Quail chicks hatching!

The Quail chicks started to hatch on Monday of this week, 17 days after the eggs were put in the incubator. Over the next day or two we had six lovely chicks hatch.

The speckled shells on the Quail eggs made it quite difficult to spot when an egg was starting to hatch and on a few occasions the chicks seemed to appear suddenly out of thin air. One moment there would be just eggs in the incubator, but five minutes later there would be a new chick. They also seemed to be able to hatch and then reassemble the empty shell so that it was actually quite difficult to see which egg the chick had come out of.

The newly hatched Quail chicks are so very tiny and cute. They are up and feeding in no time and are lively little critters. When picked up as shown in the photo above they have a frightening habit of jumping out of your hands - I swear that they have spring loaded legs. I've learnt my lesson and now cup my hands when picking them up so that they can't make a bid for freedom.

In the meantime all the other chicks are thriving. Chirpy, Sooty, Sweep and Blondie have been moved out into a hen house in the garden and are loving the extra space. Pinky, Perky, Coco and Nano have been moved out into the chicken run in the greenhouse and have settled in very well. The "senior" hens are enjoying the sunny weather and are "laying like machine guns" (a phrase an old Cornish friend of ours used to use).

Chick roll call

I'm very pleased to say that all the chicks are doing well. There are eight chicks in all, currently being kept in two groups of four. Let's start off with the smallest (and youngest) chicks which are nearly 2 weeks old.

Nano was the last chick to hatch and was a very small chick, but has done very well after getting off to a slow start.Nano is darker than the other Rhode Island Red chicks and colour-wise is quite similar to Chirpy was like at that age.

Pinky and Perky look very similar and are almost impossible to tell apart. They are both strong healthy chicks, and I have a gut feeling that they could both be cockerels.

Coco is gorgeous, and a good strong chick. Her feathers are a beautiful dark brown colour and her down is like soft fur. Now let's move on to the older chicks, which are 5 weeks old.

Sooty is a lovely chick, but a right little sod! He is absolutely full of beans and at times can be quite aggressive. He looks very much like his Araucana father and is very flighty.

I would say that Sweep takes after her Light Sussex mother, although I can see the Araucana coming out in her too. She is a beautiful chick with the odd black feather and rather unusual grey legs.

Blondie is quite a timid little chick and is slightly smaller than Sooty and Sweep. She is a lovely chick with pure white feathers pretty much all over. She is very close to Sweep and does not like being separated from the other chicks.

Finally, here is Chirpy, now all grown up at the grand old age of 7 weeks. He is very tame and friendly and has not shown any aggression towards his smaller companions. He has a lovely temperament, which is just as well as I think he's going to be a big cockerel.

There you have it! Our lovely chicks that we have hatched this year so far. It has been a real joy watching them grow and develop from helpless little balls of fluff into fully fledged chickens and it is amazing how each one has his or her own little personality from the very beginning.

Our adult hens have suddenly moved into full egg production and we are getting on average about four eggs a day. This is a sure sign that the days are getting longer and that spring has arrived. The Quail eggs are still in the incubator and are due to hatch in about a week from now. I haven't candled the Quail eggs because it is difficult to see any detail inside the eggs because of their speckled shells. We'll just have to wait and see how many Quail chicks hatch, however I understand that it can be quite a lengthy process and the Quail eggs can continue to hatch for anything up to a week!

Cute Chicks!

I emailed the lady I bought the eggs from and she has told me that the dark coloured chick is a Chocolate  Wyandotte, and so we have called it "Coco". The chicks are all doing well, but the little chick that hatched last is still by far the smallest, and we have called him/her "Nano". We can't really tell the other two apart so at least for the meantime we are going to call them "Pinky" and "Perky". Nano is on the bottom left of the following photo.

I've notices that both Pinky and Perky are growing what look to be white wing feathers! I would not expect this if they are Rhode Island Reds, but I'll just have to wait and see how they develop. Ahh the joys of hatching your own chicks!

Four lovely new chicks

In the end four out of the remaining five eggs hatched and we now have four beautiful Rhode Island Eggs chicks.....well almost! Three of them look like Rhode Island Red chicks, the fourth is a bit of a mystery. Either the eggs got mixed up, or there was strange cockerel about! To be fair the lady I bought the eggs from did say that six were Rhode Island Red eggs she wasn't sure what the seventh was. I think she said it might be Light Sussex, but I don't think so!

The little one in the middle of the three light coloured chicks was the last to hatch and is a very small chick. It's amazing how much the Rhode Island Red chicks look like chirpy did at that age, so I guess Chirpy has quite a lot of Rhode Island Red in him (as you would expect since his mum was an ex battery hen). I have not given the new chicks names as yet...any suggestions anyone?

Time to wash out the incubator with disinfectant and start some more eggs off. This time I've gone for Quail. I bought the eggs online and they were delivered in the post in a purpose made expanded polystyrene box. Amazingly they all arrived intact and after letting them stand overnight I put them in the incubator today.

They certainly are beautiful eggs. I had to set the incubator 0.2 deg C warmer for the Quail eggs - 37.7 deg C instead of 37.5 deg C. They should start hatching in about 16 or 17 days.

Indoor chicken run update

Chirpy and the other three chicks certainly enjoyed having a bit of extra room and settled in well to their new accommodation. However, on Wednesday evening when I turned the infrared lamp off, it quickly became apparent that the chicks needed more warmth in their new home. As a temporary measure I put one of the Ecoglow heated pads in to the run to provide some extra warmth, but I spent quite a sleepless night worrying that the chicks would be cold.

I need not have worried because the chicks were fine. Chirpy spent the night on the perch, but the three younger chicks snuggled up together under the heated pad. I installed the Ecoglow heater pad permanently in the chicken run above where the tubular heater is to create a cosy space for the chicks which is heated from below and from above (see photo).

The heated pad is sitting on two wooden runners and I slid the heated pad to one side and blanked off the space at the other side with a piece of plywood cut to the right size. Finally I put a piece of fleece blanket on top of the wooden shelf under which the tubular heater is. The chicks love it. They have the choice of sitting under the heated pad, or if they get too warm they can sit over the other side, or get on to the perch. The following photo shows (from left to right) Blondie, Sweep and Sooty in their "cosy space".

Last night the chicks (and I) spent a much more comfortable night. Chirpy spent the night on the perch again. All the chicks love their new home, and Sooty has been jumping from one perch to the other like a trapeze artist and basically trying to outdo Chirpy at every possible opportunity. Chirpy has been keeping fit by going back and forth, running from one end of the run, flying over the feeder and landing up the other end of the run (and scaring the living daylights out of the other chicks in the process)! Blondie and Sweep are quite happy to leave Chirpy and Sooty to it and have a sleep in their cosy space.

Time to move on

With more eggs due to hatch today, my highest priority over the last few days has been to get the "indoor chicken run" finished for Chirpy and the other chicks to move into. The large wooden box I've made needs to be heated and I've decided to use two different heat sources: a tubular greenhouse heater and an infrared lamp. The tubular heater is rated about 80 Watts and will provide a gentle heat night and day. The infrared lamp is rated about 100 Watts and will provide extra heat (and light) during the day. I don't want to "force" the chicks to grow too fast by providing light 24 hours a day, so the infrared lamp will be turned off at night.

The photo above shows the inside of the wooden box where the tubular heater will be installed. I cut a 57mm diameter hole in each side and cut a slot in the floor to allow air to enter, and I attached some fine metal mesh to the underside of the slot to keep out mice and other unwelcome visitors. The following photo shows the tubular heater in place.

I made a slotted wooden cover to go over the heater and provide somewhere warm for the chicks to perch or sit. The slots will allow air to circulate around the heater and hopefully prevent it from getting too hot. The following photo shows the slotted wooden cover in place.

I added a couple of perches at different heights so that the chicks can perch in the gentle warmth of the airflow from the heater. Finally I placed some bricks on the floor of the box to set the feeder and drinker on and bedded the box with a good layer of wood shavings. The following photo shows the indoor chicken run ready to take its new occupants. Note the infrared lamp sitting on the wire mesh cover.

I left the whole thing to warm up overnight before putting the chicks in this morning. I put the three smaller chicks (Sooty, Sweep and Blondie) in first and then put Chirpy in. I've kept a close eye on them all day and I'm pleased to say that they seem to be getting along just fine. I was worried about Chirpy bullying the others, but if anything Sooty is the most aggressive and was trying to peck Chirpy but couldn't quite reach!

Chirpy spent most of the day perching and preening and the young chicks have had great fun scratching and scraping around in the wood shavings. The following photo shows all four chicks enjoying some chick crumbs.

I had five eggs due to hatch today. So far three have hatched and there's another that is hopefully going to hatch soon. I think the fifth egg may not hatch, but I'll give it a day or two and see what happens. Being a glutton for punishment, I've ordered a dozen Quail eggs to put in the incubator after the current batch have all hatched. Should keep me busy and out of mischief for a while!

Growing chicks need more space

Five weeks old now and Chirpy is still growing fast. He is nearly fully feathered and his wattles are starting to develop. The following photo shows him perching on the side of the brooder (one of his favourite activities)!

Chirpy will soon need larger accommodation, and I've been building him a large indoor chicken run in the greenhouse. It measures 2.4m x 0.5m and will have an infrared lamp hanging above it to provide warmth and light during the day, and an electric heater to provide warmth during the night. So far I've made the basic structure out of OSB and used some wire panels (which were originally part of a potato sorting machine) to cover the top. Part of the top has a solid OSB cover to provide somewhere for the chicks to go at night, and this is where the electric heater will be installed (see photo below).

Hopefully the indoor run will be big enough for Chirpy and the other three chicks that are in the brooder at the moment, although the other three are probably still to young to go out into the run. The other three chicks are also doing well and are now almost three weeks old. The following photo shows them all together. Sooty is in the middle, Sweep on the left and Blondie on the right.

Sweep's legs have taken on a grey colour, and he is the largest of the three and has the most advanced feathering. Sooty is smaller but perhaps the most aggressive of the three. Blondie is finally growing some tail feathers and is definitely the most timid, and does not like to be separated from the others. They are all doing really well and my hope is to put them in the indoor chicken run with Chirpy in due course, but at the moment Chirpy is about double the size of Sweep, even though he is only two weeks older, and I don't want Chirpy to bully the smaller chicks.

I've checked the eggs in the incubator and the good news is that 5 of the 7 eggs are fertile and developing well. They are due to hatch on Wednesday, which is only 3 days away, so I'll need to get Chirpy moved out into the chicken run before the new chicks hatch.