I think this thread needs to be resurrected. Besides, I just want to ramble a little, and don't think it needs a whole thread by itself.
I have offically gotten myself in trouble. I have hatched more quail that I have room to brood. I have got to throw together some kind of emergency growout pen. I had a batch in the playpen, half of which are now merrily living on the floor. I told my husband "just don't go in there". I have critical mass on chickens, and the poults need somewhere to go too. The Barn is late being completed and planned moves are running behind, throwing my entire pen arrangements/scheduling out of whack.
I have lost quite a few out of my breeding pens lately, to various causes, the last of which was a snake, which I did not find. I have to get some bird netting around the pen to see if I can catch it, and find where he came in to get it patched. I think it must be under the roof tin. The problem now is, I have pens with only a couple of hens and don't want to waste the space, but I am afraid to try to add extra hens. I was thinking about scrambling the whole mess in a big pen with the new hens, then sorting them back out into the breeding pens. I certainly am not worried if they quit laying for a while it will be a blessing at this time.
I also thought about just processing the whole bunch of them and starting over with the youngsters. Just thinking, and that could be dangerous.
