so i started a button quail colony. i got 18 eggs in the incubator yesterday, and they dropped an egg today!!!
for the adults i have a hardware cloth box i used to house my trapped sparrows. it is 3 ft by 2 ft and 1 ft tall.
i bought a little giant incubator and egg turner. the breeder i bought from said that she was feeding a 30% protein game feed, it also provides calcium for egg production. i bought a bail of hay to use as bedding.
now the chicks eat the same crumble but it needs to be ground. i dont have a food processor, so i went marine and improvised HOORAAA!! i have 2 peppermills, i cleaned 1 out and hooked a drill up to the end of it, OOOOO baby, it grinds it into a much finer pieces and it only takes a few seconds. saves me $39 and i still get the job done, and it guarantees that all pieces get cut.
i plan on keeping this as a log so people can reap rewards form my failures.
this little giant incubator sux. i should have spent the money and got a goos one.
to start. the heating element is analog, it has a dial and came with a cheezy thermometer. it has holes on top and bottom. now this is how to save money. i bought a $7 fan from walmart and kept it out side. what i wound up doing is putting it on the countertop next to it pointed at the gap between the bator and Ctop. it is sucking the air into the bator. i put tape over all but one of the holes to allow air ro pass thru. this keeps fresh air coming thru and keeps the bator warm.
i also bought an digital outdoor thermo with a sensor. it gives time, temp and humidity, $12. gives readings down to the tenth of a degree.
so 10 more days and i stop the egg turner, and then they should hatch a few days later!
As long as your little giant has the forced air fan kit inside, the incubator works fine. I just hatched my first batch of coturnix with a 85% hatch rate in the forced air little giant. My GQF Hova Bator is a bit nicer but both do the job. If your little giant is a still air incubator, think of purchasing the fan kit to make it a forced air. It makes a huge difference.
ok so i went and bought a fan for the bator, it is holding temp WAY better.
but my quail arent dropping eggs any more. they dropped 1 the next day and nothing since?! i read that after stress they might stop laying eggs for a few days. they are eating like pigs, so i know it aint that, and drinking plenty of water.
i have 2 peppermills, i cleaned 1 out and hooked a drill up to the end of it, OOOOO baby, it grinds it into a much finer pieces and it only takes a few seconds. saves me $39 and i still get the job done, and it guarantees that all pieces get cut.
This made me laugh out loud. Just awesome.
Looking forward to seeing how this works out for you, might be something to try someday. Cool offseason project anyway.
"...no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry, lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an exercise undertaken for health, power or profit." -Aldo Leopold
so i had a break thru. i read somewhere that the more light they get the more eggs they produce. so i put a light in there to give them more. well i had it turned off for a while and i was getting 1 egg a day. so i put the light back on them, and the egg production stopped!
this all hit me while i am at work. so tonight i will turn the light off and see what that does. gonna take the eggs out of the rotator tonight, it has been 12 days since i had them and not sure how longs since the had been layed. i have read that after 12-13 days take the eggs out of the rotator cause the birds are getting into position to get out of the egg.
so fingers crossed!! hope i get 5 more birds from this bunch.
Post by borderhawk on Apr 30, 2009 13:08:20 GMT -5
When you use the light, how many hours per day do they get? I put a timer on mine that gives them about 15 hours (about 6am - 9pm) and have been getting a egg every day from both established pairs 100% consistently.
I don't know if you will notice any difference if you just try something for a day or two (or a night, in this case) to see what happens. With many animals, birds included, having an aid to help with a natural process doesn't have an immediate effect. In order to do anything for their laying, your light would probably have to be on a schedule for at least a week. One day of light isn't going to magically make them lay eggs; neither is one night of dark going to cause them to stop laying. Routine is important.
Aurelia - General I ------------------------------------------- "It's not about the style of the flight; it's about the blood on the glove"
I don't know if you will notice any difference if you just try something for a day or two (or a night, in this case) to see what happens. With many animals, birds included, having an aid to help with a natural process doesn't have an immediate effect. In order to do anything for their laying, your light would probably have to be on a schedule for at least a week. One day of light isn't going to magically make them lay eggs; neither is one night of dark going to cause them to stop laying. Routine is important.
point taken, but 2 hours of driving did stop the process for a while!!
i left the light on for about 3 days, i think the first time, then after 1 egg a day was showing up i stopped. was it the light? i dont know. then i left the light on for 2 days and i turned it off last night when 2 eggs showed up.