The start of a new flock

[Dravus]

it's hatching time and the first of hopefully many baby king quail have emerged within my incubator

I hope to show off a nice big flock of babies in the coming days



This little baby started hatching around 1am and within mere minutes was out and peeping for it's siblings

 

[Dravus]

ok a small update since my last post

I woke up this morning to find a lot more chicks hatched...however they slipped between the floor of the incubator into the bottom of the incubator....which required me to literally turn off the incubator and dismantle it to get the chicks out to safety

I have successfully transferred the hatched chicks out to the brooder and put the remaining eggs back into the incubator and I am hoping to hell that they aren't going to die as a result of being outside of the incubator for 15 ish minutes

 

[DK newbie]

If there's a way to get into trouble, trust a button quail baby to find it! The eggs shouldn't die from being without heat for 15 minutes. Mom leaves the nest to go feed and poop several times a day, though not so much towards the end. But they should be fine.

 

[Dravus]

I'm just concerned...because during the time I had the incubator dismantled there was an egg in the process of zipping...now the membrane is a bit dried out after being up back in the incubator

now I'm going to admit now that I did help a little...I tenderly cut through the dried portions of membrane to free up the chick to hatch on it's own (I used a small needle to slip into the already made holes to gently lift and tear the dry bits)

 

[Dravus]

now I'm going to admit now that I did help a little...I tenderly cut through the dried portions of membrane to free up the chick to hatch on it's own (I used a small needle to slip into the already made holes to gently lift and tear the dry bits)

quick update it this last bit...the chick just hatched but required a tiny bit more help getting the dried on membrane off it's back to free it completely

 

[Dravus]

Update!

I've like to report 12 lively peeping king quail have hatched for me and are currently filling my living room with constant peeping
(one ran out of shot before I could snap the pic)

(for infomation...that is a plastic food container lid and I turned it upside down and filled the clasping area with water to give the chicks somewhere to drink safely without possibly drowning or getting too wet)

 

[paneubert]

Tell me more about that brooder. Is that sand? Carpet?

 

[JaeG]

So cute! Just be aware that at 2 weeks of age they will start to test out their jumping abilities and they can escape from a cage like that (I know because I have the same ones). The top seems to be the usual means of escape so I keep it covered. Even adult quail can squeeze out if they have a mind to! Some batches are jumpier than others but just be careful. As DK newbie said - if there's trouble to get into a Button will find it! They can be little Houdinis.

 

[CiscoChickens]

Congrats! I'm glad those buggers made it out of trouble—I'm not surprised they got into it in the first place. Lol how many eggs did you have in total again?

 

[Dravus]

Tell me more about that brooder. Is that sand? Carpet?

The bottom of the cage is covered with premium fine grade white sand complete with aniseed and fine osyter shell fragments

Congrats! I'm glad those buggers made it out of trouble—I'm not surprised they got into it in the first place. Lol how many eggs did you have in total again?

I figured it might happen but didn't expect all of the inital hatchs to immediately get themselves lost under the floor of the incubator...but anyway....I originally had 32 eggs...only 12 hatched