Self-admitted Hatch-aholic
Well there it is I am freely admitting it, I Julie, am a Hatch-aholic. Before Quail, I hatched out Chicken eggs….I still do sometimes, but when hatching out chicken eggs, roosters are a natural side effect. Where I live I cannot keep roosters. Then you are left with the question of, what does one do with all the extra roosters? Hatching out quail eggs is a great option for me. It feeds my addiction just fine. Extra Quail that are not sold or put in breeding pens are grown up to 8 weeks old, then harvested to provide our family with fresh meat. Plus baby quail are so tiny and cute.
There is just something amazing about putting an egg into an incubator, then like magic 17-18 days later you have peeping chicks. Of course I have to turn the eggs, monitor temperature, and humidity levels. Incubating is not exactly set it and forget it, but it is so dang cool. It’s like my super power. There is a level of anticipation waiting to see how many eggs will hatch, and when I see that first pip in the shell I am hooked. I am glued to bator-vision. To me it is the best reality show around.
I am like a cheerleader encouraging our little ones out of their shells. Sometimes waiting for the babies to emerge can be painfully slow and I have to leave for a few hours in hopes that upon my return several babies will have made it out of their shells. I have a hard time not helping too. I know I should just let them hatch on their own, but you try not helping a baby who struggling to get out of their shell. Sometimes it is a good choice and most times it is not. Quail chicks that hatch on their own are generally stronger than the ones that need help. Every hatch I say I am going to be hands off this time. That hasn’t happened yet.
I started out my quail adventures with just one incubator and am now up to three. Our first Incubator (a Brinsea Octagon Eco 20) can handle up to 70 quail eggs depending on size and how well I can pack the eggs in. The second incubator was bought used from a friend who wanted to break the cycle of her addiction (a Brinsea Mini Advanced). The mini only can hold 12 quail eggs. Somehow I thought I could use it to set smaller test hatches with this incubator. Recently it has been used as an overflow incubator when I want to set large batches of eggs. I had to buy my third incubator (another Brinsea Octagon Eco 20) when I committed myself to an order of 100 eggs from James Marie Farms to be shipped the end of the month. 70 plus 12 just did not equal 100 egg spaces. I couldn’t let any of these eggs go to waste. I really feel as if I was left with no choice but to add another incubator. Right? Of course once the incubator arrived last week I realized I had just enough time to fill it and give it a test run before my order arrives. So this is how I have managed to be in the position to have 3 hatches due within a little over 2 weeks and my family room looks like incubation central.
Hi, I’m Julie, and I am a Hatch-aholic.
Oh wait 70+70+12 means… I have room to set more than the 100 eggs I have on order.
