On May 14, we picked up just over 2 dozen quail eggs from a local farmer and popped them into a freshly cleaned incubator. Why not incubate our own when we are getting 2-3 dozen eggs from our own quail a day? Well, we have been hatching our own and planned on doing that with this hatch (with a specifically limited run on which eggs we were going to hatch,) but we also planned on adding to our bloodline from an outside source.
Why were we looking to add to our line and widen the gene pool?
True Blue Celadons. From the beginning, Annie (that’s me – the post’s author, which you know but I’ve used “We” in this a lot…) was enamored with the sweet little blue eggs and wanted to breed blue egg layers with non-pharaoh feathers.
We got some chocolate mint eggs out of our beginning birds – Pharaohs of course… but we also had Italian feather patterns too.
You can see those in the pic here on the left. Gorgeous eggs and quite a few came from our birds we got in that second egg shipment from Texas in late winter
So on May 14, these little beauties here on the right – they all went in to hatch.
Some of the Celadon eggs were cracked so we got 11 on the top row, and then the middle row’s worth from the local farmer…
The bottom eggs were all from our own birds. All Chocolate Mint eggs.
Pretty nifty right?
Lockdown was May 28 – just 2 days ago. We only lost 5 eggs from the initial 37 eggs we put in. 32 eggs that we expected to start hatching on day 17-19 of incubating.
I had been warned that they take longer to grow, and might take longer to incubate. The Celadon gene is evidently a tricky one and it impacts many aspects of a bird’s life, and not always for the positive, so you need to be aware of their needs and health. As a breeder, those things go without saying for all Coturnix Quail, but Celadons – they are their own special added attention need.
I watched the temperature, I watched the humidity. I might have behaved like a first-time parent, vs an experienced hatcher…
But I watched and didn’t let the heat get too high, it maintained 100.5 through the incubation. I was careful for humidity and it didn’t exceed 55% during that phase. That’s when it least matters really but I was out for consistency.
So while others are out having a hot Saturday night, after water candling the eggs to determine our 32 remaining eggs we’d be continuing hatching, I covered the incubator, like usual. Other than checking for temp and humidity – I didn’t bother it. I went about my day. If the Govee app showed under 60% humidity – I dropped in 5 milliliters of lukewarm water into the incubator. If it looked like that wasn’t enough – I dropped in 2 more. I’ve gotten to where I now know where the heat needs to be when the rails are out.
This morning, I went out, let out the chickens who are still in their grow out in the greenhouse, saw the canopy over the quail cages had collapsed, and chalked it up to one more thing we need to fix ASAP. I didn’t worry about their food and water as they were topped off last night – and then after a check-in call with my mom, I came back into the house, and thought “I should check the Govee for humidity.”
D’OH! You’re gonna love what I found.
I found three little broken shells, another trying hard to break free, and three little quail hatchlings running around the incubator. These little ones were making it a mess already. They hatched at day 16, which is day early, I probably should have gotten out another incubator (I now have 3 Farm Innovators incubators, and 3 Govee units, but that’s another post) to separate the chocolate mints and the true blues for hatching at lockdown, but I didn’t.
The little ones you see here – are our early birds and are from the Chocolate Mint eggs. We will have a separate cage of birds that we keep for grow-out and freezer camp, but the strongest of these will be bred to create our own line of true blue and true chocolate mint. Aren’t they cute little buggers?
Also not shown was an addition to our flock with an almost 4-week-old hatchling – a Celedon Pharaoh male and he’s a cute little bugger. He has been kept under conditions as my hatchlings have been, so we aren’t too worried about having to quarantine him before we integrated him with our other birds. He is a little aggressive and isn’t going to get to go into the brooder with our near 3-week-olds as when another one walks by he pecks them. He also pecks us upon hand holding… This little guy came from Celadon eggs from Blessed Hill Farm in Tennessee. He’ll be joining our flock as a true blue Celadon breeder, and put in with a cage full of gals from Texas (English Whites that lay the pretty chocolate mint eggs and are likely A&M descendants) from a breeder in West Texas… he’s just a little young to go in with the grownups I think.
4 hours since this was posted I have an update on Mr. CePecker Head…
I put him back in with the hatchlings that are 6 days younger than he is.. he was hungry and thirsty enough to go to the food and now everyone is lounging out and he’s being curious. He was only pecking at the ones who came up to check him out when he ate and he’s not harassing any other birds in the brooder so I think he might have been scared…
He has lost his band already but he’s a smidgeon bigger than the others and has a distinctive chest marking so identifying him isn’t super hard.
One step at a time.
He’s being swapped for a beautiful English Hen from the March hatch with a cute little spot on her head. So of course we call her “Spot.” Spot doesn’t like the boys we’ve put in with her, and decides to attack the girls in with her too (we’ve watched) if she has a Roo in there. She’s moving on to a new family and I am hoping that an entirely new flock will help her turn into the lovely bird she is when she’s being handheld… vs the Sass Queen of the Midwest. They pick her up tonight on the return trip from a family outing. The Celadon Roo already has his bands and a number… she has her pink band to not get confused with their flock when she comes in, and I truly hope “Spot” gets to flourish as the “Queen Quail” she wants to be. Clocking in at around 400 grams, she has the Ce gene, but I think she needs a Ce male to produce those beautiful blue/chocolate mint eggs I have talked about. I sure hope she does well, she’s not getting what she needs here – and really, it’s not about just having the animal, it’s about proper animal husbandry when it comes down to it.
We have so much to learn about Ce genetics, but we will. Of that I am certain.
This week we officially begin the road to NPIP certification on our birds, and will slowly but surely get there. While we’re sending the ones we are not interested in breeding off to freezer camp, we will begin the process for legally being able to breed and ship across state lines, and have that NPIP Certification that means so much when looking for a reputable breeder of healthy birds.
Gotta say this is fun, and I am so glad Gary is building me more cages! It will also allow me to sell eggs at local farmers’ markets, and make them available at an affordable amount to WIC mamas… something that really means a lot to me.
Annie is a semi-retired homebirth midwife, the Director and head doula trainer for the MattieMarie Traditional Birth Studies program, and a Farmer’s granddaughter. It all ties into her mad plan to be as self-sufficient as she can while returning to her roots.