Redmane
In the Brooder
Hey y'all,
I write with a heavy heart. I've been struggling with my quail suddenly dying and being covered in black ants overnight.
At first I thought it was quail disease, but I'm thinking ants are killing my birds.
Let me give some background to explain my situation.
I only introduce new birds through hatching eggs and raising in a brooder. My quail chicks are put into the brooder in the workshop in my barn 24-36 hrs after hatching and fluffy. Once feathered and off heat, I have stilted rabbit runs/coops that they grow to near adult in. When they start crowing/mounting I separate them in my aviary, which is a bunch of 4x4x2 ground runs in a huge hardware cloth run with a sun shade. When I lived up north this was a great system, so I could rotate males or separate age/color groups. I've had quail on the ground with no problems, they all have 1 gal feeders elevated on stone blocks, 2.5 gal cup waterers with a little bit of electrolytes that are changed every other day, a sheltered coop with a ramp that is off the ground with more bedding inside, and extra brush/branches to shelter in outside.
The chicks and young meat adults get fed purina game bird chick starter 30% feed, and I move the breeding adults to bluebonnet poultry & game bird 30% feed. They are supplemented grass forage I pull up around my garden, they especially love the seedy heads. I remove any wasted greens after a day. Their bedding is fine pine shavings, which i layer every 2-3 days depending on cleanliness, and fully remove every 2 weeks. I at most have 6 adults in these pens, most males doing fine with 4 females. The young from one hatch I try to keep together, 5-15 birds, until they get too big then I separate.
I've been consistent in ordering eggs, (NPIP/AI certified only, from good breeders) hatching, raising chicks, growing out teens, and then moving sub adults-adults to the outdoor runs. I have 2 pens of adults up and going, and the undesirable birds I cull for meat. Beginning of June I moved a group of 8 sub-adults to an outdoor run, and after a week, overnight, I had a total flock loss of those 8 quail. I don't want to get too gruesome with pictures/detail, but they were covered in black ants and completely stiff, so they must have died that night. Their food was pristine, dry, with nothing abnormal. Their water was clean, I had changed it the day before. Their bedding was great, I cleaned all the runs out two days prior, on the weekend. There was no lethargy, issues eating/drinking with any of the birds. They were all bright eyed and running around the day before, moving normally and flapping their wings. I ruled it as quail disease, as my neighbor (3-4 miles away) had chickens and I had seen many flies that weekend, with how humid it can be in SC. I tore out and scrubbed everything in the coop, spread lime and DE all over the dirt after digging out a few inches deep. I haven't put birds back in there since.
I hatched a new group of quail beginning of July, and had them in my brooder. I noticed a few ants in the workshop that day but didn't think much of it, its warm out, and they weren't forming an ant conveyor belt to food or anything. My brooder is a 4x5x1 with chicken mesh on the top for no escapees, I keep the brooder lamp on the far side and the chicks from past batches have regulated fine. We've been dealing with a heatwave, and I realized at work the next day it might be too hot for the chicks. I felt so guilty when I got home and saw a total flock loss, with black ants all over the chicks. I've since purchased a temperature regulating brooder lamp and a cooling fan for the workshop, since it has very little ventilation.
About a week ago I moved a group of 16 sub-adult quailies to an outdoor run, which hatched at the end of June. It's been warm out, and they feathered up very fast, only missing some full feathers around their eyes/cheeks, so I figured they would fair well. They have been putting on great weight, and getting along well. Today I come home and its a nightmare. 2/3 are dead, two are half-dead and covered in ants that are eating at them to where I can see wing bones/leg bones, (these I dispatched to hopefully end their suffering sooner) and 6 were squatting meekly together in a corner away from the corpses. Ants were all over the run. I hate using chemicals, but I removed all the safe birds into a new completely clean run with new water/food, then used ant bait and spray to kill as many as I could in that run and around the aviary.
The 6 surviving quailies seem to be fine, as when I picked them up they struggled some, and when placed down again they did normal quail things. They ran around, shuffled in bedding, ate and drank. I can't tell if this loss of life is the cause of disease, ants, or something else. I'm being completely honest with my routine and care so that maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can point out a flaw or hole.. I've been doing my best but I'm at a loss. I just set a new back of 40 eggs from T&M Quail&Hounds, I don't want to lose these babies too. Thanks for reading and understanding.
I write with a heavy heart. I've been struggling with my quail suddenly dying and being covered in black ants overnight.
At first I thought it was quail disease, but I'm thinking ants are killing my birds.
Let me give some background to explain my situation.
I only introduce new birds through hatching eggs and raising in a brooder. My quail chicks are put into the brooder in the workshop in my barn 24-36 hrs after hatching and fluffy. Once feathered and off heat, I have stilted rabbit runs/coops that they grow to near adult in. When they start crowing/mounting I separate them in my aviary, which is a bunch of 4x4x2 ground runs in a huge hardware cloth run with a sun shade. When I lived up north this was a great system, so I could rotate males or separate age/color groups. I've had quail on the ground with no problems, they all have 1 gal feeders elevated on stone blocks, 2.5 gal cup waterers with a little bit of electrolytes that are changed every other day, a sheltered coop with a ramp that is off the ground with more bedding inside, and extra brush/branches to shelter in outside.
The chicks and young meat adults get fed purina game bird chick starter 30% feed, and I move the breeding adults to bluebonnet poultry & game bird 30% feed. They are supplemented grass forage I pull up around my garden, they especially love the seedy heads. I remove any wasted greens after a day. Their bedding is fine pine shavings, which i layer every 2-3 days depending on cleanliness, and fully remove every 2 weeks. I at most have 6 adults in these pens, most males doing fine with 4 females. The young from one hatch I try to keep together, 5-15 birds, until they get too big then I separate.
I've been consistent in ordering eggs, (NPIP/AI certified only, from good breeders) hatching, raising chicks, growing out teens, and then moving sub adults-adults to the outdoor runs. I have 2 pens of adults up and going, and the undesirable birds I cull for meat. Beginning of June I moved a group of 8 sub-adults to an outdoor run, and after a week, overnight, I had a total flock loss of those 8 quail. I don't want to get too gruesome with pictures/detail, but they were covered in black ants and completely stiff, so they must have died that night. Their food was pristine, dry, with nothing abnormal. Their water was clean, I had changed it the day before. Their bedding was great, I cleaned all the runs out two days prior, on the weekend. There was no lethargy, issues eating/drinking with any of the birds. They were all bright eyed and running around the day before, moving normally and flapping their wings. I ruled it as quail disease, as my neighbor (3-4 miles away) had chickens and I had seen many flies that weekend, with how humid it can be in SC. I tore out and scrubbed everything in the coop, spread lime and DE all over the dirt after digging out a few inches deep. I haven't put birds back in there since.
I hatched a new group of quail beginning of July, and had them in my brooder. I noticed a few ants in the workshop that day but didn't think much of it, its warm out, and they weren't forming an ant conveyor belt to food or anything. My brooder is a 4x5x1 with chicken mesh on the top for no escapees, I keep the brooder lamp on the far side and the chicks from past batches have regulated fine. We've been dealing with a heatwave, and I realized at work the next day it might be too hot for the chicks. I felt so guilty when I got home and saw a total flock loss, with black ants all over the chicks. I've since purchased a temperature regulating brooder lamp and a cooling fan for the workshop, since it has very little ventilation.
About a week ago I moved a group of 16 sub-adult quailies to an outdoor run, which hatched at the end of June. It's been warm out, and they feathered up very fast, only missing some full feathers around their eyes/cheeks, so I figured they would fair well. They have been putting on great weight, and getting along well. Today I come home and its a nightmare. 2/3 are dead, two are half-dead and covered in ants that are eating at them to where I can see wing bones/leg bones, (these I dispatched to hopefully end their suffering sooner) and 6 were squatting meekly together in a corner away from the corpses. Ants were all over the run. I hate using chemicals, but I removed all the safe birds into a new completely clean run with new water/food, then used ant bait and spray to kill as many as I could in that run and around the aviary.
The 6 surviving quailies seem to be fine, as when I picked them up they struggled some, and when placed down again they did normal quail things. They ran around, shuffled in bedding, ate and drank. I can't tell if this loss of life is the cause of disease, ants, or something else. I'm being completely honest with my routine and care so that maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can point out a flaw or hole.. I've been doing my best but I'm at a loss. I just set a new back of 40 eggs from T&M Quail&Hounds, I don't want to lose these babies too. Thanks for reading and understanding.
