Slow Night Here In Quailville

[Rozzie]

Decisions, decisions! I bought a rope light today at a sale. Now I have to decide which birds get their pen graced with it! Will it be the two coturnix boys, who are happily residing in my basement? Or, will it be one of the pens of coturnix in my garage? Or, how about the button quail aviary? Perhaps it should go in there. Or, maybe I'll rig it up on the new brooder.

Decisions, decisions.

For the record, the big cages in the garage already have Chinese Lantern style patio lights AND Christmas tree lights & the button quail have my turtle night light that I love. Figured it might as well get more use! I use it more there and enjoy it more than I did in the house!

Hmmm. The boys downstairs don't have anything fancy. I will have to contemplate a way to rig it on their cage...

 

[Rozzie]

Quailville really is too slow this weekend.

Been out "playing" with mine.

Bought a used dirt devil handvac today. It has a hose on it, as well. Found out that I can vacuum around the button quail cages with it without them spazzing out. They spaz at everything, but the dirt devil is apparently perfectly okay with them. I can even use the hose on the tops and sides of their cages!

Got to add vacuum bags to my shopping list, now. I haven't had a vacuum that took bags in YEARS.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
The coturnix boys, can go into winter mode, unless you give them some hens and want them to breed. Supplying them with extra light and no hens will cause them to "ROO" each other. IMO, a waste of resources. (Keeping extra coturnix roos is a good thing!). Just remember to light them into rooness before you put them with active hens, else you will be posting things like... "Help, coturnix hens are pecking my roos brains out"

If you have breeding/egg laying coturnix in the garage, then the lights could go there. Of course....you could always leave the garage light on, or heaven forbid....buy a $1 nightlight

I'm thinking the button aviary. That's my best guess, for light rope deployment.

Just my best guess my friend

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
The coturnix boys, can go into winter mode, unless you give them some hens and want them to breed. Supplying them with extra light and no hens will cause them to "ROO" each other. IMO, a waste of resources. (Keeping extra coturnix roos is a good thing!). Just remember to light them into rooness before you put them with active hens, else you will be posting things like... "Help, coturnix hens are pecking my roos brains out"

If you have breeding/egg laying coturnix in the garage, then the lights could go there. Of course....you could always leave the garage light on, or heaven forbid....buy a $1 nightlight

I'm thinking the button aviary. That's my best guess, for light rope deployment.

Just my best guess my friend

The basement has no natural light at all. We keep the windows covered. So, the rope lights would only be during the day -- they'd be cheaper to run than leaving a lot of overhead lights on. Industrial shop lights with 8 foot bulbs, 2 per fixture are amazingly pricey to run..

 

[Hooligan Farm]

Do the rope lights work well?

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Joe, she keeps all her boys cause she doesn't rehome them or process. So she is going to, over time, fill that basement with boys. Rozzie, I don't agree with this, but it is your choice.

So, ya I'd give them the rope and be on the lookout for alot more. Cause they should live for a few years if they don't kill each other first.

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
Well, right now I have 9 empty cages.

Plenty of room for more birds. Plus, 2 of the 3 pens with coturnix in them now are underpopulated for what they can comfortably have in them.

I used to do the same with chicken roos. I had a whole row of roos in bachelor pens. They seemed pretty happy (well, except for two birds that were Satan's spawn).

Perhaps I should clarify that I'm only hatching til I get my egg layer population where I need it. Then, I'll only hatch more when others decline too much in production. Then, soon after that, my egg needs will decline a bit because my son will be off on his own in life and it'll be just me. So, I will never need a huge number of birds around.

Of course, that assumes my hatches start to approach normalcy and actually result in some hens. If I get all boys again this time, well, I'm going to have to figure something out...

Clarification: The reason I don't "Rehome" is because with quail that means send them to someone else to be butchered or used for dogs. That doesn't work for me.

To each of us our own, eh?

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Rozzie, I understand. But you might want to keep an ear out anyway. There are people like me that don't keep extra males. That is why my ratio is high right now on my females. But I can hatch often, others may not have that option.

Anyway, I have noticed in all my birds that I get more males and sometimes all males in hatches from late summer until Spring. Especially the Ducks and for me that is fine. I think it has something to do with natural instinct, natural selection in breeding times, however its said. I just think about Migration. In the migration there would have to be more males to protect the females. When I think it through this way I can understand the male dominant off season hatches.

You think your teen is moving out. HA- they may leave but there is no way you can get rid of them.

They keep coming back. So, have we got news for you. My kid moved out, I sent food. My kid went off to college, I sent food. You may have to hatch more and set up more layers. Cause it won't just be them, its for their friends too. Then they come home for a visit (to this day) and raid the frig. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that after Thanksgiving is over, I won't be able to find a quail anywhere in any of my freezers. That SIL is going to clean me out, and the DD will take all my eggs home with her. Where does that leave me? Protecting my breeders and hatching again. At least now, they can afford to leave me a check. Darn thing is never blank though.

 

[Rozzie]

Oh, he doesn't ever have to move out. Or, rather, as long as he is "single" he doesn't have to move out. Once there is a partner / girlfriend / boyfriend / husband / wife / whatever he chooses in life, then he gets to move out. If there is a relationship and it's not to the live-in point, then he doesn't get to bring them over for that.

Otherwise, he can live at home until he's 40 if he wants. However, he knows that this is dependent on being enrolled in school and/or working. The school thing only qualifies through his Masters degree, then only if he is continuously enrolled at least 3/4 time. After that he pays his share of bills & contributes to upkeep/maintenance. He is expected even at 16 to contribute physically to upkeep / maintenance. Once he is about 22 or 24 he'll be expected to be contributing financially, too. It'll be "cheap" as far as rent goes, but he'll make up for it with labor.

 

[JJMR794]

Good Luck With That Renter Plan Rozzie