The anticipation is killing me!

[montanaquail]

I accidentally stumbled on raising quail when my SO brought home a pair of bobwhites. With some googling I discovered coturnix are more up my alley.

It has come to my attention this hobby is allll about waiting. So I've been waiting for my egg order to be ready from a hunting preserve in the area. When I finally get those eggs I'm gonna be like "woohoo!". THEN I have to set the eggs and.. .wait! Then I'll enjoy the little fuzz balls for a few weeks, then get impatient and want them to start laying. This is worse than gardening! The anticipation is killing me.

 

[aperez54]

It's pretty freaking crazy if you ask me. Incubating, waiting, then lock down day, then hatch day. I'm not kidding, I've got a kink on my neck from looking down into my incubator tooooo much. I've lost a lot of sleep too. Not to mention spent most of my working hours googling and reading about quails.

It's taken over my life. Now my quails are 5 weeks old. And the wait to get my first eggs is driving me crazy.

 

[montanaquail]

I was originally so excited when this guy said he'd loan me an incubator and just give me eggs. "Let's cut your start up costs. Just wait on my guys to lay enough." In the meantime the remaining window to get eggs shipped to me ended. Nobody else raises quail here. Nobody! So I really am depending on this guy and it's making me nervous. I'd really like to make the switch to coturnix this winter! I do have bobwhites and have been tempted to set their eggs just to have some action!!...but I don't really want oodles of bobwhite.

Waiting waiting waiting rawhide.... (yup, I want singing)

 

[Kherome]

If the dude doesn't come through for you, you always have ebay and craigslist, or farms that ship like Vails Quails or James Marie Farms etc.

 

[montanaquail]

Yeah, I was a biscuit away from ordering eggs online when I found the ONE AND ONLY craigslist ad in the entire state for quail. The next closest advertisement was in Idaho. The guy seems really willing to help me, but he also seems overwhelmed with hunting season and his preserve. I understand I won't make the guy any money so I'm low on his list of priorities. But still, previous craigslist dealings make me nervous.

I'm afraid to ship eggs to Montana this time of year. To give you perspective, 20 miles from here there was 6 inches of snow last week. In September, yup. We're already down to 20's and 30's at night. Legitimate question: If I kept an eye on the weather and tried to time it with a window of "decent weather", could I chance shipping eggs in the cold, or should I wait until the spring to ship? My "egg order" is SUPPOSED to be ready this week, but if it's not....well, I still want birds this winter!

 

[Kherome]

Paul Vail, of Vail's Quails, ships Cot eggs all winter and he's from WI. I would say go ahead and order from Paul now before it does get even colder than it already is. If you want a dozen birds in the end, I think I would order 2 dozen eggs, you know what I mean? Shipping already cuts hatch rate, and the cold might a bit as well. (Don't know, just guessing.) I've learned that I should just order 2x the amount I actually want, to account for broken, infertile (not common), and just plain chick mortality. I'm never sorry to have extra birds, know what I mean?