Quail hatching!!!!

[frankensusan]

Right on time, the first quail chick just blasted her way out of the shell. Amazing, took about an hour. I was cheering her on and peeping for her. There are 3 more eggs pipped, and some that I'm not sure are viable.

I'm a little worried as she doesn't seem to have popped up on her legs, but instead rolled around and knocked all the other eggs around until she got tired. She's trying to stand, and seems to be making progress getting those muscles to work, but in the meantime is about to knock those other babies right out of their shells..

Is that normal? Should I separate her?

Uh oh DS is home and missed the hatching. BBL!!

Susan

 

[SamG347]

Congrats! Yes it is normal for a chick to flop and roll around when it first hatches. It will take it acouple hours to realize...hey I can use my legs to walk around! You shouldnt have to seperate her. Leave all the babies inside the incubator till they are dry and fluffy.
Good luck and what kind of quail are these??

 

[frankensusan]

They are bobwhite quail.

It won't hurt the eggs for her to be bumping into them and making them roll around the incubator?

Thanks!!

Susan - going to stare some more .

 

[mamading]

Nope, it will not hurt the other eggs at all. In fact it encourages the others to hatch sometimes. I had 7 bobwhite hatch on Mother's Day and didn't discover any had hatched until 3 were out already. Aren't they just the cutest tiniest babies ever?!
I thought I could get them to be tame but no luck with that. The wild instinct runs deep in them and they will not come to me at all, even when I have treats. As a matter of fact they will stay away and wait for my chickens to grab a bite and then steal it from them and run as fast and far as they can with whatever they stole. I handled them all the time and that still didn't work. I will let you know ahead of time if you plan on keeping them with your chickens they will do just fine. They don't always come in to roost for the night like chickens do. Mine always want to roost as high as they can (they can fly quite high) and my coop has three windows, one of the three windows flips open into the run, well they would roost on top of that window because that was the highest point. Too funny, I tell ya.
Their peep sounds differ from that of chickens. It's almost rythmic like a chickadee. It's pretty neat.

I forgot to add... my avatar shows one of the newly hatched bobwhite quail from that day in May.

 

[frankensusan]

aw! cute picture!!

I still see 3 pipped with not much progress. every once in awhile I see one move a bit. Funny it seems like it's taking forever but really the first signs were at 8 this morning. I think the hatched baby may have pipped yesterday.

The first baby is now running in the incubator and not rolling around anymore, whew!!!

this waiting game is tough.

I have a female bobwhite who lives with my bunny in a big aviary out back. Right now they are reluctantly sharing their home with 36 (eek!) bantam chicks. Eventually I had planned to move the bantams to their own coop and have the bunny with his quail buddies. They seem well matched for companions. When it's cold the quail can be found right up against the bunny and I never find parasites on my bunny.

crossing my fingers for the rest of the bobwhites!

Susan

 

[joebwe25]

frankensusan,
Can you give me info on quail on my post "I have a few questions about quail" in the other pets and livestock section please?

 

[frankensusan]

Yay!!!

Egg #2 hatched! Man once they go from pip to zip they are out quick! I'm sure it helps that I talk to them... hehe.

Susan

 

[frankensusan]

Whew! Watching babies hatch is hard work.

We have 6 now out of 10 eggs. 1 egg was bad at day 7 candling.
I don't think the other 3 will hatch but I'm leaving them in the incubator while I put those wild popcorn babies in the brooder.

I took pictures for posting later, right now I think I need a nap!

The last baby out got picked on pretty bad by the ones that hatched yesterday, they were pulling him around and really made him angry so he pushed out of his egg the rest of the way. Then they picked him when I was out of the room and there was a little blood.

So off to the brooder the rest of the gang went and I left the newest baby in the incubator to dry. He seems ok now that he's dried a bit so he went into the brooder with the rest.

I could sit and watch them all day long.

Susan

 

[SamG347]

I cant wait to see the pics!!! Ive decided to switch from getting buttons back into my one true love...BOBWHITES. I miss the beautiful colored birds and the sounds they make.
Good Luck with your babies

 

[frankensusan]

Here's the six chix!

peep peep peep PEEEEEP

Susan