Sunday, May 6, 2012

Quail Hatch

I am pretty sure that if our species had to hatch out of eggs we would all just give up and die in the shell. It is absolutely amazing what a little chick goes through to hatch. This little quail chick pipped yesterday which means it broke a tiny dent in the shell. That's it. It sat there all day and all night and almost all day today and only broke the shell a tiny bit more. Then this evening it finally started to zip which means it started breaking all the way around the shell. If you sit there and watch them do this you will be so tempted to reach in and help them out. They take so long and sometimes they seem to stall and don't get anywhere for several tries. But the chick is so much better off if you don't help unless you absolutely need to. So my little chick zipped almost all around the egg, then it struggled and struggled and finally managed to push its head out.

All seemed well now except that it was stuck because it hadn't quite zipped all the way around. It struggled and pushed over and over again. It broke off some of the shell with its feet. I really, really wanted to help but I waited.

 It pushed and pushed some more. I bet it took another 10 minutes before it finally started to lift its back end out of the shell.
Then it was only a few more pushes and it was out completely.
I hope this is the first of many tonight. There are a lot of pips in there. If so it will be my first really successful quail hatch this year.

13 comments:

  1. I was so glad our chicks hatched during the day while I was at work so I would not be tempted to "help" which is the worst thing to do. Hope you get lots of quail!

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  2. What happens if you help them?

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  3. Anonymous beat me to it...what happens if you help them? That would be hard not to want to help, ha.

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  4. Ha ha, I doubt I will get 100% but I have to go to bed now and there are 12 out I believe.
    If you help them you could hatch them too early before they have absorbed the yolk sack (they won't live long).

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  5. Consistence and persistence! A lesson that is never learnt enough (particularly if you are gardening.) I hope this chink does well with the others that will follow.

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  6. Oh, that's absolutely amazing! We have chicks due to hatch out this week and we are SO excited about it.

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  7. Congrats on the hatch so far :)
    Carolyn

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  8. The poor thing looks a bit of a mess right now. Hopefully it will soon fluff-up and look really appealing.

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  9. It's years since I've hatched quail. I was shocked by how fast they are once they're up and about. Also how quickly they can fly (not many weeks old if I remember) as most of mine escaped and we had to spend a day trying to find them all!

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  10. That is quite amazing isn't it? I love seeing new life for the first time - just fascinating.

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  11. It is so hard not to help! But I've read that only that final neck thrust that frees their head from the shell and straightens their neck signals the end of hatch for them. If you release them before they've made that thrust, they'll flail around quite a bit, still simulating the hatch. So we try not to look until we actually hear them scrambling around in the brooder on their own. Got keets hatching for us right now!! Stevie@ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com

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  12. Well, I didn't help at all, lol. There are a BUNCH of them in there this morning. I just stopped in here a minute and now I am going to move the three from the last hatch (there were 6 but they didn't do well from the start) and then clean it out and move these in. Will get a picture then.

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