Can you envision a freshly mowed spring lawn covered in the white, soft seed heads of dandelions? I’m not talking about one or two just ushering the new warmth of spring, but so many it just ruins the look of yesterday’s effort.
Well now keep that same image in your mind, except substitute the fluffy balls of the dandelions with over 60 fluffy white Texas A&M quail! Yeah that was kinda what it was like around here this morning. When we decided last Saturday to move the breeders from their winter sanctuary in our garage to their new summer home I broke one of the doors on the colony cage. Due to pending darkness, I didn’t really take the time to fix it. Instead, I just used some wire to keep it closed until Wednesday when I was going to construct permanent summer housing; after all, what were the chances they would even find the vulnerability let alone exploit it? Come on! They have all they could ever want and need: fresh food and water twice a day, lots of room, a deep wide dusting tub refilled with sand once a day and nice tin roof to keep them dry. They just don’t appreciate all the effort we go through for them. LOL
The only bright side to the whole adventure was ……….. (sorry I had to look over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t going to get slapped in the back of the head) ….. I was in the house while Malita and Archie chased, caught and put the escapees back in their pen! Before everybody starts booing me, I did catch two of them and put them back up. After I got home this afternoon I spotted the sole hold-out and Archie quickly cornered her and returned her to the pen. Now if this same event would have happened in the winter with snow on the ground, they would have had a better chance of staying undetected and actually had a real chance of getting to NASA.
How do I know that is where they were headed? Because they must have seen it written in the stars last night that their eggs I sent to Mars were going to hatch today and they wanted to be there!
Congratulations to The Martian Chick and her newly hatched babies from all of us here at Rich Heritage Farm!
Y’all Come Back!
Brad
Showing posts with label Quail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quail. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Quail --- The Perfect Livestock
The quail egg business boomed yesterday. I made delivery of 18 dozen eggs to a fellow guardsman Sunday at Guard Drill, plus another guardsman picked up another 8 dozen Sunday afternoon. It was great to see them all go, and the best part was I didn’t have to ship them although they are going to homes in Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky.
As I type these numbers it seems like such an impressive amount of eggs, but it’s not even a full five days worth. My hens are laying an incredible amount of eggs, my 84 hens are laying at least 70 eggs a day with the highest single day lay of 79 eggs. It is absolutely amazing how they lay so many eggs for such a relatively low cost. If the many urban homesteaders who cannot raise chickens could learn about the quail, they could have a cheap very nice alternative for amazing numbers of eggs and an absolutely delicate meat source. The greatest advantage of the coturnix quail is they start laying eggs at six weeks and reach their maximum size by ten weeks. If your looking for the perfect livestock for your homesteading give the quail a long look, you won’t regret it!
As I type these numbers it seems like such an impressive amount of eggs, but it’s not even a full five days worth. My hens are laying an incredible amount of eggs, my 84 hens are laying at least 70 eggs a day with the highest single day lay of 79 eggs. It is absolutely amazing how they lay so many eggs for such a relatively low cost. If the many urban homesteaders who cannot raise chickens could learn about the quail, they could have a cheap very nice alternative for amazing numbers of eggs and an absolutely delicate meat source. The greatest advantage of the coturnix quail is they start laying eggs at six weeks and reach their maximum size by ten weeks. If your looking for the perfect livestock for your homesteading give the quail a long look, you won’t regret it!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
A&Ms Hatched and Strawberries Blooming
Outside of the fact I missed everything today because of Guard Drill. Rich Heritage has continued to produce. The strawberry plants from my FIL's patch started blooming today. The Tristars we ordered are putting on some leaves and actually look like plants now. I believe two of them are goners but we'll just have to wait and see.
On the quail front, we have 33 new additions so far. They are in a small Rubbermaid tub right now awaiting more hatch mates. I was lazy and didn't' set up the brooder cage last night and get everything prepared like I should have. So Malita and Archie set up the tub while I was gone today and it will do until tomorrow after I get back from Drill.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
More Quail Eggs Went to a New Home Today
I would like to be able to blame the economy on my reluctance to expand my quail business, but I can't lay the blame there. You see, I really want to provide the best product that can be produced by anyone. I'm sure my adult birds are outstanding products, because a customer can see them and knows exactly what he/she is buying. However, by focusing strictly on the grown birds, I am not reaching a broad enough customer range.
Money is tight these days for the American public in general, and I would offer a guess, that those interested in the same things as Rich Heritage, expect the utmost value for their dollar. So, I limit my businesses potential by not selling hatching eggs or shipping day old chicks. Our first order of day old chickens from a hatchery included a club footed chick. My wife brought her into the house in her own little brooder, named her Patty and nursed her along for a couple weeks, but the little chick still didn't make it. Our first order of ducklings had a spraddle legged duckling in the bunch which didn't make it. I've sorted groups of 80 plus quail chicks and understand how things can be missed, but if it is a beginners first time ordering, will they understand?
My one and only order of eggs came from Missouri and my hatch rate was awful. I did everything just like the guy I ordered them from told me to do. The eggs were viable, we were excited , but alas only one duckling hatched, two died after pipping out of 12 eggs. One bourbon red poult hatched with them out of six eggs. The little duckling drown the poult in the brooder the first day. (I should have known)
We've lost chickens and ducks that were healthy the day before and dead the next. Nature is the ultimate equalizer and no person can compete against her. I was lucky enough to have grown up with livestock and have suffered the loses and know that sometimes things just weren't intended to be. It would have been real easy to quit after these setbacks and blame the suppliers. Thankfully we persevered through those first trials and have what I imagine/hope will be a lifetime of joy with all our birds.
The learning curve swings and some are definitely better than others and some just are lucky. We have been extremely lucky with our quail. We have really had only one bad hatch and it was due to a humidity problem during a very cold dry spell last winter. By that hatch, we had some successful hatches already and were able to diagnose the problem. I will not set eggs in the same conditions again, but at that time I just didn't know any better.
In case I haven't bored you to tears yet, I'll get to the post I intended today.
A really great gentleman came here today from a couple hours away and picked up 120 A&M eggs. He wants to teach his grandson there is more to life than video games. (I think all kids including my own need that lesson) They are going to get chickens and garden as well this summer, and I wish them the best times of their lives. We had a great visit and I think he was impressed with the Texas A&M quail. He will be able to buy the same feed I use so his results should be similar in the finished bird. He could not get over how friendly my birds were and the size of the eggs. I hope this is a good start to lifelong love for his grandson. Oh and what the top of the post had to do with this "I hope they hatch"!
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Money is tight these days for the American public in general, and I would offer a guess, that those interested in the same things as Rich Heritage, expect the utmost value for their dollar. So, I limit my businesses potential by not selling hatching eggs or shipping day old chicks. Our first order of day old chickens from a hatchery included a club footed chick. My wife brought her into the house in her own little brooder, named her Patty and nursed her along for a couple weeks, but the little chick still didn't make it. Our first order of ducklings had a spraddle legged duckling in the bunch which didn't make it. I've sorted groups of 80 plus quail chicks and understand how things can be missed, but if it is a beginners first time ordering, will they understand?
My one and only order of eggs came from Missouri and my hatch rate was awful. I did everything just like the guy I ordered them from told me to do. The eggs were viable, we were excited , but alas only one duckling hatched, two died after pipping out of 12 eggs. One bourbon red poult hatched with them out of six eggs. The little duckling drown the poult in the brooder the first day. (I should have known)
We've lost chickens and ducks that were healthy the day before and dead the next. Nature is the ultimate equalizer and no person can compete against her. I was lucky enough to have grown up with livestock and have suffered the loses and know that sometimes things just weren't intended to be. It would have been real easy to quit after these setbacks and blame the suppliers. Thankfully we persevered through those first trials and have what I imagine/hope will be a lifetime of joy with all our birds.
The learning curve swings and some are definitely better than others and some just are lucky. We have been extremely lucky with our quail. We have really had only one bad hatch and it was due to a humidity problem during a very cold dry spell last winter. By that hatch, we had some successful hatches already and were able to diagnose the problem. I will not set eggs in the same conditions again, but at that time I just didn't know any better.
In case I haven't bored you to tears yet, I'll get to the post I intended today.
A really great gentleman came here today from a couple hours away and picked up 120 A&M eggs. He wants to teach his grandson there is more to life than video games. (I think all kids including my own need that lesson) They are going to get chickens and garden as well this summer, and I wish them the best times of their lives. We had a great visit and I think he was impressed with the Texas A&M quail. He will be able to buy the same feed I use so his results should be similar in the finished bird. He could not get over how friendly my birds were and the size of the eggs. I hope this is a good start to lifelong love for his grandson. Oh and what the top of the post had to do with this "I hope they hatch"!
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
One Paddock Finished
After another two days, we have our new pig paddock fenced in just before the weather turned for the worst. Although we were dealing with extremely high wind gust we beat the rain. The gate is temporarily attached until we install the next run of field fence from the corner post the gate will permanently attach. We gave a trial run this afternoon with our goats, and they seemed to really like it. It’s only right they get the first use of area, since they were the labor that cleaned the area out in the first place. When we first moved in this area was completely overrun with head high weeds and honey suckle so thick you couldn’t walk through it. Besides we are still a couple months away from getting the pigs.
If you have an overgrown area I highly recommend getting a couple of goats to clear it for you. The goats prefer to eat weeds and broad leaf plants instead of grass. They will eat grass, but they go after all the stuff you want gone first. So when they leave an area it is almost completely free of everything except the grass.
I did manage to get the quail eggs sent to Mission to Mars today. I wanted to send them out yesterday, but by the time I would have had them packed the post office would have been closed. So I collected new eggs today and got them sent off today. It was the first time I have mailed eggs, so I don’t know how they will make the trip. I individually wrapped each one in bubble wrap and put them inside a tissue box and then wrapped the tissue box in bubble wrap also. Finally I placed empty boxes around the main box to take up space in the flat rate USPS box.
Our strawberry plants arrived from Stark Bros. today. My main project will be to get them in their bed tomorrow. All of the plants we started earlier have to be relocated to their new homes pretty quickly also. We couldn’t mix the soil for our square foot gardening system because of the wind this afternoon. We just hope the thunderstorm rolling through tomorrow will make its way quickly without causing any damage.
One of my Dark Cornish hens went broody today for about twenty minutes. We have been letting them out in the afternoons to free range while we work around the place and they have started laying their eggs in an empty horse stable. It's always an Easter Egg hunt around here when we let them out. Well today one decided to sit on three eggs. She looked so motherly all hunkered down on them, so I was just going to let her hatch them. Well that lasted until I fed the others and our top dawg Delaware rooster, (River), started calling the hens to eat. She decided eating was more important today.
Y’all Come Back!
Brad
If you have an overgrown area I highly recommend getting a couple of goats to clear it for you. The goats prefer to eat weeds and broad leaf plants instead of grass. They will eat grass, but they go after all the stuff you want gone first. So when they leave an area it is almost completely free of everything except the grass.
I did manage to get the quail eggs sent to Mission to Mars today. I wanted to send them out yesterday, but by the time I would have had them packed the post office would have been closed. So I collected new eggs today and got them sent off today. It was the first time I have mailed eggs, so I don’t know how they will make the trip. I individually wrapped each one in bubble wrap and put them inside a tissue box and then wrapped the tissue box in bubble wrap also. Finally I placed empty boxes around the main box to take up space in the flat rate USPS box.
Our strawberry plants arrived from Stark Bros. today. My main project will be to get them in their bed tomorrow. All of the plants we started earlier have to be relocated to their new homes pretty quickly also. We couldn’t mix the soil for our square foot gardening system because of the wind this afternoon. We just hope the thunderstorm rolling through tomorrow will make its way quickly without causing any damage.
One of my Dark Cornish hens went broody today for about twenty minutes. We have been letting them out in the afternoons to free range while we work around the place and they have started laying their eggs in an empty horse stable. It's always an Easter Egg hunt around here when we let them out. Well today one decided to sit on three eggs. She looked so motherly all hunkered down on them, so I was just going to let her hatch them. Well that lasted until I fed the others and our top dawg Delaware rooster, (River), started calling the hens to eat. She decided eating was more important today.
Y’all Come Back!
Brad
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I spoke with my A&M hens this evening!
While I was out feeding this evening, I had a talk with Texas A&M breeders. I explained how their eggs have a very special assignment coming up soon. You see I'm going to be sending 25 eggs to MARS!
You should have all their little heads perk up. The males were crowing and the females were purring and all their eyes were on me. I really thought they were very excited about this monumental task, since I had their undivided attention. I did have their attention, but alas, it was because I was still holding the feeder that I had just filled up. Oh well, I'm still excited.
No, I won't be needing NASA to deliver the eggs, the USPS will be able to handle this delivery. Apparently we have Martians living in New York, so they will be responsible for their space voyage. Since this is my first shipment of eggs, I'm just a little apprehensive about preparing them for the trip. I've just got to do my best and hopefully everything will go good. If not, I'm sure to learn something.
So who knows, the next time you look up and see a light racing through the sky, it might just be quail attempting to conquer the last frontier!
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
48 Chicks Hatched
I'm very proud of my new breeding stock. My fertility test on my 10 week old Texas A&M quail ended up pretty good in my opinion. We have 48 healthy chicks from 60 eggs. I can live with a 80% hatch rate.
All of the chicks are the same size. That's my goal right now. Since I started back in October I have been trying to concentrate on the mature size (meat weight), and I feel like I've been chasing my tail. I hope I'm on the right track now to a more dependable end product. The main problem I was having was a large disparity in chick size. The large lethargic chicks are about as bad as the weak runts.
Since I will start out with almost identical chicks, I should be able to select the best to be breeders to increase the overall size of the end product. A slow beginning for any chick will not be adequately represented at 10 weeks of age. A small chick, that was pushed away from the food, did not have the same chance to reach his/her size as a larger chick, In the same token an extremely large chick is not able to move around enough to exercise properly. The large ones are the Cornish Cross Chicks of the quail world, without the feed conversion.
My thought is that an active chick from day one that ends up larger than a chick the same size on day one is a superior choice for breeding. I have read studies from Texas A&M university that state that one breeder was able to increased the size by 20 % in only three generations. That's the results I'm looking for!
I plan to bring in some new blood lines this fall. I have two hatcheries in mind (Lakenvelder Farm or CBF SuperQuail) and haven't decided which to use yet. This new blood will allow me to compare/contrast and mix genetic inputs. Have I told y'all how much I love messing with quail?
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
All of the chicks are the same size. That's my goal right now. Since I started back in October I have been trying to concentrate on the mature size (meat weight), and I feel like I've been chasing my tail. I hope I'm on the right track now to a more dependable end product. The main problem I was having was a large disparity in chick size. The large lethargic chicks are about as bad as the weak runts.
Since I will start out with almost identical chicks, I should be able to select the best to be breeders to increase the overall size of the end product. A slow beginning for any chick will not be adequately represented at 10 weeks of age. A small chick, that was pushed away from the food, did not have the same chance to reach his/her size as a larger chick, In the same token an extremely large chick is not able to move around enough to exercise properly. The large ones are the Cornish Cross Chicks of the quail world, without the feed conversion.
My thought is that an active chick from day one that ends up larger than a chick the same size on day one is a superior choice for breeding. I have read studies from Texas A&M university that state that one breeder was able to increased the size by 20 % in only three generations. That's the results I'm looking for!
I plan to bring in some new blood lines this fall. I have two hatcheries in mind (Lakenvelder Farm or CBF SuperQuail) and haven't decided which to use yet. This new blood will allow me to compare/contrast and mix genetic inputs. Have I told y'all how much I love messing with quail?
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Monday, March 2, 2009
New Quail Chicks Hatched Today
This morning we had 29 chicks hatched by 7:30. We collected them and placed them in the brooder, which we set up last night. By the time we had them in the brooder and set up with feed and water another 2 had already hatched in the incubator. We left the two new hatch-lings in the incubator until I get home from work today. My wife went home for lunch and there have been 5 more to hatch and all are just cheeping away in the incubator. I prefer newly hatched chicks to dry and get their balance before I remove them from the incubator. A chick can survive on the yolk it absorbed for 72 hrs so it's not going to starve to death in the incubator. In my opinion the more you open and close the incubator the more chance you take of hurting the chances of others hatching successfully.
This hatch has been strung out more than any others I have had and that is a concern to me. All of the chicks are healthy and strong as well as very uniformed in size. I did have some minor humidity problems during incubation, but I really don't think they were significant enough to cause the long hatch period. Most (probably 90%) of the eggs are from a new young batch of breeders. This is their fertility test and so far we have 36 out of 60 eggs. That is not going to cut it. I'm sure this will get better as they mature. These birds were 10 weeks and three days old when we collected these eggs. Who knows by the time I get home this afternoon maybe we will have more to hatch.
Just as a side bar I always want all the chicks to hatch within 24 hours of each other and will clean out the incubator tonight regardless of how many have hatched and set another clutch of eggs. The size difference between day old and hatch day chicks is unreal. The little ones get suffocated by the larger ones when they huddle up and at the very least get pushed around at the feeders and waters.
Hopefully we'll have all sixty to hatch by later this afternoon.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
This hatch has been strung out more than any others I have had and that is a concern to me. All of the chicks are healthy and strong as well as very uniformed in size. I did have some minor humidity problems during incubation, but I really don't think they were significant enough to cause the long hatch period. Most (probably 90%) of the eggs are from a new young batch of breeders. This is their fertility test and so far we have 36 out of 60 eggs. That is not going to cut it. I'm sure this will get better as they mature. These birds were 10 weeks and three days old when we collected these eggs. Who knows by the time I get home this afternoon maybe we will have more to hatch.
Just as a side bar I always want all the chicks to hatch within 24 hours of each other and will clean out the incubator tonight regardless of how many have hatched and set another clutch of eggs. The size difference between day old and hatch day chicks is unreal. The little ones get suffocated by the larger ones when they huddle up and at the very least get pushed around at the feeders and waters.
Hopefully we'll have all sixty to hatch by later this afternoon.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Another Happy Day at Rich Heritage Farm
We sold another 52 quail today! One lot of 30, one of a dozen and a third of 10. All were sold as meat birds, so not quite as profitable as breeders. I not complaining, the profit will cover the quail bills for a couple of months even if we don't sell another single one in that time. Actually, I have sold out of meat birds for now. There are 35 that will be ready in about two more weeks and 40 more three weeks behind them. Repeat customers are becoming the theme and definitely one of our main goals. I would never turn away a call today for birds customer if birds are available; however, it's nice to have a customer who request a specific number to be filled on a date in the future.
We collected 72 eggs yesterday, which is our largest collection to date. Today was only a measly 51. I am still experimenting with shipping containers so we can get the shipping egg business underway. If I can't be sure the eggs get were they are going without damage I don't want to send them.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
We collected 72 eggs yesterday, which is our largest collection to date. Today was only a measly 51. I am still experimenting with shipping containers so we can get the shipping egg business underway. If I can't be sure the eggs get were they are going without damage I don't want to send them.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Monday, February 23, 2009
Raising Quail to Sell
I get ask often about the way I do this or that, or why do I feed this and not that. My quail are livestock, and are hatched and raised to the correct size in a sufficient enough quantity to keep my little side line business operating. I am not an expert! However, I have learned a few things that I wish I would have known at the very beginning. The reason I didn't know these things was entirely my fault. You see, I didn't go to the right source. I asked the people who only raised a few as pets and maybe processed a few culls for the table every once in a while. Don't get me wrong their system worked just fine for them and I praise them for their constant dedication to their birds.
The problems I started having with their system started when I began hatching more birds at one time then they ever had in their entire life put together. When I had my third batch of eggs to hatch (87 out of 100), I began to see the fallacies of the small pet flock holders compared to what I needed.If you are raising any number of birds I hope these suggestions will help you. Some of these suggestions will cost a few dollars up front and possibly a little research up front but it will save you money and most importantly time (If you don't think time is money try feeding 500 quail with the wrong feed and wrong equipment.)
1. Find a supplier of quality feed. I feed game bird starter to all my quail except for the breeders, who get game bird breeder/flight conditioner. (absolutely no exceptions) Yes they can and will eat chicken feed, but I'm raising quail. Yes, you can add things to up the protein in chicken feed and it will be as high in protein as the game bird feed. That may be a possibility for 5 birds, but not for 500, because of the time it takes.
2. Use adequate sized appliances for you quail. A baby quail is born trying to commit suicide and thinking they are ducks. Have quail size waterers and still put marbles in the founts for the first week. By the time they are 3 days old they should be eating out of feeders to stop some of the feed waste. I use the plastic trays cookies come in. They are very similar to a plastic ice tray, which I will use to replace the trays I'm using right now when they become unusable. (I'm not a cookie eater and I don't have a clue which cookies they came from.)
3. Clean waterers every day and disinfect all appliances at least weekly. This applies if you have 5 or 500.
4. Collect eggs at a minimum of two times a day. Store eggs little end down in a cool place with a lot of humidity. Batches of eggs being incubated should all be the same size and if at all possible should have been collected within three days of each other. While in the incubator I always keep at least 45% humidity until day 15. At day 15 I remove them from the turner and raise the humidity to 70%. I remove the trays from the turner, but keep the eggs in the trays. I use a hovabator forced air incubator that will hold up to 120 eggs. Strong chicks should pip, zip and pop out of the egg quickly. The egg trays keep the ones that have just hatched from kicking the other eggs all over the place.
5. Every time you open the incubator you are endangering the chicks that have not hatched yet. A newly hatched chick can stay in the incubator for up to 72 hrs. (I've never had a hatch to be that spread out, but I have left them in there for over 12 hrs. The same people who feed chicken feed to their quail will tell you that the quail chicks metabolism is so fast it must have food and water within 12 hrs of hatching. Yeah, when you figure that one out, please draw me a picture! Eggs that fail to hatch, fail for a reason. If you assist a weak chick to hatch, you will have to assist it from then on. I am not heartless, it's just the truth of the matter.
6. Baby chicks are only cute for about 4 days. They start growing feathers and their poop starts stinking right about the 5 day old mark!
I hope this info can be useful to someone, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
The problems I started having with their system started when I began hatching more birds at one time then they ever had in their entire life put together. When I had my third batch of eggs to hatch (87 out of 100), I began to see the fallacies of the small pet flock holders compared to what I needed.If you are raising any number of birds I hope these suggestions will help you. Some of these suggestions will cost a few dollars up front and possibly a little research up front but it will save you money and most importantly time (If you don't think time is money try feeding 500 quail with the wrong feed and wrong equipment.)
1. Find a supplier of quality feed. I feed game bird starter to all my quail except for the breeders, who get game bird breeder/flight conditioner. (absolutely no exceptions) Yes they can and will eat chicken feed, but I'm raising quail. Yes, you can add things to up the protein in chicken feed and it will be as high in protein as the game bird feed. That may be a possibility for 5 birds, but not for 500, because of the time it takes.
2. Use adequate sized appliances for you quail. A baby quail is born trying to commit suicide and thinking they are ducks. Have quail size waterers and still put marbles in the founts for the first week. By the time they are 3 days old they should be eating out of feeders to stop some of the feed waste. I use the plastic trays cookies come in. They are very similar to a plastic ice tray, which I will use to replace the trays I'm using right now when they become unusable. (I'm not a cookie eater and I don't have a clue which cookies they came from.)
3. Clean waterers every day and disinfect all appliances at least weekly. This applies if you have 5 or 500.
4. Collect eggs at a minimum of two times a day. Store eggs little end down in a cool place with a lot of humidity. Batches of eggs being incubated should all be the same size and if at all possible should have been collected within three days of each other. While in the incubator I always keep at least 45% humidity until day 15. At day 15 I remove them from the turner and raise the humidity to 70%. I remove the trays from the turner, but keep the eggs in the trays. I use a hovabator forced air incubator that will hold up to 120 eggs. Strong chicks should pip, zip and pop out of the egg quickly. The egg trays keep the ones that have just hatched from kicking the other eggs all over the place.
5. Every time you open the incubator you are endangering the chicks that have not hatched yet. A newly hatched chick can stay in the incubator for up to 72 hrs. (I've never had a hatch to be that spread out, but I have left them in there for over 12 hrs. The same people who feed chicken feed to their quail will tell you that the quail chicks metabolism is so fast it must have food and water within 12 hrs of hatching. Yeah, when you figure that one out, please draw me a picture! Eggs that fail to hatch, fail for a reason. If you assist a weak chick to hatch, you will have to assist it from then on. I am not heartless, it's just the truth of the matter.
6. Baby chicks are only cute for about 4 days. They start growing feathers and their poop starts stinking right about the 5 day old mark!
I hope this info can be useful to someone, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Friday, February 20, 2009
Finally an Update on the Quail
The quail business is moving steadily for us. We have sold a number of meat birds and the orders keep coming in. As a matter of fact we are kind of caught in the middle right at this moment because I have a customer requesting 30 and the oldest batch I have is still has two weeks grow out left. This is a great problem to have though!
We are hatching 200 a month for sale and this will probably triple after April 1st, since we will be able to house them in outside pens. Our oldest breeders will be replaced at that time too. Currently they are all housed with the breeders in the garage turned aviary. We have grow out pens set up and could place more into the current aviary, but it's the amount of manure that is hard to deal with not the actual number of birds. The dropping from Texas A&Ms contain more moisture than other quail like the bob whites. The ammonia overload in the manure will start burning your eyes after about three days, so keeping the place clean is a constant chore. The hot one day then the cold raining 40 mph wind days the next, seem to be stacked against our clean-out schedule.
Hopefully, we will be able to start selling hatching eggs by April. This past Wed, I collect 51 eggs of which 43 of them were perfect. By perfect I mean correct size, shape and weight. Although, I never plan to sell a thousand eggs at a time. I would like to sell up to three dozen to a customer and they know that they are getting the freshest best hand selected eggs they can get. Uniform egg size also helps with uniform chick size after they hatch. I have actually tested the theory. The larger the egg the larger the chick, at a glance, that sounds ideal, but in my personal experience the largest eggs produce lethargic chicks and the smaller eggs produce small weak chicks. The best chicks come from well shaped eggs just shy of the largest eggs. If I am going to sell somebody something it's going to be the best I can produce. This might cost me some money due to not selling every product available, but I can live with that.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
We are hatching 200 a month for sale and this will probably triple after April 1st, since we will be able to house them in outside pens. Our oldest breeders will be replaced at that time too. Currently they are all housed with the breeders in the garage turned aviary. We have grow out pens set up and could place more into the current aviary, but it's the amount of manure that is hard to deal with not the actual number of birds. The dropping from Texas A&Ms contain more moisture than other quail like the bob whites. The ammonia overload in the manure will start burning your eyes after about three days, so keeping the place clean is a constant chore. The hot one day then the cold raining 40 mph wind days the next, seem to be stacked against our clean-out schedule.
Hopefully, we will be able to start selling hatching eggs by April. This past Wed, I collect 51 eggs of which 43 of them were perfect. By perfect I mean correct size, shape and weight. Although, I never plan to sell a thousand eggs at a time. I would like to sell up to three dozen to a customer and they know that they are getting the freshest best hand selected eggs they can get. Uniform egg size also helps with uniform chick size after they hatch. I have actually tested the theory. The larger the egg the larger the chick, at a glance, that sounds ideal, but in my personal experience the largest eggs produce lethargic chicks and the smaller eggs produce small weak chicks. The best chicks come from well shaped eggs just shy of the largest eggs. If I am going to sell somebody something it's going to be the best I can produce. This might cost me some money due to not selling every product available, but I can live with that.
Y'all Come Back!
Brad
Monday, October 6, 2008
Our Texas A&M Quail are here!!
My buddy and myself drove to Gates, TN last Friday, and bought 36 Texas A&M quail. We met a very nice lady that was offering quail and quail eggs for sale on the Back Yard Chickens Fourm. We had a great time and actually arrived back home with all the birds safe and sound. I know the picture is not the best, but the cage is a tad on the tall side. Saturday after we built a cage stand, we were just kinda standing there and one of them let out a real loud call. It sounded like a real fast "treep treep treep treep". When it did one of the oldest females just exploded straight up and hit the top of the cage and committed suicide! She broke her neck. So since then we have been calling them popcorn. I swear they look just like big kernels of popcorn popping when the jump up like that. We are in the process of building new cages that are shorter and putting nylon netting on the top. I put a feed sack on the top in the meantime and we haven't suffered any more losses.
We got the quail for meat and eggs, I just didn't know meat was going to come first! I dressed out the one that killed herself, and she dressed out nice. The sad thing was when I dressed her she had a fully developed egg. We have gotten six eggs as of this evening and as they mature more the younger ones should begin laying soon.
I plan on posting updates weekly on or raising strategies and posting egg counts.
Y'ALL COME BACK!
Brad
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