In the Clouds Aviary

06/30/08

Button quails are small little quails with a pretty big attitude. Though normally they don't sit on thier own eggs and they have to be incubated I figured I would give a pair a try.

The male is a cinnamon splash (white with spots) and the hen is a darth vader.

06/30/08 Well the hen laid around 20 eggs then on 6/4/08 decided to build a nest with all the scattered eggs. That same day within a matter of a couple hours she also decided she did not want her mate around and plucked at his head pretty badly so I put him in another container. After that she started to sit on her eggs. On 6/15/08 she stopped sitting i don't why or what had happen to scare her off but she did not return to her eggs. On 6/16/08 I tried to save all the eggs by placing them in my brooder which gets up to temp but doesn't hold it as accurately as an incubator. Well apparently after the male had been seperated and after she started to sit she laid a few more eggs giving a total of 25 eggs. On 6/28/08 one of the eggs hatched in the brooder. This was completly lucky because that means the egg spent half of its time incubating inside the brooder not being turned or anything. Though it did happen. It also means she laid the egg 8 days after the male was taken out of the cage and the egg still turned out fertile. No other eggs have hatched at this point other then that one. Due to the down coloring the chick is probably a silver or a splash of some sort like the father.

Keep checking here as they grow quick to see what it turns out to be.