Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Our Quail are Here!

It's a boy! And a girl! And a girl! And 12 more boys! And 7 more girls! And...

Actually, I have no idea how many boys and girls I have yet, but our quail are here! To refresh your memory, I was incubating 46 Jumbo Coturnix quail eggs. We noticed our first little pips (cracks or holes at the beginning of a hatch) on the morning of May 10th, and by that afternoon around 3:40, our first quail had hatched! It was so adorable and so tiny. Soon later it had a whole lot of brothers and sisters, too! Our final count was 36 successfully hatched quail, which was a hatch rate of 78%.  I'm very happy with that!

Lots of excited viewers!


My son was so excited about our impending hatch that he asked to invite his friend over to watch. He and his sister both came and enjoyed watching- especially his sister.

Here is the video of our first 2 hatching!

Here is the second video update a couple hours later.


I made one more video update yesterday. The quail have now moved from their little starter brooder, which was a plastic tote, and into a large cardboard box. They are 6 days old today and are doing wonderfully.


Check out this photo of their wing development as of today!  I can't believe how fast that start to feather out. All that feather makes for a lot of adorable jumping around and flapping, too. I just love to watch them run and play. It's like they are even surprised and impressed by their new abilities!


Most people who raise quail raise them in hutches, or small cages. I personally don't care for that idea. I wanted to give mine the opportunity to live on the ground, in a more natural environment. We are currently building them a beautful, large enclosure that is coming along great. I can't wait to get it finished up and move them into their new home!

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