My first Quail. A mini blog.

[pac]

Four more.
I'm already doing better than my previous two times together.

 

[pac]

And double that four!
So this is what it's supposed to look like!

I'm holding off on moving that earlier one over to the brooder because I don't want to shrink wrap any. They seem to be breaking right out of the shell and not wasting any time pipping and taking a breather.

 

[Achillea]

Hey pac, I'm also raising my first Coturnix quails (currently a week old), and reading your posts really keeps me excited and give me some knowledge. I even registered as a member here so that I can send a reply keep up the good work, and I will always await your progress!

 

[pac]

Cool. Thanks @Achillea

I've got 25 out of this batch with five more eggs still in the incubator.
Over 50%. I can live with that.

Makes me wonder if the problem with the first two batches was a fertility problem and not just being mishandled by the mail.

 

[catesquire]

Congrats! 25 is great!

 

[pac]

Thanks. I'm pretty ecstatic about it.
Every time I turned around yesterday there were two more in the 'bator.

I left the newest six in last night, because they were still a little wet looking and shaky on their feet, and this morning there were five more! One almost pure yellow.

And I still have that other incubator going!

I need to get going on another pen.

 

[pac]

Two more

 

[pac]

Four more late bloomers last night.
One seemed to have a hard time getting his legs to work. They were under him, but it seemed he was trying to walk and couldn't. He was rocking back and forth. Maybe just weak.

Only one looked ready to move to the brooder. I'll know more in a few hours.

 

[pac]

Well, in a few more hours there was another one in there.

And 45 minutes after that, this one

Without taking her out it's hard to see, but I just noticed her other foot is flat, so maybe the curl came out of this one, too.
Rather than taping like I did last time (and ended up putting her down anyway when she got bigger and could no longer walk), I'm going with the "they might straighten out in 24 hours" approach I've seen mentioned.

 

[pac]

The curl was coming out. More so than this later pic shows.

I went ahead and put all but one in the brooder. I figured the flat footing would do it better than the rubberized footing with holes her toes can get stuck in. She showed no signs of having a problem moving around.

And the one with what I think was splay legs is dead. I moved everyone into the brooder and went to close the lid, which I was holding there as if it was hinged, and it must have moved from the center to the edge because I lowered the lid and snapped its neck. Quick way to go anyway. But I should have verified where it was.
I didn't want to move it yet in case it got picked on. I noticed the new chicks get pecked at a lot for like a minute.