That Was Easy (Quail Hatching)

[patricimo54]

Armed with the right tools, fertile and fresh eggs, and the knowledge and the support of fellow swampers and especially Trapperbud, my first quail egg hatching has all the makings of a great success.

Today is the seventeenth day after putting them in the incubator. This morning around 6:30 the little beggars started breaking forth.



After letting them dry a bit I would move them in batches to their new home.



After allowing them to acclimate I introduced them to feed.



They took to that as natural as breathing. The way they are hitting the feed tray I can see I'll need to buy their feed in a much bigger bag.



A GREAT BIG Thank you to Trapperbud for ALL of his support. Without his help I would not of had near the success, if any at all. As it stands now I have had 55 out of 75 hatch. I thinking this is about a .73% recovery. I still have another 36 hours or so to go to see if any of the rest will hatch.

TBud with his quail eggs reminds me of Johnny Apple Seed. TBud has shared his quail eggs with not only his local community, but with his Swamp community as well. The best I can keep up with his "broad casting" eggs he has distributed them to OH., PA., NY., and now TX.

Karma to ya Bud

[trapperbud]

Glad I could help Pat .

This is the link I was telling you about .
www.lakecumberlandgamebirds.com/enter.html

[stickbowhntr]

This quail stuff really intersting. I need to get a setup aThanks , keep posting and try myself.

[Admin]

Very cool Pat. Congrats. ;D
My coop deville plans are in the works. I was going to add on to the south side of my barn for with my greenhouse but now I may build a separate building down by the marsh and have it half coop and half greenhouse. I'm thinking I could let the heat that is generated by the sun into the coop in the winter and a windmill and/or solar pump to bring water up from the marsh to irrigate my plants. Maybe turn it into a bio dome of sorts.
The ol brain is working overtime.

[stickbowhntr]

Hey JC don't get the brain working too hard today it's about BEER '30 isnt it? Man its the weekend and we are thinking more work...L.O.L.

[muskrat24]

Congrats on the success. ;D And yeah your gonna need to buy a much bigger bag of feed haha. Those little buggers tear that stuff up. Keep us updated in the next two weeks those little cute things are gonna be rotating between cute and ugly then back to cute. And before you know it your gonna be pumping out eggs. ;D And then we can see some pickled egg recipes.

[Admin]

If this keeps up Tbud will need his own quail board on here.

[paddyg441]

;D ;D ;D

Congratulations "POPPA QUAILIE" You have done well for your first try "PAT"!!! Success to those who devote their time and effort with true compassion and dedication to a new pursuit and adventure. A well earned Karma Pat

[patricimo54]

Final note on the hatching. 2 more eggs produced. That ups the number to 57 out of 75. If my math is right that gives me a .77% recovery rate. I don't really have anything to compare that to, but I am thinking that is a really good success rate?

Time to clean up and return the incubator. I will diffenantly have to buy myself one ;D

This is my kind of farming. Meat on the "hoof" so to speak. I am addicted. Looking forward to hatching some duck eggs, They are some prime soup and taco meat.

[trapperbud]

77% is great . WTG ;D

[trapperandhunter]

nice pat !

[maritimer]

Congrats Pat

[fishleclair]

Looking good, I bet yer gunna have a hard time cooking them!

[strongriver]

What type of incubator was that? I used to have one of those GQF form white ones that did ok.

[patricimo54]

Apr 4, 2012 8:55:00 GMT -5 strongriver said:

What type of incubator was that? I used to have one of those GQF form white ones that did ok.

The one I used was the Little Giant brand. It is what TSC sells in this part of the world.

[patricimo54]

Well here I am 11 days after the hatching and I can't believe how these little birds have grown. At hatching they were just a little bigger than an adult bumble bee and now they are about the size of a chicken's chick.
They are very active. I have had to put hardware cloth over the top of the 40 gallon water trough to keep them in. They remind me of popping corn as the bounce off the wire.
They are quickly out growing their nursery. Going forward I will have to rethink how I raise quail chicks. Maybe a vinyl coated hardware cloth on the floor of a hutch that will eliminate the need to have to clean the pine shavings off the floor, I'll have to check into this further.





Here is what the quail chicks have grown into in 11 days.

[trapperbud]

Look like everything is going good with the quail Pat . It's hard to believe in another 6 to 7 weeks they'll be laying eggs . ;D

[patricimo54]

I had the good fortune of TBud supplying me with my first quail watering base.
I wasn't able to find them at my local TSC. I tried by phone on two different occasions to try to get the locals to order me some, but they always seemed to busy to make it happen for me.
As the covey is growing in size and with plans of expansion I was desperate to fill my needs. We went to the next county over to their TSC and they had plenty in stock. While we were there we went ahead and purchased our first incubator. They had them on sale for $5.00 off. Now if I can find where the ducks have moved their new laying area to we will be hatching some duck eggs.
I am thinking about turning my feed room into a brooder house. I can see a need to be far more prepared for the next cycle of quail eggs. My quail chicks are rapidly out growing their facilities. I have decided about the only way I can give them any extra room at this time is to double stack them.



It will only be until Saturday and I will be moving them all to the hutch in the chicken yard.

[Admin]

Looking good Pat. I can understand now why all you guys have gotten into this stuff. I'm enjoying having my birds and looking forward to getting my coop in order.

[ninedeer]

looks good Pat it is pretty neat having birds around.enjoy the care and collecting of the eggs

[patricimo54]

Well it will be 3 weeks since hatch tomorrow. It may have been a bit premature, but we moved the chicks to the hutch last night. They are enjoying the new and bigger space. The low last night/ this morning was 61* No real need for concern. Tonight/morning 45* thought I'd better rig up the brooder lights. I put 2 125w lamps in their hutch.



They are really enjoying their freedom and space.





I built this quail hutch years ago, but this is the first time I have ever been able to house quail in it. I tried to hatch a batch of eggs thru a guy I knew after I built it, but not a egg hatch. This is a special hatch for me. The first of many.

[Admin]

They're looking good Pat. Nice mess of quail right there. Are you going to be raising them for meat like Tbud does?

[patricimo54]

Apr 22, 2012 6:04:54 GMT -5 Admin said:

Are you going to be raising them for meat like Tbud does?

I have hopes of finding enough customers for the meat to pay for the feed and then the surplus will go to my table.

I have got a batch of duck eggs in the incubator right now, plus my youngest duck hen has been trying to hatch a nest full of eggs. I may have more birds than I can feed before I know it.

[Ipostbulls**t]

Looking great Pat ;D I sure would like to get some up and going, I just have alot of projects right now as it is hopefully in the near future.

[trapperbud]

Looking good Pat . Before you know it those birds will be pumping out eggs . ;D

[patricimo54]

Yesterday was 5 weeks and 3 days after hatch and I got my first egg. It was very small, but an egg non the less. Today I got the second egg and it was more to normal size. It won't be long before I'll have more eggs than I will know what to do with.



I am in the process of building a breeder coop. I will need to build at least one more. I am just a few short weeks away from starting this whole cycle of life thing all over again.

[trapperbud]

Congrats on your first quail eggs Pat . It amazing at how fast these birds go from being hatched to laying eggs . ;D

[Admin]

It's just amazing at home fast they go from hatching to laying. Heck of a production machine they are.
What do you do with all the eggs? You must end up with a ton of them in a short time.

[patricimo54]

May 10, 2012 6:39:32 GMT -5 Admin said:

Heck of a production machine they are.
What do you do with all the eggs? You must end up with a ton of them in a short time.

TBud can answer this better than me, but I will cook some, pickle some, and hatch the rest.

[muskrat24]

I've been giving most of mine to my neighbor. My incubator is being used to hatch some reptile eggs at the moment.

And congrats Pat on your first eggs.