My first Quail. A mini blog.

[pac]

Double yolker!!

I just have a little basket in my fridge, though I imagine they'd be fine on the counter for quite some time. Don't see why orientation would matter outside of eggs for hatching

Thanks. I was just wondering if I should invest in some of those plastic cartons.
Back when I had chickens I did not refrigerate, but did store them big end up. Just cuz that's how commercial eggs are in the carton.

Those quail eggs cartons looks pricey unless you buy a LOT of them in bulk.

A basket works for me, but then you always have the older eggs at the bottom...

So much to think about.

 

[catesquire]

Specifically, I have two baskets (actually just little Tupperware containers without the lids) so that I can keep track of the eggs' ages. One is the "eat them" container and the other is the "fresh from the hens" container.

 

[pac]

I just had one that flew the coop.
The dang roo looked right at me as I was putting the board back onto their food container, came strutting up to the front rather quickly, and out the door he went.

I tried to do what I've seen others do, just get the bird, but every time I got close he decided to flush and land six or eight feet away.
Luckily, being right by the shed my fishing net was inside. One of the short ones, but I did manage to cover him with it and get him back into the pen.

When he landed was the time to get him. He had a problem touching down on the grass and rocked forward each time. I guess because he's never been on grass, or even flown before, and he thought he was touching down on the top of the blades and then he sank in another couple inches.

The troublemaker. If he was bigger it would have been an opportune time to eat him.

 

[Nabiki]

I just had one that flew the coop.
The dang roo looked right at me as I was putting the board back onto their food container, came strutting up to the front rather quickly, and out the door he went.

I tried to do what I've seen others do, just get the bird, but every time I got close he decided to flush and land six or eight feet away.
Luckily, being right by the shed my fishing net was inside. One of the short ones, but I did manage to cover him with it and get him back into the pen.

When he landed was the time to get him. He had a problem touching down on the grass and rocked forward each time. I guess because he's never been on grass, or even flown before, and he thought he was touching down on the top of the blades and then he sank in another couple inches.

The troublemaker. If he was bigger it would have been an opportune time to eat him.

At least he was easy to catch. Back at my old place I lost a couple because they flew. One went across the yard and over the top of the 10' sound wall to the super busy street on the other side (I went and looked for her, but never did find her), and another flew across my yard, over the top of my house, never to be seen again.

 

[pac]

I thought for sure he'd be gone. He was only flying in short bursts though.

I think what I need to do is set something up that blocks part of the open doorway. Whether it's a piece of wood I can prop up temporarily, Or a towel I can pin to the top of the frame...
There's just too much open area and I don't want to scare them to the other side. They are flighty enough.

 

[pac]

Yep. It was a double yolker.

 

[pac]

Out of the 48 eggs from the mail quail, 30 went back into the incubator. As usual, some were suspect. Some I could most certainly see a chick. Others it was more of a shadow stuck to the inside of the shell. But we'll see.

Lockdown begins later today or tomorrow. I am trying to let these go to day 15 instead of 14 and I think that is how I set up the incubator to stop turning. 30 eggs though. That's better than the first place I ordered from as far as the keepers after candling.

I can't imagine a large number of chicks crawling over the other eggs as the others are trying to hatch and I'm waiting for chicks to dry out so I can move them.

 

[catesquire]

Good luck! Mine are due to hatch just after yours, so here's hoping we're both drowning in fuzzy chicks butts soon. And that at least 80% of them are hens

 

[pac]

Right on
Fuzzy hen butts!

The incubator stopped turning, so they are now officially in lockdown.

 

[FatherFalcon]

Good luck! Mine are due to hatch just after yours, so here's hoping we're both drowning in fuzzy chicks butts soon. And that at least 80% of them are hens

Yeah… wow I hope you get a high hatch rate.! had 8 of 24 dry, no turn hatch! Yay Eggtopsy showed
6 of 16 developed but aborted around day 12-14
The rest
10 of 16 were not fertile