something strange happened today

[chickabator]

we left today for a little bit and came home and found a quail chick running around in our duck pen. dh swears that when I cleaned out the quail brooders today that I through one out. I know I didn't . we hatched out 80 chicks dh put 2 down that left 78 chicks well one died yesterday. sothat left 77 chicks. we counted the chicks after we got the one out of the yard this evening, there are now 78 chicks again. we had the bag of unhatched eggs outsid beside the porch it was tied up I think one hatched out of there and was running around, but we dont see how it could have gotten out of the bag. I know i didn't roll it up in the towels because I shook them out in a grocery bag and there were no chicks in it so where did it come from. we don't have wild quail here.

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

Interesting! Did you look closely at the bag the unhatched eggs are in to see if it has a hole or tear? Let us know when you find out where the little stinker came from!

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU DONT HAVE WILD QUAIL THERE? AS I GREW UP IN KY AND HUNTED THEM QUITE VIGOROUSLY WHEN I LIVED THERE, AND LAST I CHECKED(ABOUT 5 OR 6 DAYS AGO) KY FISH AND GAME SEEM TO THINK THE NUMBERS OF THEM ARE PLENTIFUL ENOUGH TO STILL ALLOW OPEN HUNTING WITH A GENEROUS BAG LIMIT...

 

[chickabator]

not where we are at way back in the mountains. I have lived here for 23 years and have never saw or heard a quail here at all. now about 40 miles from here yes I have up on strip mine jobs there are plenty of gambrel quail. but this is a jumbo coturnix. the only thing I can think is it came out of the bag of unhatched eggs. it is smaller than the others and we were just out there about an hour before we found it and it was not there.

 

[monarc23]

what kind of quail is this? If it's coturnix, and you see a coturnix baby running around i think it's safe to say it either hatched from one of those eggs or your hubby THOUGHT he killed one of the chicks that wasnt good but didnt. I dont knwo if you're like me, but we live in the woods, so when I cull a bird I normally throw it up in the woods. I am NOT proud of this but one time I culled a roo that was acting funny I threw him into the woods as since he was acting funny I didn't want to eat him or offer him to my dogs. I just bonked him on the head very hard and he did the "death shake" and I threw him in the woods. Well either our woods are "pet semetary" or I did a botched job...because 5 days later, I was sitting in the livingroom with the window opened, and I hear a roo crowing near the window...i knew this wasnt right...so I looked out and there he was healthy as a horse didnt even look like anything was wrong with him AND he was no longer acting weird. So I gave him a second chance...I kept him separated from my other birds just incase though, and within days he had excaped the area I had been keeping him in. So I caught him again and now he's producing gorgeous babies with my one hen.

Very gross/sad issue but it sounds liek a familiar one to me.

Also, unless it's like 95 some degrees at your house (which it very well may be) i highly doubt a chick hatched from those eggs int he bag, didn't get hypothermia while drying in a not warm environment (if it was warm ignore this) and then fought out of the baggie and ran around

but it could be. Black garbage bag out in teh sun..... peep peep!

 

[chickabator]

well yesterday it was about that here. I just can't figure it out it is as healthy as a horse but smaller than the others that hatched in the hatcher oh and we did throw an egg in the garbage that we thought the chick had died it wasn't moving or anything it had pipped but didn't make it out so maybe that is where it came from.