These valley quail chicks hatched out today from some eggs I got from Travis Proctor in Nephi, UT. It was fun to visit his gamebird farm and see his small quail and chukar operation. I also got some french red leg partridge eggs from him but the hatch was not as good as the valley quail. The next day I had a dozen bobwhite quail chicks hatch from some of my breeder that I got from Travis last summer. If you are in Utah and need some birds or chicks for dog training give Travis a call. Email me for his phone number or you can check out his page on the game bird breeders directory.

Also had a hundred or so chickens hatch out in my incubator today.

On the morning of the 23rd day in the incubator the first chicks began to hatch out. After another 24 hours there were 460 chicks that hatched out of 800 eggs set. I was a little disappointed in the hatch rate and I am pretty sure it was low because of the shipping problem from Cumberland Gamebirds. The eggs were supposed to arrive on Thursday or Friday and were delayed in arriving until the following Monday. The additional 3 days in the box combined with the cold weather and sitting in a cold truck over the weekend didn’t help matters.

The chicks seem to be adjusting well under the heat lamps and are eating a custom feed that we ground up for them in the wheat grinder. The feed is medicated to help fight off disease and illness. For the first week they are drinking sugar water from my nipple drinkers.

I got my shipment of 800 quail eggs yesterday from cumberland gamebirds. I was a little disappointed because they were supposed to arrive on Friday which means they sat in a cold truck somewhere over the weekend. I am hoping the hatch will turn out okay. I am using the old GQF Sportsman 1202 incubator with the updated float and humidity pan. My friend came over to help set the eggs since he knows a lot about raising birds. After a little tweaking into the evening I got the temperature and humidity stabilized at 99.5 degrees and 51% relative humidity. I am anxious to try this strain of bobwhite quail called Georgia Giants. They are supposed to be nearly twice the size of normal bobwhite and stronger flyers.

Now I need to get my plans together for building a better flight pen. I have read that it is important to keep the birds isolated as much as possible to keep them wild. One online quail farmer even suggested feeding the birds at night with the use of a headlamp. I have been looking at some very cool quail pen designs like this one at quail ranch ok or this one from Mississippi State University extension service. One of the nicest quail pens I have found is at Fozzies Game Birds in Indiana. I like their sight barriers and their innovative waterer.

After attending the Dave Walker dog training seminar, I decided I wanted to buy some quail for dog training. Quail are a great bird for training a dog to be steady to wind and shot as they hold as a covey. If your dog creeps in on a point the birds usually flush all together and hopefully your dog learns to be ready for more birds after the flush. I bought these little guys at 3 weeks old from a local Utah breeder named Travis Proctor. For now they are surviving in my small brooder table. Hope to get a bigger pen built for them in the next week or so.

The pheasant and chukar chicks are 15 days old now and are starting to feather out nicely. Yesterday, I removed one of my circles in the brooder room since some are able to fly over it now. I will leave the remaining circle for a couple more days to give the smaller birds a chance to catch up. Also, we had a cold snap last night and we awoke to snow on the mountain. It is supposed to be Summer right now but at least it didn’t freeze last night. I did light up the propane heater during the night. I haven’t used it in nearly a week since the weather has been warmer.

I have had to raise the nipple waterers up a bit each week as the birds grow. I think it is important to make sure they have to reach a bit to get the water. I think it helps them build up their leg strength and muscles which should all make for better flying birds in a few months. This theory is not very scientific but I do think it helps to keep the birds strong. It is still very difficult to tell the difference between the chukar chicks and the pheasant chicks. As the feathers grow in the distinction will become obvious.

Here you can see the feather coming in nicely. Most of the birds are starting to try flapping their wings a bit and practicing 2-3 foot test flights. It is pretty funny to watch as they are a bit clumsy at this age. As I remove the next circle and give the chicks full access to the brooder room they will start to fly a little more each day. At 5 1/2 weeks exactly we will put the blinders on them and release them into the large outside flight pens.

As a whole the birds are doing well. I am careful to keep the feeders full of feed so they don’t peck at each other. I have to increase the temperature at night using the propane heater. The weather was cold for a few days and I had to use the propane all day. One propane bottle will last me about 36 hours on high heat. The weather has been warmer laely and I can turn the propane off during the daytime. So far, we have only lost about 20 chicks. I am keeping a journal and logging temps, feedings and mortality several times daily.

Started with a two hour drive to Green River, UT to pick up the chicks from Hatt’s Ranch game bird hatchery. Seemed like a large operation as one of their employees told me this week they hatched 40,000 chicks. There were 29 boxes in all totaling somewhere around 4,000 chicks. We didn’t chat much at the hatchery, just got loaded and headed for home to get the birds settled.

When we got home I unboxed the birds and removed them all by hand and placed them in the brooder circles. Russ took the bulk of the chicks (21 boxes) to his house for brooding in the big brooder barn. I took home 8 boxes and ended up with two boxes of chukar chicks, one of mutant pheasants, and the rest ringnecks.

We have a custom chick starter chopped for us locally, about a 32% protein medicated feed. I like to use a few of the pads out of the shipping boxes to double the feed availability during the first week or so. The chicks seem to eat this food before they figure out the trough feeders have feed in them too.

The temp around the inside of the brooder hood is around 100 degrees, and initially they held pretty tight under the hood for warmth. Within minutes they were circulating and finding the feeders and shipping pads with food on them. I was amazed that there was not one dead bird out of the 8 boxes I opened (about 1000 chicks).

I use the nipple waterers from the folks at Nature’s Way. It is fascinating how the day-old chicks seem to know exactly what to do to get the water. One of the nipples had a bit of a leak, but I left it alone as a lot of the birds were drinking from it.

The temperature is absolutely crucial during the first few weeks of life. I keep a couple thermometers laying around and take frequent readings to make sure things stay consistent. If the chicks get too cold they start to bunch up and pile on each other suffocating those on the bottom. If they are too hot they will hold their wings and appear to be panting. If they are cheaping and moving around then all is well.

I brought my propane radiant heater in to help keep the temps up during the night as it is supposed to be a bit cold for a few days. Last year I used a camp chef propane cooking stove as that’s all I had available. I also have a spare bottle of propane standing by in case I run out.

After I got the birds settled in and felt like all was well for a minute, I headed over to Russ’s pheasant farm to see how his chicks were doing. He has four big circles (10-12 feet across) with natural gas powered brooder hoods. He has taught me that sitting and watching the birds is the best way to keep track of their health and wellness. I’ll check the birds every couple hours for the first 24 hours or so. Things can go downhill fast.

I spent all day yesterday getting the brooder rooms prepared for the chicks. I scrubbed down everything with a water/clorox mixture to disinfect and clean. Tonight I will turn on the heat lamps and get the brooder rooms warmed up 12-24 hours before the birds arrive. We use 1/4″ welded wire for our circles and the nipple waterers from Nature’s Way. The ground inside the circles is covered with pine shavings and great care is taken to keep temperatures warm enough. I will have to supplement my heat lamps with a propane radiant heater as freezing temps are common here in late May and early June. The first few days are always a little stressful, but hopefully things will go smoothly. I’ll post some pics when the birds arrive tomorrow.

This week I released the chukars into the bigger grow-out pen where they will spend the next few weeks. They are learning to use the big waterers and are starting to fly in earnest. The heaters are only used at night now and will be turned off completely by the weekend. At 6 weeks we will put blinders on them and move 400 of them to the big outdoor flight pens at Rooster Valley Pheasants.