@genxmidwife There are so many that we haven’t counted them yet. In just a few days they say goodbye to their hatch mates and 2/3 go to their new homes. The remaining babies will get big brooders to themselves as this is not the long-term brooder. #quailkeeping #coturnixquail #quailhatchlings ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
Why Yes, that is nearly 100 tumbling fuzzballs.
So as I wrote a couple of days ago about a month ago, a dear friend (who’s also a Quail Mama) won an auction from Myshire Farm for 120 eggs. She reached out to 2 of us Quail Mamas locally and said “Want to split the order?”
Of course, I said “YES!”
For us, it was the opportunity to replace the Pearl Coturnix Quail line that had been decimated by raccoons in June, and a chance to have non-celadon colored egg laying Rosettas in our lines (we have some Rosettas that are Celadon, and I don’t want to dilute their lines but I do want to introduce some fresh genes because no one wants inbred birdies.) This fall/winter we’re going to incorporate officially as a business and will be NPIP Certified (as well as the folks who can do testing for NPIP here in our region.)
So when Shawna came forward with this opportunity to replace birds, and introduce new bloodlines – I was thrilled. I ended up being the one who hatched everyone’s eggs, and this video shows those who made it. Overnight last night, we had yet another Rosetta baby hatch, so it’s in with the rest, and we’ll keep the incubators warm, humid enough, and ready to hatch any stragglers and on Monday 2/3 these babies go to their new homes.
They graduate to a bigger brooder tonight or tomorrow because there are so many of them. Typically we put them in the tiny brooder for the first few days because it is a really good way to keep heat in and monitor their growth, but HOLY CRUD! That’s a lot of birds. Like I said – by Monday it’ll be a whole new living room with far fewer birds in it LOL. I need to get the backroom organized so I can work from home in peace and quiet – as much as the quail will allow for as we’ll be moving incubators and some brooding into there as well.
I do want to shout out a big thank you to Rob, our neighbor, for helping get the new cage moved out of the garage so we can move some of the others from grow out into it, and some older hatchlings into the greenhouse grow out. Very soon all I’ll have in my living room will be our small collection of quail recovering from injury and the new hatchlings. After this – I am taking a break from hatching anything but Celadon babies unless I have some special orders. We have to process a whole bunch of birds for freezer camp, and by the equinox, I’ll probably have more in the incubator.
Circle of life y’all.
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.