Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

All of the duck eggs were set yesterday, but the barred rock eggs didn't go in until today. They're in the hatcher. The original eggs that were set are in there hatching as we speak. Higher humidity shouldn't hurt them for one day. I almost bought an incubator at the sale, it went for $17, but I'm not sure if it was forced or still air. Now that I know how to wire everything, I may attempt to build an incubator. I just need to find a good thermostat. My meat chicks and barred rock roo will probably be kept outside all day on nice days from now on. They seem to stick around the same spot that I put them in, so long as it has shade. This will help keep the stink out of the house and should keep them moving around a little bit. They'll go after bugs, but I've learned to take the feeder out for a few minutes, because they won't forage enough to maintain their crops. I hope that the barred rock and his future girlfriends will forage better, I think he may be held back because his current "brothers and sisters" are all loafers who don't do much. Now I have to go update my hatching book.

 

[Bettacreek]

Last night/this morning, we had a quail break. Something had killed two roos, two more roos and a hen were missing. The dutch rabbit was out roaming as well. I had assumed that the quail that were out were all dead. Fortunately, a neighbor had brought one over when Andy had come home (we were at my mom's place moving trees around and planting new ones, then I hit Sam's club). Another neighbor (the son of the other neighbor) stopped in later after I was home and asked if we wanted to buy a quail. We told him that they had already brought it home, and talked for a little while. He left and returned awhile later with a box. He had another quail! We started talking about them, and showed him around the birds here. He has turkeys, peafowl, chickens of all kinds, guineas, etc. He lives up on the mountain, and invited us to stop up sometime to see his birds. I asked him if he had any connections for hay (they're selling junk hay at $4.75 a bale now) and he ended up giving me two bales for free. One's timothy and the other orchard grass. He helps someone else bale, so he gets free hay in and these were extras from the last round. He also said that if I could get Andy to approve, he'd pull his other roos from his Amerucana pen and then give us some purebred chicks or eggs. We talked a lot about birds (he was here for over an hour), and I guess he's getting 15 pekins from the same order that I'm getting my two. I may see if I can get some muscovies at the sale and trade him for some pekins, since he said that he was looking for scovies. He even has a chicken plucker that he said we could use!

Turkey!

 

[Wifezilla]

My quail are escape artists. Glad you got a couple back at least.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yeah, I'm surprised that I have any at all left from that cage. Three were just sitting in the opened cage! Very wild birds here, lol. I found out that JD (Andy's brother) saw them running around in the yard, and just left, didn't wake anyone up, didn't try to catch them or anything. I'm a good bit peeved about that. I just have to look at it positively, some did come home safe, and, we wouldn't have had Eric stop by if he had. *Positive thoughts*
My one turkey poult is struggling. It hasn't eaten on its own since I brought it home. I left it go for the first day, then started trying to keep it alive. It still has blue tinted flesh, but it is getting stronger. It pecked my shirt last night, and today, it's been drinking out of the syringe on its own! It still can't pick up food on its own, but it does try! Someone mentioned hard boiled egg, so I think I'm going to try that. I have been giving it 30% medicated game bird starter. I'm hoping that this little one pulls through. I just wonder if this little one won't end up being a permenant resident, instead of turkey dinner if it does survive.

Here's a pic of the poult:

The meaties are growing like you'd expect a quail to! They're huge, and they've been moved to the coal bin downstairs. I'm hoping to get some shavings so that I can just rake stuff around and then change out the entire bedding when needed. The coal bin is about 4x12, but they only use so much of it, they park near the heat light or the feeder. I put the feed and water at different ends to make them move. The heat is in the one corner, the water closest to it, then the feed is at the other end. They are pooping machines!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

oh no on the poult!

we've found that if you put it under a warmer light by itself with a little yogurt mixed with the food ours have pulled thru. remember that poults are more delicate than chicks...so there are more losses

you can also try and syringe some warm water + molasses into his mouth

good luck!

 

[Bettacreek]

Thank you! I've been thinking about getting a brooder set up just for this poult. I just haven't had a chance to go anywhere. I know that you can mix some honey or maple syrup, water and a pinch of salt to make a homemade pedialyte, but all I have is sugar and processed maple syrup (type A, not the good type B). I didn't even think about yogurt. I'll try powdering some of the 30% and adding yogurt. Thank you!

 

[Bettacreek]

I just remembered that I have some "natural" sugar, which has the natural molasass in it. How much should I mix up for the stinker? I gave him some, though I'm not sure if the amounts were right. It's a really light tea color now. He certainly liked it! Lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

We lost the little poult. He seemed to be doing better, then was doing the "flip" one morning. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the other poult. It doesn't seem to be smart enough to get food and water on its own, but the feed that I've been giving the chickens is only 24% protein, and the poult has angel wing now. I can't increase the protein of the chickens, because I have my layers in with my meaties. I hatched out six buttons yesterday, but the poult doesn't seem to follow them to feed/water. I'm hoping that the poult can last on 24% protein until the button quail chicks are big enough to drink out of a larger waterer, or at least until I can raise the water bottle up enough that the poult can get to it.
I also had my name on the feed store list for two pekins, which were the last of what they had ordered. I asked to have them put me down for any extras as well. I got the phone call today that they arrived a day early, and the order was doubled (the order HAD been doubled, but I guess Chad only told customers, myself included, and not the rest of the staff, lol). So, I went down and asked if I could take ten home (there should have been 15 "extra"). They said that they'd have to check...huh? if the order was doubled and nobody was allowed to claim more than the "original" 15, then how could they not have 8 extra ducklings? Anyways, I started pouring over them to see who was the most ravenous and active, and they finally let me know that there were enough for me to take ten. After I picked them out and started closing the box, the lady did the math and said to the other staffer "well, that leaves one pekin", so I took that one as well, lol. Total order was $39.65. My duck budget is going to look pretty bad for awhile, lol. Now that I got as many pekins as I could have wanted, I'll definately be able to sell off my eggs once they hatch. They're mixies, but I've had a few people interested in them already. I'm also selling off the barred rocks, since they're bantams. I have a dozen black australorp eggs coming in the mail, I basically "traded" 18 button quail eggs for them (in the crazy egg chain on BYC). My buttons have been making me very happy. They eat about a pound a week and they've been pulling more than their own weight around here. I'm pretty sure that they already paid for themselves (the cost of their eggs), plus they paid for the 50lb bag of gamebird layer, they brought in a cage for the coturnix and now they helped bring in australorps. I'm very pleased with their budget, to say the least.

 

[lorihadams]

We had 2 quail escape yesterday too! I ended up finding one trying to get back IN the quail hutch, took about 3 minutes of chasing it in circles before I could finally get my hands on the dang thing. Then found the other one in the duck house! That one was much easier to catch although I got covered in duck poo from getting inside the duck house.
I'm soooooo gonna eat those birds soon.

 

[Bettacreek]

We had 2 quail escape yesterday too! I ended up finding one trying to get back IN the quail hutch, took about 3 minutes of chasing it in circles before I could finally get my hands on the dang thing. Then found the other one in the duck house! That one was much easier to catch although I got covered in duck poo from getting inside the duck house.
I'm soooooo gonna eat those birds soon.

Lol! I have a button quail that I've been wanting to eat for awhile now, lol. If it had been a coturnix and actually had more than 3 grams of meat on it, then I would have already! I've chased it around the basement for three days until finally catching it. I decided to whack the feathers off of the entire wing to save from ever having to deal with it again, at least until moult, lol.