I got my Brinsea Mini Advance incubator in the mail today.
Of course, I immediately set it up, plugged it in, and set the temp. It worked wonderfully well – it didn’t take long at all to go up to 99.6 degrees (recommended for quail) and stayed there! You’d understand my intense jubilation if you’d had to fuss with the incubator I used for my previous quail eggs. So fussy and difficult – I was constantly tweaking the temp, and it even so, it was jigging all over…perhaps one of the reasons I got only about a 50% hatch rate. As this incubator is much smaller, and only holds 12 eggs, I’m hoping for a much greater hatch rate this time.
Of course, the hatch rate also depends on what happens to the eggs during shipping, and I have no control over that.
After I tested to be sure the incubator seemed to be working, I ordered a batch of quail eggs. I chose “Golden Italians”, because I am beginning to believe that my male Loki is actually an Italian, rather than a Blonde. For one thing, I’m not sure “Blonde” actually exists outside of Stromberg’s catalog descriptions. I can’t find any mention of that color anywhere else! They do, however, describe their “Italian” quail as having brown/black markings on a cream base, which is Loki to a T. So I took a chance, and ordered some “Golden Italian” eggs from an online seller – the picture listed looks like Loki. If they hatch, he’ll just have to be happy with what he gets, exact match or not! 🙂
So here we go – more adventures in hatching quail. Now I just need to finish building their new coop, so Loki and his future girls will have someplace to live. Even though I have him separated from my other male, Peabody, they are still fighting through the bars. No blood has been drawn, but Peabody spent a few days sulking in the nest box after Loki apparently scalped a patch of feathers off Peabody’s head. Peabody’s own fault, of course – he’s the one who stuck in his head through the bars and gave Loki the opportunity! I tried to tell him that, but there’s simply no explaining anything to a sulking quail.
It’s going to be a great weekend. The weather is improved (sunshine replacing snow), I have quail eggs and strawberry plants arriving in the mail, and I’m attending a class at my local nursery on espalier tree pruning.
Out of Eden 