Quail & hatching update

I have been working on a website for my little poultry adventure.  I would love some feed back on the temporary site at www.andrewspurebreedpoultry.co.uk  There will of course be more information in the full site but at least there is a basis to work from.

If you have read my blog before you will probably know I am little obsessed with chickens and have been keeping them in my back garden for four years.  I have recently ventured into the world of quail keeping.  The Japanese quail arrived on Sunday 3rd February.  9 females and 2 male.

They seem to have settled well into their coop/ aviary.  Although I am surprised how startled they are when I walk up to them.  As explained in the books I have read, they fly directly upwards when scared and usually smack their head off the ceiling of the coop.  Fortunately it is a plastic tray about their head, so I hope it will cause little damage to them.  It does however concern me they do it so frequently, and I think it would be useful if someone could design or breed into the quail some form of helmet device!

They are lovely little birds and have produced 8 eggs already in less than 2 days, however temperatures have dropped and the winds have picked up, so I expect egg production to be limited in the next few days.

My recent attempt at hatching silver laced Wyandottes was a failure.  2 of the eggs were fertile but died at around 16-18 days I think.  I think the humidity may have been too high.  Something I will be keeping a close eye on when I set my next batch of eggs in the next week or so.

Keep tuned in to find out what I will be hatching next using a dry incubating method. ;-)

Thanks for reading