"Yeah!" and then "Ick!"

This week our quail started two new behaviors.

     The first one is the long anticipated egg laying behavior. They made it to 9 weeks before starting, and we are getting three a day now. I am very happy about it and am planning to make pickled quail eggs as soon as I have enough.

    The second behavior is that the males have decided that there isn't enough room for all them, and one by one I have been taking out the losers. Luckily there has been no fatalities, but I have two very bloody, scalp-less quail isolated in the garage.

Quail Success! Sort of ....

    Well the hatch date came and left. I had updated the quail egg donors, and they had offered to donate some chicks that they had set at the same time as the classes eggs. I was thrilled and relieved. We called the teacher and went to put them in the brooder in the classroom. While we were getting them settled in, an egg pipped, and it was day 19. We could see it moving around and it was making some noise. But no happy ending there, the chick didn't make it.


    Here are some of the donated chicks. They are tiny, less than half the size of day old chicken chicks, but lively and fun. If anyone is trying this in a classroom, I highly recommend having a contingency plan in case the eggs don't hatch. The kids are thrilled, and don't seem to really mind that the chicks didn't come from the classroom eggs. The parents are excited as well, bringing cameras to class and taking pictures of their kids next to the chicks.

Please excuse the audio.

Classroom Quail Hatching Project Doomed?

    We were expecting the quail to hatch on Friday, but so far nothing. The majority of the quail were in a light bulb incubator whose light bulb went out the night before they were supposed to hatch. We didn't catch it until the morning, but we have been running it ever since. Honestly, I am stiil hoping they will hatch, I don't want to have to change schools because I broke the teacher and all those kids hearts.
    On the other hand, maybe I can run to the feed store and sneak some chicken chicks in the classroom brooder. Ha! Ha! Ha! oh.

    Here are some pictures of the classroom setup for your viewing pleasure. The teacher did an excellent job!

They Are Not Dead (yet)

Yeah!
    I have been treating turning and watching and the quail eggs, as if I never had a enormous temperature spike. Today was my last day of turning, so I took the eggs out of the carton to lay them in the incubator. I could feel some of them moving inside, and a few of the eggs actually rocked and/or rolled. I may have a decent hatch after all!
Whoopi!

I kill Chicks

My weapon of choice is the incubator. This is my second time through and I think I already cooked them by having the temp set to high. I candled them, but really, who was I kidding, you can't see anything on day 1. I'll keep them going, in the vague hope that my thermometer was wrong, and the temps did not reach 110F (103F is lethal)

The Quail Egg Project

      Today we set up the incubation project for my daughters class. The pharaoh quail eggs were donated in response to my craiglist posting. The family who donated was awesome, giving me information and loaning equipment, and 70 eggs! The teacher used the printouts to introduce the project to the class and the kids loved it.
      In class they are using chickbators to incubate the eggs, borrowed from the local 4-H program. We are incubating half the donated eggs at home in our homemade incubator in order to maximize the hatch.


      Check out the cool white egg. I hope it hatches, and that quail lay consistent egg colors as individuals. My daughter is so excited, she has proceeded to name all 40ish eggs.

Classroom Hatching Project

I suggested and volunteered to organize a classroom project for my daughters preschool class. After morphing from a chicken hatching project in January, it is now a quail hatching project next week. I have been really excited about the people I am making contacts with. I posted on craiglist asking for some quail eggs to buy, and a local family called and offered to donate the eggs. Not only that but he is going to lend us some equipment and information on the type of quails we will be hatching. Some people are so nice!

The local UC extension is also lending us some curriculum and posters for the classroom. I am really excited!