Set my first eggs today!

[MisterGribs]

MisterGribs

It really is a trickier process than I originally thought! Can't decide if I'm gonna try for a third round if this one flops. (May just try to find a breeder who has chicks available!)

Did you do a dry hatch?

[Celeris]

MisterGribs

No dry hatch. Ran the humidity at about 40% until lock down, at which time I boosted to 60%. Last time, I maintained the higher humidity the whole time.

At four days past hatch day, candled the eggs yesterday... one blood ring, one with healthy veins, but looking far less developed than it should be. Hmm... Wondering if the temp's been too low this time? Letting the one egg sit for a few days more, just in case, but not holding my breath. Trying to decide if I'm gonna hope the third time's a charm or just give up and buy some of the little rascals!

[MisterGribs]

MisterGribs

No dry hatch. Ran the humidity at about 40% until lock down, at which time I boosted to 60%. Last time, I maintained the higher humidity the whole time.

At four days past hatch day, candled the eggs yesterday... one blood ring, one with healthy veins, but looking far less developed than it should be. Hmm... Wondering if the temp's been too low this time? Letting the one egg sit for a few days more, just in case, but not holding my breath. Trying to decide if I'm gonna hope the third time's a charm or just give up and buy some of the little rascals!

Definitely keep at it! Hatch your own, it's incredibly worth it. Our two surviving quail.. They're such a blessing!!

Maybe try a dry hatch, I did similar to yours, keeping dry until hatch time then boosting mine at 80 and lost the entire batch. You might have better luck staying at 40-50 the whole way through.

Definitely try increasing the temp a little if they are developing too slow. How often are you turning the eggs, and are you turning them by hand?

[Celeris]

MisterGribs

The incubator we're borrowing has an automatic turner, so we've been using that. Much better than trying to make sure turning by hand fits into our busy schedules. I do wonder, though, if they weren't as far along as they should have been and thus putting them on lockdown when I did was "too early." Definitely won't let the temp get so low next time. (Although I can say that I'm shocked that a .5-.7 degree difference can make such a big difference.)

I did lose the last one. Hopefully I can try hatching my own down the road.

[MisterGribs]

MisterGribs

The incubator we're borrowing has an automatic turner, so we've been using that. Much better than trying to make sure turning by hand fits into our busy schedules. I do wonder, though, if they weren't as far along as they should have been and thus putting them on lockdown when I did was "too early." Definitely won't let the temp get so low next time. (Although I can say that I'm shocked that a .5-.7 degree difference can make such a big difference.)

I did lose the last one. Hopefully I can try hatching my own down the road.

I hope so!! An automatic turner sounds like it would be nice, lol, especially in the middle of the night.
The two we hatched are little darlings and will be producing eggs of their own soon! if I could, I'd ship you some. I'm not sure what the laws are for importing eggs there, but they're pretty severe here. No eggs or birds whatsoever can come from outside the country.

I still have egg fever after all this time. I plan to hatch some more really soon! My father in law was also really really interested in the quail, and the small little setup we have in our bedroom. I'm sure he wasn't scoping out pets though, he did an awful lot of feeling up poor Hulahulabarb's breast and thigh muscles. He was surprised at how fast they were growing, how little they ate (our finches eat a lot more) and how easy they are to keep. Unlike him, we don't have a yard, and keep the pair of them in a rabbit hutch in our bedroom.

I was concerned about the smell! A lot of people insist that quail are very smelly, and it's true. The pee a lot more than chickens do! And by that I mean there's a lot of liquid in their droppings and it quickly soaks the bedding which begins to smell. But.. I honestly think its a lot better to have them indoors on bedding than it is to have them enclosed outside.. All of that waste soaking into the ground, and you can't move it away. No thanks. Your whole yard would reek. With an indoor pen you can just throw away the newspaper and put a new layer, and you will never smell them!
The birds themselves also have a body odor. It's a kind of sweet, musty smell like old books. It kind of reminds me of soursop fruit, if you're familiar with it. Dustbaths seem to help the smell a little, but we just bring them with us when we shower and they get nice and clean that way.

[Celeris]

MisterGribs

Haha, yes the question I've gotten from all of my husband's family regarding the quail is if I'm raising them for eating! They look at me somewhat askance when I explain how small the button quail are, as if they can't understand having quail for pets.

I had noticed my littles smelling a bit worse than I expected. Though I think the food itself is a big part of the reason. I don't know what you're feeding your coturnix, but my buttons are on finely ground game bird feed and it's some funky smelling stuff! Looking forward to adding some seed, etc, to their diets and hoping it'll offset the game bird food.

Oh goodness, they sure are pets if you're showering with them! That's great!

[Babs _Owner]

Mistergribs

For some reason I can't tag you in this thread. They do make quail diapers. Bet your wife would be able to sew a few up easily. ;)

Same pattern as chicken diapers, but of course smaller.

[MisterGribs]

Mistergribs

For some reason I can't tag you in this thread. They do make quail diapers. Bet your wife would be able to sew a few up easily. ;)

Same pattern as chicken diapers, but of course smaller.

Haha, between this reply and the last, I actually wound up making some! They're great, and really cute. the quail hate them, so I've been taking it slow and giving out lots of mealworms while the diapers are on.

[MisterGribs]

MisterGribs

Haha, yes the question I've gotten from all of my husband's family regarding the quail is if I'm raising them for eating! They look at me somewhat askance when I explain how small the button quail are, as if they can't understand having quail for pets.

I had noticed my littles smelling a bit worse than I expected. Though I think the food itself is a big part of the reason. I don't know what you're feeding your coturnix, but my buttons are on finely ground game bird feed and it's some funky smelling stuff! Looking forward to adding some seed, etc, to their diets and hoping it'll offset the game bird food.

Oh goodness, they sure are pets if you're showering with them! That's great!

Everyone wants to eat our quail!! Lol. I couldn't find game bird crumb, so I was forced to make my own chick feed which stank to high heaven. Now that they're maturing, I feed a mix of dried crack, it's got corn, whole barley, wheat, soybeans, mung beans, lentils, oil sunflower, crushed almonds, crushed walnuts, green peas, and whole oats. I supplement with scrambled eggs, mealworms, finch/canary seed, rolled oats and ground farina. You actually have farina in your cabinet probably, it's ground really finely for cream of wheat! But it's the same thing. It's their favorite thing to eat, and as it's so fine, it's criminally easy to mix in their supplements, calcium, and what have you right on in. I don't feed them this stuff every day, it's more like they have access to the cracked grain and seed 24/7 and get the other stuff on alternating days. They love thinly sliced apple and dry cheeses too.

They actually eat the grain mix more aggressively if I soak it for a day and then boil it until it's soft. I serve it warm with cooked rice and risoni and they will stuff themselves till they pass out.
Then of course when they do, the finches come on over and eat their fill.

[Celeris]

Man, you've got some spoiled quail! Feeding it to them warm reminds me of the mashes we'd fix up for the horses and donkeys on cold winter days--how they loved that!

How are you presenting the mung beans? I got some to sprout in our hydroponic fish tank, but said tank didn't work out, so I've got a bunch of the stuff sitting around. I keep telling myself I'll actually sprout it to give the birds, but if there's a good way to present it raw to feed to the quail and finches, I'd be happy to use it that way. (I know my grandma used to put a bunch of bird seed in ziplocs baggies and smash it with a meat tenderizer to break it up--maybe that would do?)

I just introduced mine to fine grit and spray millet yesterday. They took to dust bathing and eating the grit real fast, but still aren't sure how to handle the millet. Maybe need to just mix some finch seed into their food instead, but we'll see.

[MisterGribs]

Man, you've got some spoiled quail! Feeding it to them warm reminds me of the mashes we'd fix up for the horses and donkeys on cold winter days--how they loved that!

How are you presenting the mung beans? I got some to sprout in our hydroponic fish tank, but said tank didn't work out, so I've got a bunch of the stuff sitting around. I keep telling myself I'll actually sprout it to give the birds, but if there's a good way to present it raw to feed to the quail and finches, I'd be happy to use it that way. (I know my grandma used to put a bunch of bird seed in ziplocs baggies and smash it with a meat tenderizer to break it up--maybe that would do?)

I just introduced mine to fine grit and spray millet yesterday. They took to dust bathing and eating the grit real fast, but still aren't sure how to handle the millet. Maybe need to just mix some finch seed into their food instead, but we'll see.

The mung beans are dried, split and cracked mixed in with the grain. Unfortunately the finches probably won't eat it cracked, unless it's soaked overnight and cooked.
Have you gotten them eating yet? The finch seed is a good idea, and dry egg food!
The meat tenderizer sounds great! You could also put it in a blender or burr grinder. You can buy almond flour at the store, and they love it. It's very cheap, too!

[Celeris]

MisterGribs

How are your little ones doing? Mine have feathered out almost completely, revealing that all three are males! So... need to find some females. Introduced them to mealworms for the first time yesterday and about split my sides laughing as they took turns grabbing a worm and being chased by the others. (I gave my finches mealworms for the first time at the same time and they proceeded to be so terrified of the new stuff in the bowl that they refused to go anywhere near the bottom of the cage for a good hour or so.) They've taken to finch seed and greens like champs. Very healthy, happy little birds!

[MisterGribs]

MisterGribs

How are your little ones doing? Mine have feathered out almost completely, revealing that all three are males! So... need to find some females. Introduced them to mealworms for the first time yesterday and about split my sides laughing as they took turns grabbing a worm and being chased by the others. (I gave my finches mealworms for the first time at the same time and they proceeded to be so terrified of the new stuff in the bowl that they refused to go anywhere near the bottom of the cage for a good hour or so.) They've taken to finch seed and greens like champs. Very healthy, happy little birds!

Glad to hear you're loving yours! Are they house pets?

Mine are experiencing a rough patch. For no reason at all, my hen is TERRIFIED of my roo. If she sees him, she will hurt herself to get away. It's a mystery why; maybe she doesn't understand his amorous advances and mistakes them for aggression? He is as sweet as you could imagine, and won't so much as pull out a feather if she refuses him.

And she does, she won't go near him. No idea what to do, it's sad really. D:
So the hen sleeps in the bed with us like the baby days, and Hulahulabarb the roo sleeps in his hutch.

[lovezebs]

Maybe he scared her at some point by jumping her, and she hasn't forgotten.

If he's ready to mate and she isn't, it could explain some of the behavior,

[Celeris]

MisterGribs

Yes, mine are house pets. The original idea was that I'd pick one pair to go at the bottom of my flight. That's gone extremely well, with three males... Now I'm pursuing finding three hens for them and have had to order a stand with cages. On the bright side, the cages are 30x18x18... I'm sure you can guess what I'm thinking of doing with the spares! It's no secret that I'm a Crazy Bird Lady at this point!

I think lovezebs may have the right of it--I bet she's not yet matured to that point, so she's keeping her distance. Mine being all boys, I haven't had any such issues just yet. Hopefully your little hen will settle down with time?

Here's a little comparison of my boys at two weeks (top photo) and them now, at six weeks. Such a difference in so short a time!