my quail are hatching now... early...

[Granny Hatchet]

thats great !!

and still have time.

 

[dc3085]

The only way to sex A&Ms is by vent or behavior of the adults(egg laying, crowing). I don't usually bother with it (translate that to I'm bad at it), but here is thread from a member on sexing week olds.

 

[sniper338]

Im at 50 out of 71 so far... curiosity killed me and number 51... he was peeping through the shell a bit... and I had to experiment what happens if you help them out of the shell... he had the shell cracked in a spot... but he wasnt ready to come out.... still had some blood that wasnt soaked up in the shell... it was interesting... he was all the way developed and would have hatched fine.. but I had to learn more at its expense... I thought it may make it but he didnt... sooo I killed it... learned not to do that again.

I had another egg that was rocking... and a second that has one peep hole... but havent seen any more progress.... we will see if any more make it out... im pretty happy with 50 though for shipped eggs... I cant house 50 anyways... ill pick my breeders and grow out the rest to use as back up until it comes eatin time!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i have done that too, more then once.. it is very fascinating. im not too bad at it. helped a few that couldnt do it on their own and they are fine now. a lot of people tell you not to , they will be weak, ect... not true. you need to consider that we already stepped in and our conditions are not perfect. i have seen mothers help. you are getting an awesome hatch.

 

[sniper338]

Had one more hatch... so 51 chicks total... I have two that seem to be weak and not able to work their legs very well... I separated them in a dish in the tote for now so they dont get picked on... they are younger than the rest... but the wont walk around yet.. the lay on their belly and push theirself with their feet and scoot around.. hopefully they can get a little more strength and get their legs working right... I donno...

 

[Granny Hatchet]

can you give the quail warm sugar water like you do the chicks?? it gives them a quick boost.

 

[sniper338]

Looking like my hatching is over... I've had the last few come out that I think I'm going to have... The last several that have hatched have all been weak in their legs for a good while. Had another chick die for some odd reason. Not sure where in the hatch it hatched though....

Yes I have given them sugar water. It helps a lot to get them going quicker. I moved all the chicks out to the brooder except this last one that hatched that still is weak in the legs. Poor things they all freaked out when put in the brooder. They were so scared they all bundled up and fell asleep from the stress. I checked on them just a bit ago though and they are all doing much better and running around in the brooder. They learned pretty quick where the warmer place in the brooder is... I guess it was a little too warm under the heating element so they moved out to the sides a bit. It will get chilly tonight though so I'm sure they will all huddle up under the heat for sure. I put the food and water in the cooler side of the brooder so they have to go back and forth - give them exercise and get them some tempurature changes so they can get used to that a little.


End result was a 75% hatch rate for these shipped JMF eggs! I'm very happy with that! Thank you Robbie! Very good hatch, and excellent for only being my second time trying to hatch any eggs at all!!!

We are now on to growing these little boogers out. I hope I dont have any other deaths! Hopefully they are all very healthy! They seem to be eating and drinking water fine, run around a lot, then sleep lol. So far so good!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

congrats on a fine hatch

 

[sniper338]

 

[sniper338]