Organic Quail Hatched & Raised by Hen Pt 3 Choosing the Hen & Making the Nest

[@runjettyrun3819]

Sue 💫 this was brilliant. I so appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge and love the filming of your beautiful hen mothers in action. Fills my heart with such joy, warmth and happiness ❤ fills my mind with great ideas, insights and lessons 🐔. Thank you and sending you my very best for the continuing quail journey 🌼🍀🥀🍃🌺🌼🌷🍁

[@Pavlovafowl]

Aww that was a lovely set of comments and well appreciated by me, as always. My major problem at the moment is, I'm running out of meal worms and the compost heaps are running out of invertebrates as they are digging further down to find moisture. However, the little quail are getting very adept at catching flying insects, which are loving the hot weather and are becoming more and more prolific. There are plenty of small meal worms growing up but these chicks seems to be able to consume so many at a sitting. I'm having to rethink my food production along the lines of a cast iron bath, that used to be a goat drinking trough! All the very best from Normandie, Sue xx

[@tiarianamanna973]

I highly value all this very well detailed info 😍

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there and thank you so much for your comments, I was so hoping this film would be useful and it is incredibly helpful for me to get your feedback. This is particularly important in light of a comment on the first video in the series, which expressed the opinion that the video was basically too detailed. I know when I started out with quail over 20 years ago I would have loved some ideas on how to raise quail with a hen and above all how to troubleshoot problems, preferably before they happen! The next episode is coming soon - today or tomorrow. All the very best from Normandie, Sue xx

[@GinaSiska]

I always learn so much from you Sue! Hope all is well with you in these crazy times!

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi Gina, good to hear from you and yes I'm learning a lot too, particularly from this hatch! Yep, it's a crazy era we live in but somehow I feel ever more people realise that and thus a lot of good could come from this. At least people are beginning to question everything and this is healthy. All the very best from sunny Normandie, Sue xx

[@GinaSiska]

@@Pavlovafowl Hello Sue, I was just checking in to see if everything is ok? I worry about you over there! God bless and ❤️ from Maryland USA.

[@Organikmechanic]

@@GinaSiska Hi Gina, Great to hear from you and yes, thank-you everything is fine and I hope all is well with you too! I have been concentrating on working on the house and garden for the last few months as it really was time to both mend and improve a few things. Plus Andy got Shingles, I had it 6 years ago - in the Winter and got rid of it in a few days but Andy had this in the searing heat of the Summer and he got a heat rash with it as well, so it was pretty bad. Therefore what with applying ice packs and various herbs and floral lotions, I was sort of out of circulation on the KZbin front. I have all the quail stuff documented though and will definitely be able to get something edited soon. I also had an idea for some short chicken and quail films - based on sharing a single tip or trick I use with my birds. I'm working on titles at the moment and have quite a list so hopefully, as Andy can now carry a camera again, we will be back in production. Thank you again for your concern and lovely words, sending you back a BIG HUG to Maryland from Normandie, Sue xxx

[@Pavlovafowl]

@@GinaSiska Sorry Gina was signed into the wrong account - obviously being away from here for two months has made me forget how this works!! Sue xxx

[@GinaSiska]

@@Organikmechanic glad you’re doing well and so sorry to hear about Andy’s shingles!! It sounds like you have your hands full, for sure!!

[@Scaling_Obsession]

Very interesting video! I have two bantam chicks I was originally going to cull from the flock as I wanted to focus solely on quail. I might raise them up now. Hopefully I get some hens and then I'll get them to incubate the quail eggs.

[@Pavlovafowl]

Bantams make brilliant mothers, they are instinctive in working out that they have something other than hen chicks, which is amazing. Did you see my films about my Cochin bantam taking over the hatching of my neighbours' ducks?She even managed to change her voice to sound like a duck! All the very best, Sue xx

[@HelenaMikas]

Fascinating. viewing ..Looking at some great videos from last years :)) 👍👏🏻

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi Helen and thanks so much for your comments, they are appreciated! I will have more new videos soon. We have had some serious internet issues with speeds so low, I couldn't upload anything but that now seems fixed, ironically since we asked for a rebate due to lack of internet service! All the very best, Sue

[@HelenaMikas]

@@Pavlovafowl Love your style .Fight ones corner Only way at times..A treat to come :

[@kirstybroens4456]

Another lovely video, and very informative. Thank you Sue! 😊 All 3 of our (very broody!) silkie hens have brooded hatching eggs this Summer, whitey and blacky have hatched 4 poland chicks each (from a great source via ebay) whitey has 3 frizzles and blacky has all 4 smooth. I'm hoping to see some guinea fowl keets under our other silkie from tomorrow 🤞 Best wishes, Kirsty xx

[@Pavlovafowl]

Thank you Kirsty and hope everything is still going well with the keets! Lots of love, Sue xx

[@kirstybroens4456]

@@Pavlovafowl Hi Sue, thanks very much for your message, and hope you received my last email? I was worried about another keet, but in the end, there are 4 keets thriving on virtually organic ox liver, boiled eggs and veggies. Silkie mum has settled down lol. Introducing more pekin hens and a silkie as have the 4 poland young boys (nearly 12 weeks old) and assume must have at least 1 or 2 poland boys with the 2nd hatch (6 weeks old) ... can't be all girls, but can hope lol!! All's well with the older poland boys, and Roddy, our main man is doing well, coping with the upheaval, as well as his girls. Wanting more girls to try and help to even out the numbers is all well and good, and admittedly wanting more polands (Roddy was the only one until recently) creates more disruption, especially when hatching eggs can turn out to be all cockerels lol! Hopefully not all male with the keets too lol!! Love and best wishes, Kirsty xx

[@fiestacranberry]

Love your videos!

[@Pavlovafowl]

Thank you so much! Your kind comments are appreciated as always. All the very best from sunny Normandie, Sue xx

[@ruk3764]

Another wonderful and educational video. I loved watching it. Will you let us know what went wrong with that hatch? Hope you and your flock are well and happy, and enjoying summer.

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there and thank you for your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated as always. Yes, it was always my intention to give a detailed almost day-by-day account of this hatch and its aftermath and I have a lot of footage which just needs editing. I'm hoping to get the next one out shortly - hopefully within the next couple of days. Yes - we're fine and are enjoying the Summer, though I'm not sure the garden is! After a very cold and rainy Spring we have had a hot and very dry Summer so far, even some of the trees are wilting. I save just about every bit of water I can but some of the vegetables and fruits are really suffering. All the very best from Normandie, Sue xx

[@ruk3764]

@@Pavlovafowl Thanks Sue. I'm just seeing this and will keep a look out for future videos. I hope you and your flock and garden are managing ok in this summer heat. I'm in England and it's another mini-heatwave over here. Luckily my flock seems to be doing okay in it. Wishing you all the best.

[@absorbnatureexploringkashm2304]

Lots of love from srinagar kashmir, i too have got a pair of quails and and they have started laying now i am planning to hatch them.

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there, How did you get on with your quail eggs, did your quail sit and hatch them? Sending you love back from France and a big hug for your quail, Sue

[@absorbnatureexploringkashm2304]

@@Pavlovafowl I am planning to hatch them with the help of broody hen.

[@PNWhiker-r1v]

Hi, in your experience what are the signs a quail is going broody? I have one hen that that seems confused she has been spending a lot of time sitting in a dust bathing pit. But she has wanting to tuck eggs under her but she gives up halfway and then shows interest in dust bathing. Do you think she is going broody?

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi Jacob, This is still such a rare event and has so little literature written about it that it would be well worth documenting and posting. In my experience quail can make communal nests if you have a large group and eventually one of them - particularly if she is in a bonded pair, does go broody. There is, from both what I have read and experienced, quite an input from the male in this, in encouraging the hen both to nest, lay and possibly to brood. Certainly mine have followed this pattern but there have always been a few 'false starts'. When you think about it, for centuries humans have so 'messed up' the coturnix with cage breeding, intensive farming, incorrect diet, poor environments and strange ratios of male to female, that it's always a wonder to me that they can get any of their natural behaviours back but they do and they appreciate the care we take to furnish all that. It does seem to me as if she is showing the signs of going broody, perhaps she needs some encouragement from a partner to start making a dedicated nesting site - you could perhaps actually make a nest yourself if your male isn't doing this and put a few eggs in. That was the trouble once with one of my quail, a mouse kept squeezing in at night and rolling the eggs about, so the nest, I believe, looked unsafe to the potential broody. Once I'd sealed up the gap in the run and the eggs remained in place, my quail went broody. Wild birds make several nests quite early in the year before they actually settle down to brood, so my guess is our quail will be the same. Fingers crossed and keep us posted, Sue xx

[@kirstybroens4456]

Hi again Sue Would really appreciate your advice please regarding one of our silkie mums with guinea fowl keets, on whether to remove the keets from her. They are 12 days old today. She did a great job sitting on the eggs, but admittedly I should have considered her potential mothering skills, as she's not been a mother before and know she is quite highly strung. It appears to me that the keets want more warmth from her and she seems more focused on finding food and not sensing what they need? The house has easibedding (wood chips) and the attached run is covered with compost. Sadly one of the keets has died, and I suspect it had internal injuries, or maybe it succumbed to cocci ... I more suspect the former as one morning, when opening up the house, the silkie put her whole weight directly onto one keet when stepping out, and regularly kicks about enthusiastically for food, with no apparent concern for the keets, so unfortunately would definitely put her in the"inconsiderate" category! I am uncomfortable about seperating them but am equally worried for the keets wellbeing. Many thanks in advance, Kirsty xx

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi Kirsty, Great to hear from you. Yes this is a major problem with some hens, they can get too involved in food finding and don't listen out for the warning signals of the chicks being cold. I'm guessing also keets have a different vocalisation for cold than hen chicks, quail certainly do and it takes some hens a time to recognise this - if they ever do! At twelve days, they will be well bonded to and secure in, having a mother, so that is a difficulty. They can suffer really bad stress by being parted and she will too but there is a chance your keet could have died purely from being cold - although being stepped on wouldn't have helped if it was in cold stress. So there is a balance to be achieved here and several ideas I use. I've sent you nine of them by email - so hope one will pan out! All the very best and love from Normandie, Sue xx

[@chrislecky710]

Quail hens stopped being broody because humanity unconsciously established a symbiotic relationship with them So now the future of their species is our responsibility... He has the whole world in his hands,,, he hand the whole world in his hands KMT..

[@sro90]

My little bantam cochin has been a faithful mama to the eggs for the last 18 days and she now has 2 babies out, well see how the rest go. But so far she seems very attentive and protective. She let's me check under her and touch the chicks but she pecks my husband! Lol. This is a very cool experience and I hope it continues to go well.

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there and thank you so much for sharing your experiences. This is a very rewarding, albeit rather difficult process in the first couple of weeks. As your hen is good with them and attentive to their needs then that is wonderful. I do hope all is still going well and do keep me posted. It is also most helpful to share the experience with others if you can, in an article or on film, as there is so little information out there and it really helps others who are considering raising quail with a bantam. I've found Cochin bantams to be incredibly sensitive around quail chicks, in particular with regard to their seemingly innate understanding of how careful they should be with their large feathery feet! All the very best from Normandie and congratulations on your great quail adventure, Sue xx

[@sro90]

@Pavlovafowl my bantam Fancy is doing really well with them! It's addicting to watch how Fancy calls to them and just takes such good care of the quail chicks. She has 6 chicks to care for. It will be interesting to see what differences if any, there will be between these chicks raised by Fancy and our other quail all hatched from incubators. We don't use the cages, that has never sat right with me. But we built them a 4ft by 12ft greenhouse type building with 2 floors connected by a ramp. We add plants and greens in whenever we have some since they turn everything to dirt. I'd like to improve their coop and do something like what you have.

[@shuyostarwind1277]

i only had 1 quail hatch out of my 1st batch so i ran to rural king to try and get some bantam chicks planning to rehome all but maybe keep 1 hen to keep in with the quail in hopes of it going broody and hatching them for me, but they only had standard sized breeds i ended up getting marans since i figured they would be easiest to rehome do you think a maran would be too big to use as a broody hen for quail?

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there, The standard Marans is a heavy hen and also has large feet, which are a major problem for quail, as they tend to sit right under the hen for the first 24 hours or so after hatch, therefore can easily and very sadly get squashed. Marans also have a dense plumage and as quail have a tendency to burrow right down to the warmth of the skin, they can end up getting strangled in the feathers, this is a particular danger when the Mother hen gets up in the morning as they can be dangling by fine strands of twisted plumage caught up around their necks. Even with a light-feathered bantam, who is brooding quail, I would still check every morning that there is no chick within her plumage as she stands up. I do not want to put you off doing this but it is well to be aware of the problems before they happen. You really do need a bantam for quail, in my experience. All the very best from Normandie, Sue

[@shuyostarwind1277]

@@Pavlovafowl yea im going to have to rehome most of these anyway so may see if i can trade for a bantam hen

[@edgesam4958]

Good morning 👍

[@Pavlovafowl]

Good Morning to you Edge and thanks for watching! All the very best from Normandie, Sue xx

[@fiestacranberry]

I'm trying this right now with my little hen, Phyllis. 8quail eggs. I saw some were pipping, so there should be quail tomorrow!

[@Pavlovafowl]

Hi there, Brilliant news! I am so sorry I'm running late with this series but Andy has had Shingles, I had it 5 years ago and got over it really quickly but this is horrible, we've both had hardly any sleep for the past two weeks and obviously no filming! Anyway we're hopefully over the worst! Much love from Normandie and a big hug for Phyllis, Sue xx

[@fiestacranberry]

@@Pavlovafowl ​that's terrible, sorry to hear this. I've heard that the V A X is causing this in a lot of people, bringing up dormant viruses. Horrible. Maybe quail eggs would help?

[@Pavlovafowl]

​@@fiestacranberry Yes that's true because it's basically a detox, so anything that is toxic in the body will come out through the skin because it's a large organ. In both our cases, I had it 6 years ago but only for a few days, I believe shingles is linked to mercury poisoning because of the terrible dental procedures on school children in the UK in the 60s and 70s when the government paid dentists just to drill and fill. Andy has over 8 old mercury fillings which are falling apart. I believe though shingles needs a secondary trigger and mine was going away for Christmas and leaving the birds - this always sends me into a tailspin, after that I got organised and made up all their food and froze it and made sure everything was simple. Andy's mother broke her hip at the start of covid and ended up being placed in a care home, which has basically made her bedridden, we haven't been able to see her for over 2 years and were just about to go back in July when France changed the rules for coming back into the country from the UK, so we would have to have a negative prc test I know what Kary Mullis the inventor of them said about those, so we can't leave someone looking after our birds without the assurance of getting back within a given time - so mega stress for Andy! I keep telling Andy this is probably the safest way of the body getting rid of mercury but it's pretty horrible. I remember what the pain was like!! I think quail eggs too because they worked so well for eczema another stress and toxin based condition. Mine aren't laying at the moment, so I'm off to purchase some tomorrow - great minds think alike because we were just talking about this a few hours ago! Hope you've got some quail chicks by now. I did manage to get this article out on instructables which could be useful, hopefully you won't need it!: www.instructables.com/Emergency-ICU-Unit-for-Baby-Quail-Chicks-or-Other-/ meant to make the film about three weeks back but hopefully will get it out soon. Much love from Normandie, Sue xx

[@fiestacranberry]

@@Pavlovafowl Wow, yeah---that's a lot of stress. These past few years have been very difficult. My mom also broke her hip in December. They operated on it (put in a pin) successfully, but I suspect the reason she fell may have been a small stroke. She went downhill very fast afterwards, and died. She was 102. I also lost my good little dog, Otto (that's him in my avatar). His cancer returned after radiation, which gave him an additional 18 months. He was so sick at the end, and required so much care. He'd always been sort of sickly, needing prescription foods, etc. I noticed that my eczema, which was raging these past 6 months, has entirely cleared up since he died. It sort of makes me feel guilty. I did not take the V A X, because I have such bad allergic reactions to everything. i'm really glad now I didn't---so many horror stories I'm hearing from friends who took it and now have all sorts of health problems. Were you forced to take it in France?