I have Coturnix quail. They start laying at 7 weeks! Usually about 1/2 are fertile and about 3/4 of those that develop will hatch. There are always a few (1 - 3 out of 15) that make it to about 3 days and then fail to thrive. Put marbles or rocks in their water dish. Quail babies like to bathe when they drink and they can get chilled or drown. I pick out the best sized birds and I put one male with 5 hens when they begin to lay. There will be six breed cages and one cage of a few extra males. The rest go into the freezer. To peel quail eggs I add the eggs to enough boiling water to cover them, I then add 1/2 cup of white vinegar for each 50 eggs. Boil for 3 minutes, cover and set aside until the eggs are cool. The vinegar dissolves most of the calcium shell and leaves the inner membrane. Starting at the big end of the egg, tap it on a hard surface and begin peeling off the strip of shell. It is a time consuming process to peel over 100 eggs at a time, but that will make a quart of pickled eggs.
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I really like your coop construction. How will you winterize it?
mine we be hatching in November.
