Hatching! (Yes, Again)

NINETY-NINE

 

 

On March 20 we set 110 eggs in the incubator.  

Last week we started "lock-down".  The goal of lock-down is to stop rotating the eggs to allow the chicks to get into the correct position to hatch.  In addition, the humidity of the incubator is increased up to 65%, which softens the shell a bit making it easier for them to crack it open and climb out.

We have been hatching quail for several years (although never this many eggs).  Every single time we do this, Cletus has to put up with me saying, "I don't think we are going to have a hatch this time".  Every single time.  On only two occasions has that been correct and this was not one of them!

Saturday evening it started.

By late Sunday afternoon we had NINETY-THREE new chicks in the (new) brooder!!  As I am writing this, six more have hatched and more look as though they are thinking about it.  We are up to a 90% hatch rate, the best we have ever had.

Warming up in the new brooder Cletus built last week

Within the next 24 hours we will shut down this hatch, clean the incubator, and set another batch of eggs for Chick Days at a local feed store in May.  We are pretty excited about that!

Got quail?  Because we sure do, and we would be glad to help you get started!

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM

    Oh my gosh!!! That’s awesome!!! They are so cute!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watermelons And a Quail Recipe

    For a lot of years each fall when we discuss how the garden went over the past year, Cletus has said something along the lines of, "I am not trying watermelons any more!".  For a lot of years plus one, each winter when we are planning the next year's garden he says something along the lines of, "I am going to give watermelons one more try.  If they do not work this year, I am done with them". This year we have used landscape fabric in the garden and it has been helpful for things we often struggle to grow.  It keeps the weeds down, it keeps the pests down, and it keeps the water in the soil.  A few weeks ago we were looking over the garden and realized there was a watermelon over on one section of the fabric!   The variety is not a seedless hybrid but just a good, old-fashioned, seed-heavy, seed-spitting watermelon.  While it is not as sweet as some seedless varieties, it has that extra we-raised-it-ourselves-in-our-own-garden flavor. ...
Read more

Quail Housing Part 2: Cages

Image
  Once we decided to stop using aviaries for our quail, Cletus started perusing YouTube Videos (a wealth of information!) for how different people built quail cages.  We both thought "Roll-Out" cages were interesting for the design to allow eggs to "roll out" to the front of the cage where they could be retrieved easily.  We got this idea from Dale's Quails (he sells kits) and Wynola Ranch (they sell prebuilt wire roll-outs).  Cletus was still working an 8 to 5 job at this time, but he got to work after 5 and on weekends to get these built.  Oh my! The first time you build anything is the most challenging, isn't it?  We did not purchase a set of blueprint plans from anyone, or a kit; he simply went to Home Depot, bought the lumber, the wire, and the hardware, and got to work.  It cost more and took longer than we were expecting.  There were some frustrations along the way.  But eventually he got 'er done (he always does; Cletus is AMAZING lik...
Read more

Recipe: Scotch Quail Eggs

Image
  Have you heard of Scotch Eggs?  They are a unique dish made of hard boiled eggs wrapped in sausage, breaded, and fried.   I made some years ago with our chicken eggs.  The size of the eggs made me question just how in the world does one serve these?? I tried slicing them different ways (wedges like a lemon, round slices, quartered) and they never seemed to work right for me. When we began keeping quail several years ago I wondered how quail eggs would do as Scotch Eggs.  I figured they would work better given their smaller size, but somehow I just never got around to trying them. A few weeks ago a gentleman stopped by our booth at the market and was happy to find our quail eggs.  I asked him how he was planning to use them and he told me he was going to make Scotch Eggs.   That settled it.  It was time for me to try my hand at this! Cletus has some food allergies, so my choice for sausage reflects our need to avoid corn products but yo...
Read more