Smelled something rotten... He made it! Quail Hatching!

[MichiganWoods]

4 out! And at least 6 more pips and zips!

Yeah it was late and I was tired last night when I posted.

You understood me though. I did mean if it was all right to add older babies to my young ones. I'll give you a PM a little later after I've woken up a bit.

 

[Southernbelle]

Nothing like one little peeper to start calling the others to come out and play. How many eggs did you start with? Mine weren't done, yet, either. After I posted I checked on them and had more wet little babies.

It's been 36 hours and I'm so proud of myself - I haven't opened the bator once! But now the little nitwits are rocketing around like bumper cars and I really want to get them out!

 

[MichiganWoods]

I started out with a lot... 60. But when things started to smell, I pulled quite a few out that felt empty. Then I found that little surprise guy. I dunno how many eggs are left in there as I wasn't counting what I removed. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and trying very hard to keep my mits off of that bator!

I'd be so happy to have at least 10.

And I hear ya on the little nitwits!! My buggers are knocking the ones trying to get out of their shells senseless right now.

Glad your guys are still coming out!

 

[MichiganWoods]

5 out! More still working on it!

 

[gabrielle1976]

 

[MichiganWoods]

Well only 5 made it. This is the first time I've had pips and zips that died before making it out of the shell. That's no fun.

My humidity meter said it was around 75%. I am betting it was off.

ETA, even though there's only 5, they sure are CUTE.

 

[Southernbelle]

I had a few that pipped, zipped and died, too.

I can't help but think, if only I'd helped... But I don't really believe in helping....

They're so tiny! To move them to the brooder I was picking up handfuls of them! I have a 3 week old Serama in the brooder and the quail keep tucking under her and peeping out her wings. So far she's been really tolerant

I had 2 little A&Ms drown in the water after I moved them to the brooder

It was the quail waterer, too, so I didn't think they'd have a problem! I didn't have any marbles that fit in it, so I tried the cotton batting that monarc23 reccommends, but they would pull it out and it wicked water in the bedding and flooded the brooder.

Nitwits!

I candled my remaining eggs and have 2 left that have hatching potential - one is pipped the other not. I really want them to hurry up because it's day 18 for my Welsummers, Marans and oegb and I wanted to clean the hatcher before I put them in. One of the oegb has pipped already and it's still in the turner!

What are your plans for these guys? I'm replacing my Bobwhites with Coturnix for backyard meat production - I'm hoping they're less of a headache! So these are my new breeding stock.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:

 

[Southernbelle]

I just changed the bedding right away, so there weren't any real problems from that, just a pain. A few of the chicks got wet, so I put them back in the hatcher to get dried off. I moved the waterer more towards the center so no one could get stuck between the wall and the waterer - I think that's what happened to the 2 that drowned. So far so good.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
lol this morning i woke up to a scene simliar to that cept everyone was fine....brand spankin new bedding soaked I could have killed whoever let bedding lay inside the waterer AND on the ground of the bedding iself because it wicked water all night long and i woke up to a wet and smelly mess

All clean now working on training them to a water bottle only reason i still use the quail waterer is because i always have tiny coturnix hatching so they're too weak to be able to push the ball of the water bottle otherwise I'd only use the water bottle