating. And it's easier to get around than on that shelf liner in the brooder. I am giving that second thoughts. Sometimes it looks like even their beaks get stuck in those holes.
View attachment 4109671

Sometimes it takes a little while for the umbilical to break and they drag the egg around. As long as you made sure to break it without pulling on the chick, there's no problem.