Final count is 15, with an expected yield of 10; this was a good hatching. One was hurt by jumping out of the incubator falling 3 feet to the floor. I am hoping that the leg heals up, it doesn't appear to be broken.
They are now in the brooder under the heat lights;
They are already visibly bigger, they grow Fast.
Here they are when the heat lamps are off:
These are attractive birds, and I love the way they sound.
In the incubator, Here is the last one hatched, look at the second egg from the top on the right. There is a quail head sticking out!
Overall the birds are healthy and active.
Their feet are cute, and they are pretty clumsy at this stage but they like to climb on hands. We ard hoping to handle them enough to make them happy about being handled. I want to keep these birds for breeding stock, to allow me to hatch and release several hundred more quail.
This will allow me to establish a local population that will eat the ticks, and be a self sustaining population.
They have already visibly grown, see how the eggs look smaller here:
Many people raise these birds for meat and eggs only, but I primarily want them to eat ticks, but we will see how this plan works....