We have taken advantage of the weather today and mostly been outside. Everyone is tired now. The grubs, the puppy, and even the chickens who got to have a practice at being proper free rangers. They are now all lying on the floor of their coop looking worn out.

Harry is definitely trying to go broody. I caught her in the nest box half a dozen times today. Once pecking at an RIR and once sitting on two other RIR’s while they tried to lay. She then went and stood by the run of the kids fluffing her feathers up and trying to beck peck them (the brahmas got a bit scared and stayed in the coop – must take some pictures of these guys the boy brahma is so gangly and they are so lovely) the older kids just pecked back at her till she flounced off on disgust at the youth of today. 100 flowers potted up into tubs, platers and baskets. Shallots, beetroot, chinese raddish, more salad, globe raddish, chantaney carrots, and purple dwarf beans in. Chelsea buns made and devoured, and i’ve put my name on the waiting list for an allotment.

Started with 71 eggs.

34 hatched (four with assistance)

1 chick died after hatching

6 culled (two splay, four with non functioning feet and legs – assisted hatch)

3 bad eggs

4 dead in shell

1 oddity

29 eggs still in incubator when it was switched off. With chickens i would crack and check all of these eggs. I am not going to with the quail just because there are so many of them.

Warning some of the following photos are of the chicks that didn’t quite make it.  Judging by the assisted hatchings my guess is that these also had problems.

I don’t usually assist with a hatch as it is a very risky business and you can do a lot more harm than good. Also if a chick can’t get itself out of its egg then the  chances of it being a healthy thriving bird are very low indeed.

 

Two of the quail chicks have splay legs. One is really bad with legs almost at right angles, the other is bad but not quite as bad, though the second chick also has a hole in his abdomen where his yoke sac is protruding. Which does not bode well.

With chicken chicks you brace the splay legged chicks with vet wrap and with a few sessions of helping them get back on their feet and find their balance, working to build up their leg muscles they are usually okay. I have now discovered this does not work for quail. Both chicks where braced, both chicks went down hill fairly quickly after bracing and both had to be culled.

leaving them with splay leg isn’t really an option as it gets worse the longer they are left. In future I now know the kindest (though hardest) thing to do will be to cull straight away.

There seems to be some debate about this on the internet. I have read posts where people claimed to feed their quail chicken food, cat food, budgie food, millet, Game bird starter, and quail food.

The chap i bought my hatching eggs from says turkey starter which is higher in protein than chicken feed, is ideal for quail especially if you want them to grow well.  However the layers pellets i buy for my hens is 16% and the only turkey starter i could find didn’t say. I rang another chap with an extensive quail information website, who makes and sells his own quail food though he had never heard of quail needing more protein than hens and that his quail food had 13% protein.

I found several manufactures that sold a game bird starter (between 25%-28%) but none that did mail order or had stockists closer than a five hour drive, the only one i could get was medicated which is not something i want in a feed.

Eventually i found a feed manufacturer who not only makes quail starter crumbs, but a quail layer pellet as well. Only problem with the starter is that it is only available by the tonne. Which might be a bit much for a backyard flock keeper. Eventually i found an online supplier of the quail layers pellets, so i have a back of that, a giant tub of mealworms (to up the protein a little) and some chicken treats (they sell all kinds of different chicken feeds too).

Now to decided what to hatch next. More quail or more chickens.