For many reasons, I haven't hatched or raised fowl since around 2013. But Coronavirus has got me thinking it's time to take control of food supply again. Get some chickens again, and expand my very tiny quail flock.
Only trouble is, everybody else has got the same idea, and all the chicks everywhere and the fertile eggs are all sold out.
So I reached out to a friend I knew had supplies, and it turns out I had "loaned" her my incubator (Hovabator, oh, good old hovabator) way back when. Because I never expected to incubate again, I had flippantly told her it was a "loan" but to just keep it until I asked for it back, thinking I would never ask for it back. Then I forgot all about it. Turns out, she had not forgotten, and gave it back to me, along with 24 hatching eggs (mixed breed, mostly multi-purpose birds including lots of orpington, which makes me happy).
I had nine quail eggs from my tiny flock, and I tossed those in, too (I KNOW I KNOW IT'S NOT THE THING TO DO I'm a rebel).
Then I just kind of ignored it, what with panic attacks and never going 10 minutes without checking my temperature and/or decontaminating something in the house and all.
I did sort of keep track of time but guess what? I remembered EVERYTHING WRONG. I thought quail eggs would hatch in 19 days, so I put them in on day 2 so they'd come out at the same time as the chickens (I KNOW IT'S NOT THE THING ONE DOES).
Anywho. Turns out quail hatch in 17 days, not 19, which once upon a time I knew but my brain is mostly made of swiss cheese.
SURPRISE. Day 17, there's a baby in the incubator. Then a few more.
So I scrambled to set up their brooder. Did you know that a brood lamp, when left to rot for seven years in a shed, is not technically a reliable source of heat for a brooder? That, in fact, when you go to set it up, there's a more than 50% chance you may electrocute yourself? If you're lucky, however, you won't burn down your house and you might have a bedside lamp that can serve in a pinch if you can find an incandescent bulb that doesn't fall apart in your hands.
The upshot of all of which is that we have an extremely spoiled quail who spent the entire first day of her life being carried around for warmth and, now that she's in the brooder I finally managed to cobble together without destroying anything other than my sanity, cannot sleep without someone holding her. She stands in the middle of the brooder, while her brothers and sisters peacefully doze in the warm corner, and cries until someone picks her up and cuddles her. This is a problem I am out of spoons to solve. "Quail cuddler" is now a full-time position in our family, which position we take turns filling.
So, anyway. There are three more quail eggs in the bator that may or may not hatch and, speaking of spoons, I have none left to worry about whether they'll hatch. Tomorrow I have to take out all the mechanical stuff and lock the darn thing down for the chickens, and I'll just lock whichever quail eggs are left down right with them. They'll hatch or they won't (if they do hatch, it'll be before the chickens, so I can whisk them away to safety, a blessing of having miscalculated their hatch date).
And now I have to solve the problem of a lamp for the chickens because WHY DID IT NOT OCCUR TO ME THAT I WOULD NEED TWO SOURCES OF HEAT, NOT JUST ONE. And also, all my old heat bulbs blew up on me. I ordered something from Amazon and that order is now racing against the speed at which my eggs hatch.
Did I mention how I pulled a (wooden, upright) brooder out of the shed also, and it was so full of roaches that there were still roaches coming out of it after I scrubbed it down, sprayed it down, sprayed it with bleach solution, sprayed it with roach spray, and dumped an entire container of boric acid into every crevice? If I had not discovered this fact BEFORE I brought the brooder in the house, I would currently be sorry that I had NOT burned the house down with the faulty brood lamp.
Anyway, I forgot how many accessories like waterers and feeders I would need.
But, good news: There was a pack of chicken nipples, tightly sealed in plastic, in the roach-infested brooder. Thanks to Coronavirus, I am a master at decontamination, so those chicken nipples are MINE ALL MINE and my quail have a waterer.
In other good news: 22 eggs were alive and well at last candling. I'll candle again tonight and toss any dead ones before lockdown tomorrow. In bad news: 22 chicks is wayyy more than I have capacity for and so I may be scrambling again in a couple days.
In short, I'm a hot mess but babbbiiieeeeesssssss
Only trouble is, everybody else has got the same idea, and all the chicks everywhere and the fertile eggs are all sold out.
So I reached out to a friend I knew had supplies, and it turns out I had "loaned" her my incubator (Hovabator, oh, good old hovabator) way back when. Because I never expected to incubate again, I had flippantly told her it was a "loan" but to just keep it until I asked for it back, thinking I would never ask for it back. Then I forgot all about it. Turns out, she had not forgotten, and gave it back to me, along with 24 hatching eggs (mixed breed, mostly multi-purpose birds including lots of orpington, which makes me happy).
I had nine quail eggs from my tiny flock, and I tossed those in, too (I KNOW I KNOW IT'S NOT THE THING TO DO I'm a rebel).
Then I just kind of ignored it, what with panic attacks and never going 10 minutes without checking my temperature and/or decontaminating something in the house and all.
I did sort of keep track of time but guess what? I remembered EVERYTHING WRONG. I thought quail eggs would hatch in 19 days, so I put them in on day 2 so they'd come out at the same time as the chickens (I KNOW IT'S NOT THE THING ONE DOES).
Anywho. Turns out quail hatch in 17 days, not 19, which once upon a time I knew but my brain is mostly made of swiss cheese.
SURPRISE. Day 17, there's a baby in the incubator. Then a few more.
So I scrambled to set up their brooder. Did you know that a brood lamp, when left to rot for seven years in a shed, is not technically a reliable source of heat for a brooder? That, in fact, when you go to set it up, there's a more than 50% chance you may electrocute yourself? If you're lucky, however, you won't burn down your house and you might have a bedside lamp that can serve in a pinch if you can find an incandescent bulb that doesn't fall apart in your hands.
The upshot of all of which is that we have an extremely spoiled quail who spent the entire first day of her life being carried around for warmth and, now that she's in the brooder I finally managed to cobble together without destroying anything other than my sanity, cannot sleep without someone holding her. She stands in the middle of the brooder, while her brothers and sisters peacefully doze in the warm corner, and cries until someone picks her up and cuddles her. This is a problem I am out of spoons to solve. "Quail cuddler" is now a full-time position in our family, which position we take turns filling.
So, anyway. There are three more quail eggs in the bator that may or may not hatch and, speaking of spoons, I have none left to worry about whether they'll hatch. Tomorrow I have to take out all the mechanical stuff and lock the darn thing down for the chickens, and I'll just lock whichever quail eggs are left down right with them. They'll hatch or they won't (if they do hatch, it'll be before the chickens, so I can whisk them away to safety, a blessing of having miscalculated their hatch date).
And now I have to solve the problem of a lamp for the chickens because WHY DID IT NOT OCCUR TO ME THAT I WOULD NEED TWO SOURCES OF HEAT, NOT JUST ONE. And also, all my old heat bulbs blew up on me. I ordered something from Amazon and that order is now racing against the speed at which my eggs hatch.
Did I mention how I pulled a (wooden, upright) brooder out of the shed also, and it was so full of roaches that there were still roaches coming out of it after I scrubbed it down, sprayed it down, sprayed it with bleach solution, sprayed it with roach spray, and dumped an entire container of boric acid into every crevice? If I had not discovered this fact BEFORE I brought the brooder in the house, I would currently be sorry that I had NOT burned the house down with the faulty brood lamp.
Anyway, I forgot how many accessories like waterers and feeders I would need.
But, good news: There was a pack of chicken nipples, tightly sealed in plastic, in the roach-infested brooder. Thanks to Coronavirus, I am a master at decontamination, so those chicken nipples are MINE ALL MINE and my quail have a waterer.
In other good news: 22 eggs were alive and well at last candling. I'll candle again tonight and toss any dead ones before lockdown tomorrow. In bad news: 22 chicks is wayyy more than I have capacity for and so I may be scrambling again in a couple days.
In short, I'm a hot mess but babbbiiieeeeesssssss
