First Egg

Well, the first real egg. The kind of first one was yesterday and it didn't have and outer hard shell. The quail were hatched Feb 28th. They will be 9 weeks tomorrow and we got an egg. I am so excited!!

I have also determined I have at least 3 maybe 4 females. Since there are so many males they are really mean. I am going to have to take out pretty much all but one male.

100% Hatch!!

We have 7 duckling! However, in the picture there are only 6. The last one to hatch, egg/#6, is still drying off in the incubator. I left it in there because I'm not sure yet what to do with it. It has a mild deformity. But look!! Aren't they so cute!!!!!

The last picture is of the first one that hatched last night and from the smallest egg.

I feel like there is a lesson to be learned. Oh, right, patients. So I decided to pop me some popcorn and watch a movie after the kids went to bed. I had a feeling something was going to happen soon. So about halfway through the movie I took my bowl to the kitchen and found...

It's behind the egg.

Isn't it cute!!!! It was really cramped in the incubator because I squeezed in 7 eggs so I took it out and moved it to the brooder right away. It's been chilling out there drying off. Now the other 6 eggs have a bit if leg room to hatch. I will be checking the incubator periodically throughout the night. I am so excited! And last I checked all the eggs have made progress with the exception of the one that pipped at the wrong end. I'm going to wait till tomorrow to help it get out. It won't be able to get out on it's own because it's backwards. But I will give it a chance to try tonight.

So long for now. Time to sleep.

Egg Update

You know that saying "a watched pot never boils"? I think same goes for hatching eggs. The first pip I saw was this morning and since then all eggs have pipped. The wait is so hard! I hear peeping. I see cracks in the eggs. And then... nothing. I don't mind the wait really. It's more of the "nothing's happening" factor. I know it's close. I'm almost tempted to move the incubator to my nightstand. But then I would be checking every 10 minutes instead of sleeping. So here I wait. Patiently. Sort of.

Remember that egg I was telling you about. The one that I thought looked under developed. Well as it turns out, it was the first to internally pip. That means it broke through the inner membrane into the air sac at the big end of the egg. Now I am worried about #6. It's the one you see with the hole. Well I put that hole there. See, it pipped at the wrong end. So instead of being on the big end with the air sac, it's at the end where there is fluid and no air sac to breath. So I had to chip away some of the shell and pull back some of the inner membrane. I hope it gets out OK. I also read on other web sites to prop it up a little so it doesn't drown from the fluids around it. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some little fuzzy ducklings to show.

Quack!

I can't believe I have been away from this for so long. So here's what's happening. The first batch of quail grew up. We hatched a second batch of quail. We got duck eggs. We went to my parents house for half of spring break and are finishing up the second half relaxing at home.

So, the quail grew up and as planned were butchered and eaten. I did all the killing and processing. It went much easier for me than I was expecting. At first I was really disappointed with the size of the quail. The first one I did was really REALLY small. And I thought "that's it!! That was not worth it!" And I almost didn't finish processing. But it ended up being the smallest one. I can't really say much about eating them since 6 small quail had to be split among 7 people. It wasn't much of a taste. I will be waiting longer with the second batch in hopes that more if them will be plumper.

Our second batch of quail...

11 hatched. I think I messed up #12. But you live and you learn. They hatched when the others were 4 weeks old. Then one died after I moved them to the garage. If there is one thing I have learned for sure it is to not overlap batches. It was so hard waiting to move the second batch to the garage but I only have one cage. That's why I had done in the first batch when I did. I should have waited at least 2 more weeks. The babies were jumping out of the box multiple times a day. It was so much more relaxing after I got them moved. I'm going to wait till these ones are older before we eat them. I want to get some eggs from them first. Then I will hatch those instead of going and buying more.

In the meantime. What's in the incubator now you ask? DUCKS!!

Duck egg next to chicken egg.

The ducks have been in for 27 days now. Incubating time is 28 days for this kind. We have 7 eggs in it and they are all growing and alive. The eggs were too big for the automatic turner so i had to turn them by hand multiple times a day. However, one of them looks under developed by like a week. And it looks stuck in one place too. Not sure what's going to happen to it because I don't think it's going to hatch with the rest but I know it's still alive. They are now on lockdown. That means I no longer turn them and the humidity goes up a little. They are due to hatch on Monday?! I am so excited.

Our spring break is 2 weeks long. The first week we went to my parents house. The kids had fun and Oliver was good. Storm had a blast being in the country. I found out she does not have the intent to run away. She really liked all the running around she got to do.

On a side note, my flowers are looking great so far. A couple weeks ago my daffodils were in full swing.