Newly Hatched Quail Chicks

[ashcmt]

Wasnt exactly sure where to put this, so i figured here would be a good start!

 

 

Hatched early hours of this morn 4 strong, fluffy, healthy quails. with a batch of about 10 hen eggs ready to hatch imminently!

 

 

with the HFW program, i thought this would be apt, these little fellas are amazing, for their size to come out of them tiny quails eggs, is mad.

 

cheeping away in the brooder as we speak, noisy ****. Inevitably tho when these guys get older they'll be a fine meal for us. We have three hens at the moment, 2 of which have just started laying, laying for about 2/3 weeks now, and a younger one who is just about at point of lay. when the quails and chicks are old enough and big enough, they'll be joining the flock in the garden, hope you all like the pics!

 

 

Regards,

 

ashcmt

[jerico]

If I was a Doris I would be saying "awwwwwwwwww" about now, Congrats

[bignoel]

when i was liveing in ireland i hatched out 100's of them and every time was great bumble bee size great little chapsn well done.

[magman]

What breed ?

Used to breed three different types , my favorite was the Californian

[highseas]

i have 33 quaile but never hached them out thou

[salisburykeeper]

I farmed them up until last summer, great little birds get very tame and always intersted in what you are doing the only problem was the rats killing them, no matter how secure i thought i had made the cages the rats always seemed to be able to get in and would take over 100 some nights, killing most and also carrying them away.i had 3 sorts, chinese painted for pet trade cortnix for the eggs and an american hybrid strain for the restaurants, tried the fancier species but didnt have much luck with them. good birds to keep for eggs though, they start laying at 5-6 weeks and hardy eat any food, through the summer even cheaper to feed on fruit and veg trimmings.

anyone interested in hatching their own can get fertile eggs off ebay quite cheep (excuse the pun)

[ashcmt]

hi salisbury

 

i'm not too sure what breed they are, my housemate bought them off ebay, i'll have to ask him when he gets in, 4 ex 12, i was pretty sure we were going to do better than that as atleast 3-4 of the other eggs are pretty heavy. they're 2 days past now so i'll prob take them out in a bit and break them open to see what the 'crack' is (he he)

 

for some reason, i thought quails only laid when a cock was present and therefore fertile? sure i read that somewhere.

 

how successfull did you find farming them? or is a good indication of that you stopping last summer? i didnt even know that there was a pet trade for them either to be honest!

 

never looked after quails before, so it will be nice to see the little blighters grow, they're all going at the chick crumb and are drinking also. and all are very able on their feet now aswell, all after very nearly two days.

 

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Ash

[salisburykeeper]

hi, basically if the eggs are speckled and eating size they will be cortnix or if they are quite diddy they will be chinese painted which are to small to eat and eggs are to small to eat also but come out in loads of different colours.

they are certainly worth farming, should have a look at the defra guidelines before going into it large scale first, all they need is a mesh bottomed cage so the droppings dont harden on their feet and a constant supply of chick crumb(even as adults) but when grown also include fruit and layers pellets.

you dont have to keep males for the females to lay daylight determines laying so the birds do better indoors in the winter with a light on for about 18 hours a day and they keep laying.

only problems are when you have to many male birds they will mug the females until their heads bleed so you have to weed out males leaving just 1 per 8-9 females more than this and sometimes the females will gang up and kill male birds to stop them being harrased

the different types of quail i kept where

cortnix = eggs meat

californian giant x breeds = meat

italian = layers

chinese/japanese painted = pet trade/avairy keepers

 

sk

[ashcmt]

the eggs are heavily speckled brown,cream where not speckled. and i would say were eating size.

 

 

farming them sounds very interesting, havent really got the facilities or the time unfortunately, but still it sounds really interesting.

 

thanks for the info about the male/female numbers! if all goes well with them, i'd like to be pretty much self suffcient in keeping enough of them for a regular meat supply for ourselves, that would be good.

 

what sort of numbers of them did you farm?

[salisburykeeper]

i used to grow them to order, it only takes 5-6 weeks from hatch to the first eggs but at any one time i had no less than about 2000 birds, giving them plenty of room you should have no more than 20 to the size of a rabbit hutch, and always but a seed tray in with sand for them to have a dust bath