Susan Skylark
Songster
I only started with birds (coturnix quail!) in March, with a borrowed incubator and some shipped eggs, now a seasoned pro (ha!) I will attempt to document our fourth ever hatching attempt with home raised eggs, three different males, and a cheap incubator. This whole poultry thing really minds me of a soap opera, I wanted to call it ‘as the chicken clucks’ but I have the wrong species! I had one particular pen I wanted to hatch eggs from, but somehow (typical!) I only got 3 viable eggs from that group and 5 from the pen I didn’t want more than an egg or two from! So already my plans are awry. Without further ado I’ll introduce our cast:
Squeegee: male pearl who sounds like a stepped on frog, and the boy I hoped would be our star but has only 3 eggs.
Rocky: the Italian Stallion…er Rooster, geeky male who was failing out of fertility testing because the girls beat him up but after couple’s therapy has 4 eggs and bosses the ladies.
Grouse: a small gentlemanly Rosetta roo that somehow managed to get 5 eggs into this batch even though he had 3/4 in the last one!
Pip: pied wing white (?) female, the first quail, beloved of my 12 year old coconspirator, the only female from our first hatch (4/5 male) and the first to hatch and currently being treated for a leg issue, prognosis questionable but somehow got 3 Grouse eggs in this batch (we think).
Scarlet: red (scarlet) female that lays blue eggs (celadon) with 2 Grouse eggs, small, gentle, friendly bird.
A day 4 (today) celadon egg with a beautiful embryo (like a light colored chicken egg).
The setting for our thrilling tale: cheap incubator with steady temp and erratic humidity, 3 cheap hygrometer/thermometers that mostly agree, and an auto egg turner that works for quail.
Recipe to hatch quail (coturnix):
Temp: 99.5F
Humidity: 40-50 percent (65 percent lockdown)
Lockdown day 14/15
Hatch day 17 (ish)
I was hoping for Autumn Amber, Italian, and Blue from the Squeegee pen. Rocky will throw Italian or pharoah (with a possible Rosetta or falb fee). Grouse will throw Rosetta or pharoah and Pip will throw tuxedo-y chicks.
What colors will we get? Will Grouse take over the flock? Will Pip recover? Find out in our next exciting episode, stay tuned!
Naming rights: let’s do Lord of the Rings, but remember these are quail, sort of like hobbits: plump, small and ridiculous. No noble or tragic characters (Galadriel the Quail?!). We also already have a Pippin and a Peregrine. Stridor is fine but no Aragorn. Bilbo’s dwarf companions are great, save Thorin of course. Fatty Lumpkin anyone? Only original book or movie trilogy please, no Rings of Power or Silmarillion!
-2 blue eggs (Grouse and Scarlet)
-3 Pip/Grouse eggs
-3 assorted Squeegee eggs (though a blue chick will likely be Gandalf)
-4 assorted Rocky eggs
Squeegee: male pearl who sounds like a stepped on frog, and the boy I hoped would be our star but has only 3 eggs.
Rocky: the Italian Stallion…er Rooster, geeky male who was failing out of fertility testing because the girls beat him up but after couple’s therapy has 4 eggs and bosses the ladies.
Grouse: a small gentlemanly Rosetta roo that somehow managed to get 5 eggs into this batch even though he had 3/4 in the last one!
Pip: pied wing white (?) female, the first quail, beloved of my 12 year old coconspirator, the only female from our first hatch (4/5 male) and the first to hatch and currently being treated for a leg issue, prognosis questionable but somehow got 3 Grouse eggs in this batch (we think).
Scarlet: red (scarlet) female that lays blue eggs (celadon) with 2 Grouse eggs, small, gentle, friendly bird.
A day 4 (today) celadon egg with a beautiful embryo (like a light colored chicken egg).
The setting for our thrilling tale: cheap incubator with steady temp and erratic humidity, 3 cheap hygrometer/thermometers that mostly agree, and an auto egg turner that works for quail.
Recipe to hatch quail (coturnix):
Temp: 99.5F
Humidity: 40-50 percent (65 percent lockdown)
Lockdown day 14/15
Hatch day 17 (ish)
I was hoping for Autumn Amber, Italian, and Blue from the Squeegee pen. Rocky will throw Italian or pharoah (with a possible Rosetta or falb fee). Grouse will throw Rosetta or pharoah and Pip will throw tuxedo-y chicks.
What colors will we get? Will Grouse take over the flock? Will Pip recover? Find out in our next exciting episode, stay tuned!
Naming rights: let’s do Lord of the Rings, but remember these are quail, sort of like hobbits: plump, small and ridiculous. No noble or tragic characters (Galadriel the Quail?!). We also already have a Pippin and a Peregrine. Stridor is fine but no Aragorn. Bilbo’s dwarf companions are great, save Thorin of course. Fatty Lumpkin anyone? Only original book or movie trilogy please, no Rings of Power or Silmarillion!
-2 blue eggs (Grouse and Scarlet)
-3 Pip/Grouse eggs
-3 assorted Squeegee eggs (though a blue chick will likely be Gandalf)
-4 assorted Rocky eggs
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….He was my absolute favourite. 
