Good news

[MalcolmP]

The good news is that I am (fingers xxed) back into quail keeping.
First time buying via ebay (and the dreaded post) and we have hatched :

larger versions can be seen at the following links:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81786082/Web/Quail/158l.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81786082/Web/Quail/155l.jpg

 

[Marigold]

Hi Malcolm, yes that's definitely good news. What a lovely bunch of chicks, they look very lively and healthy, they'll be laying any day now, I expect,

 

[MalcolmP]

they'll be laying any day now, I expect,

Fingers, and everything else, xxed

Sorry to make you all go round the houses and click on links in my original post.
I have now edited it to include in-line pics of the right size !!

Is there a method of making a small (or thumbnail) inline pic a clickable link to a url, instead of having just a plain text clickable url ?

 

[MalcolmP]

Any interest ? -final tally:
of 27 purchased (2doz + 3 goodwill) via ebay and post,
1 was cracked so not set.
2 oozed "gunge"during incubation : so presumably were cracked but not obviously so.

12 hatched
1 piped, later helped out, seems to be doing ok
Total 13 live.

Of the others:
6 began to develop but died young (hmmm, wonder why, more thought needed)
7 (5+2 "gunge" see above!) showed no development ( infertile? damaged in transit?? how to know???)

50%, not my most brill hatch rate ever !
But good enough I think ? What say you ?

 

[Marigold]

I'm glad you got enough, Malcolm, but as you say, not a brilliant hatch rate. Hard to say why when you don't know where they came from, or how the parents were kept. I hatched 17 out of 24 last year, in 2batches posted from different sources. From what I've read, that's more like what you might expect, I don't think quail eggs are usually as fertile as chicken eggs can be, maybe its more hit and miss from the males brief attacks. Lets hope you get lots of hens - I got only 6 out of 17!

 

[MalcolmP]

I hatched 17 out of 24 last year, in 2batches posted from different sources.

Thanks for the info. that's very interesting. I had not seen any reports on the interweb like that, so I did not know what to expect.

I got only 6 out of 17!

Eeek !
What about hatches from your own birds ?
In the past, from my own 'ordinary' brown jap. quail I have usually got 50/50 or thereabouts (sometimes 48f/52m )

 

[Marigold]

I didnt hatch any from my own birds - i started from scratch by hatching eggs as I said, but had awful problems with the males once they arrived at puberty, they really damaged the females even though given lots of space and separated as soon as i could sex them. The male hormones just seemed to pop up overnight and after coming down to horrific bloodbaths on two or three occasions I culled all the males as they became obvious and just kept the females, who have lived happy contented and productive lives together ever since, now in their second year and laying daily still. One still has a bare patch on her head where she was scalped by a male, but the one I thought had been blinded turned out OK with some TLC.
i ouild imagine that hatches from your own birds muight well be better, if only because you could avoid the post, but also because you could control the build up ofthe birds reproductive health by diet etc beforehand, and ensure numbers were OK to promote fertility.

 

[MalcolmP]

I didnt hatch any from my own birds - i started from scratch by hatching eggs as I said, but had awful problems with the males once they arrived at puberty,

Ah yes, I see, sorry didnt realise that you were not keeping males for fertile eggs and for doing some hatching
That is a downside of quail, adorable cute and fun things that they seem to be at first and then the males turn really horrid

I found that (mostly, not always !) if I took all the males except one away from the females as soon as they became sexable, that I could raise those males in a group at least until they were ready for the table. I have read on the web that some folk advocate keeping the group of males out of earshot of the females is better, but mine were in the same shed.
And the one that is left with the girls usually behaves himself, especially if it is a largish group of girls.

The ones I kept were plain ol' brown japanese and I found them easy to sex quite early by their breast feathers. These that I now have were advertised as "Golden Giant" so I dunno how easy they will turn out to be to sex.