Recent content by CliftonQuail

I bought a 12 pack of quail egg scissors on Amazon for $15 and they work fine. As others have said, they're intended for raw eggs. If you're going to be doing a lot of boiled eggs, I also found a quail egg peeler that works fairly well. It takes a bit of prep work, but once that's out of the...

Purina has a 30% game bird starter that Tractor Supply carries. That's what I used when I first started with coturnix. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/purina-game-bird-and-turkey-starter-30-40-lb-3005640-305 I've since changed to a 28% starter from a Texas based feed mill, but the 30%...

There's a feed store in Cedar Hill, but for some reason they only carry the 28%. I can't get them to order the 24% so I have to go to Alvarado for that.

Where in North Texas are you? See if you can find Golden Oak feed (https://www.goldenoakmilling.com). In game bird feeds, they have a 28% starter and a 24% grower. Calcium's a bit low, but I supplement with oyster and egg shell. Methionine is also on the low side. I'm not sure how to improve...

I like your water and feed setup, but what's the reason for the vertical pipe/valve on the inside with the waterers?

I used a similar feeder in a Wynola Ranch cage, but covered the opening with chicken wire instead of the hardware cloth mesh shown. I had to put the entire thing in my cage, so filling from outside wasn't an option, but I only used it for one day. In the morning, the feeder was empty and most of...

He eventually went to freezer camp along with a bunch of other excess males. There were 4 hens in the cage when he got scalped and I just left them without a roo. In the course of time, two of the hens died. I had some new breeders ready for grow out cages and separated the remaining two hens...

Generally speaking, there will be a reservoir of some kind to add water to increase humidity. It's highly recommended to get one, or more, accurate temperature/humidity sensors to put in the incubator because those on the incubators are frequently just plain wrong.

The recommendation for Japanese coturnix is usually 4 hens or more per rooster. Stubble quail are another variety of coturnix, but may be fine with fewer hens. Hopefully someone from Australia will weigh in on proper ratios.

I'm not sure what the proper rooster to hen ratio might be for stubble quail, but found some indication that they pair up, so you might just need one hen to keep him company. To avoid unwanted chicks, you'd just have to collect any eggs before the hen decided to try to sit on them.

Is that the only feed you've been giving her? I only found one canary mix that listed protein content and it was a mere 12%. Coturnix need much higher protein than that, on the order of 20% or higher, although some on here report good results with 16%. If the canary seed mix is her only ration...

If you're asking about the black soldier fly, quail will eat the larvae (even freeze dried) with much pleasure. I haven't built a BSFL colony, yet, but plan to do so when I move from the burbs to the country later this year.

I have a smart LED that I've set to gradually go from off to 100% bright over the course of 15 minutes in the AM, then it's on all day and gradually goes from 100% to off in the evening. The birds get a simulated sunrise and sunset. That seems to reduce the amount of distress chirping from when...

After what happened today, you're entitled to a little typo. Hope your birds have calmed down and maybe even a few more have returned.

Where are you located? If in Texas, the 28% starter feed that I use from Golden Oak milling is typically right around the $20 mark for 50 pounds. They also have a 24% that I use when the birds reach adulthood. I don't think they have any distributors outside of Texas, though. I'll post a link to...