Our little mama

[maryfrancis3]

Hello all

We have had our King quail for about 6 months now and finally one of the hens has laid seven eggs.

I put an old plastic pot plant holder in the aviary for them to nest in, when it was time, but no....... she has made her nest beside the planter hehe.

Here is a picture

Mama quail.JPG

[vettepilot_6]

once they hatch make sure you have something smaller then 1/2" wire as the young will go straight through otherwise....one of my non birdie mates reckons the young look like minature emus.....

[Diane]

Congrats. Yup nesting somewhere other than what you provide for them is about standard for quail Ive found. Agree with pilot about the size of the young and the wire.
I call them fluffy marbles.

[finches247]

Congrats.My uncle calls them bumble bees

[E Orix]

King Quail
The main killer of very young quail is lack of cover for the female to go to. If cover is limited the female will keep moving around and
the chicks just drop with exhaustion.
The second major killer is the water dish,unless it is very very shallow they will drown in it.
Hopefully your water dishes are too high for them to scramble into.Place a low sided water dish(saucer etc) in the aviary for them to drink from
then nearly fill it with smallish stones.The chicks will walk across the stones and they will get enough water from the gaps betwen the stones.
and no drownings.

[jusdeb]

marbles in a shallow water dish ..
mine get through to the next aviary through the wire but soon turn around to be with the mother again .
crushed chick starter gets them to a good size quick and past the fragile stage .

too cute and amazing that they are so self sufficient so young ....

[maryfrancis3]

Thank you all for your input I love it all xx

We have shade cloth covering one side of the aviary and on the front and side of the aviary we have already put this black stuff that is used for gutters.

We knew about how small they would be.

As for the drinking water, they can't get to them and we already have jam jar lids the shallow metal ones ready and waiting hehe.

[maryfrancis3]

Hi again

We have baby quail!!

Five hatched today. Three brown and two silver.

I have a picture of the first two.

The others were born later in the day.

Mum and dad are both keeping them warm. The other eggs have been left. It's such a shame, because there were 11 to hatch. But they are cold now.

Baby Quail 9th Sept 12.JPG

[Jayburd]

Aww, beautiful! I miss that sight
Sadly they usually lead the remaining eggs once the first chicks have hatched.

[finches247]

Congrats