Paneubert's Quail Aviary Adventure

[Binki]

Thanks for the deep litter response, still thinking about it, worried it will accelerate rotting the wood along the bottom of our chicken coop/run

The shelter looks good! I always forget how deep the litter goes wonder if they will use it?? Mine seemed to be hanging out in the animal carrying case I use to bring them out to the aviary (because it still doesn't have a roof...). Main factor *may* have been the fact the aviary ground was wet whereas the case had dry straw in it ?

 

[paneubert]

I feel like I am taking crazy pills....I can't seem to see how I can edit any of my posts anymore. So this is a test post to see what happens. Haha.

Edit: So I see an edit, delete, etc... on this post but not older ones. Does that disappear after a set time or something?

 

[Binki]

Oh no! I just checked my post from the 14th, it still showed the "three lines" icon so I assume I could still click it to edit it - how old was the post you were trying?

I'm on the mobile version

 

[paneubert]

I think it might not let you edit once someone quotes you or something. Maybe I will ask on the general forum forum.

 

[blackdust951]

i like your cages i would like to try fermented food as well but i already have a gravity dispensing feeder anyway how many quails do you have now?i don't have any but i am hoping to get some i would like to build an aviary as well

 

[paneubert]

i like your cages i would like to try fermented food as well but i already have a gravity dispensing feeder anyway how many quails do you have now?i don't have any but i am hoping to get some i would like to build an aviary as well

I am down to 9 adults, one baby who was born on the 4th of July, and about 60 eggs in the incubator due to hatch in 3 days. I had hatched about 20 eggs on the 4th of July, but sold 19 of them. The one baby I have left was a runt and slow grower. So I kept him/her. Fermented feed is great. I don't currently do it since I am lazy and don't want to have to go put fresh food out every day.

 

[paneubert]

I was informed by my wife that I have two babies hatching! Woot! When I locked them down they all felt REALLY light. I was worried I had dehydrated them all somehow. At least I know two are alive....

 

[blackdust951]

that's great how many hatched?i notice your incubator has great great visibility mine is terrible what type is it?i don't see any water were does it go?what does your brooder look like?hope you don't mind these questionsi expect you would have answered them anyway?

 

[paneubert]

that's great how many hatched?i notice your incubator has great great visibility mine is terrible what type is it?i don't see any water were does it go?what does your brooder look like?hope you don't mind these questionsi expect you would have answered them anyway?

Well those were early. I think today is the official due date. As of now I have 10? 11? hatched. I need to go count. I have 60+ eggs in the incubator, so I hope to get more hatching today and tomorrow. Sadly the mostly white egg where you can just see the beak in the hole died at that point. I went in to check on it last night and it was not moving. I broke a little more of the hole open and poked its beak a bit. No response. So that is sad. It made it far enough to peck a hole in the egg but must have just run out of energy at that point. Mostly sad because that was one of the eggs I bought online, and since it was more white and large, I really wanted to see what the baby would look like. I might email the seller and ask which of his birds lay those color/size of eggs. I got 2 or 3 in my shipment, so maybe one of the others will hatch.

My incubator is a Farm Innovators 4250. That one photo might be misleading though. That was with the top off when I was taking out the egg turner and laying the eggs down for hatching. Hahaha. But the window in the lid still is pretty large and I can see pretty well into the incubator. The water goes into some channels under the floor that are molded into the Styrofoam bottom. Normally there is a wire bottom that lets you see the channels better. Well.....when you have an egg turner in there, it is hard to see. I use a tube and syringe to go down thru the turner and wire floor usually. This time I tried a sponge on top of the egg turner, but I would not do that again. The sponge dried out fast and spiked humidity too much. The floor you see in the recent photos is actually some non-slip shelf liner on top of the wire floor. It helps the babies to not slip and mess up their legs. Also keeps the eggs from rolling around so much. Also makes it easier to clean up since you can wash the non-slip liner and re-use it again and again.

My brooder is pretty simple. I could have built my own, but I was lazy and bought one. It is from the same brand as the incubator, Farm Innovators. Looks like this....

I modified it by drilling more holes in the PVC light holder so that I could raise and lower it in smaller increments. The default holes only allowed something like 4 or 5 heights. It works well and can fold up to a small size since each panel is attached to each other with rings. If I hatch 60 babies, this will be too small though...

 

[paneubert]

They are quick, so I am not sure if my count is correct, but I think I have 16 right now. Good assortment of colors so far.