Hello, friends of the agricultural mindset community. I was reading my last post here to remember what I said about my quail breeding.
I have been a few months without writing and today I want to resume writing starting with my update on my quail enterprise.
The last time I was around I told you about the eggs I would be placing in the incubator for breeding. After five days I was able to see the eggs with embryos through the light of a flashlight. I separated the eggs that would not have an embryo and left only 6 eggs in the incubator that would have their quails.
My experience was enriching, it is worth remembering that I have not done any studies to learn about quail breeding. I have committed to reading and participating online with people who are trained. This is how I have made some mistakes and I am learning as I go along.
When I was only three days away from finishing the incubation of the quails, which is 17 days, the thermostat was damaged and then I had to learn how to keep the eggs that were supposed to have young alive. It was hard work, but I only managed to hatch 4 eggs and two died due to lack of humidity.
Two quail died after the first few hours of hatching because they are very active even from hatching and can jump. Two of them drowned trying to jump and reach the water in the containers that provided the humidity in the environment after hatching.
Thus, out of 6 eggs, I only had two live quails left, one white and one brown, which are now adults and of reproductive age. They are more than 60 days old and I am waiting for their first clutch. I think one of the two is male, the white one I am told is trying to step on the females and the other one is female. I will know when he starts laying by checking his cloaca.
I have had some sort of bad procedure with the use of food for these birds. Since I only have 15 birds for everything. And I buy the food for 15 days and when I finish this food it happens to me that they have not obtained the same one and I must buy another similar one. With the experience that I have been able to acquire in these months, the feed should always be the same. Therefore from now on I have bought feed for a whole month.
Interrupting the birds' consumption of the same food produces a series of reactions in their bodies that lead them to stop ovipositing. I have been through this time and time again. So out of 15 birds where there are 3 males and 12 females, 4 females are for each of the males. There are only 4 of them laying, of the rest of the 12 quail that should be laying, there are 9 resting and 3 laying.
I am full of patience, still learning as I go along. I'm always hoping to pick up some eggs again, when 6 out of the 12 female quails lay their daily eggs, collecting 20 fresh eggs in less than a week and then putting them back on the incubator.
The day has not yet come for me to give up hope of getting all 12 birds oviposited and growing my venture. Although I can buy more birds to grow my hatchery faster I am determined to do it my way but soon I will buy some so as not to cross the birds with the same ancestors. I will tell you more about my experiences another time.
