I love to learn new things. New experiences and classes are important parts of my life. When my friend said that they were going to hatch a new batch of quail I jumped at the chance to be a part of the process. I had never been involved in the process of hatching poultry before.
The first thing I was amazed by is how fast the timeline is. 17- 21 days is all it takes from the time of collecting the hopefully fertilized eggs to hatching chicks. Only three weeks. We collected the eggs over a period of 3 days and put them all into an incubator at the same time. The incubator keeps the temperature warm and steady and rotates the eggs periodically. Duties usually handled by a mother but apparently domesticated quail have lost those instincts.
After just 12 days you can hold a flashlight to the eggs and see which ones have something growing inside. After a couple weeks the same light will show whether there are veins pumping with blood. The coolest part was being there to see some of them hatch. They are tiny little damp fluffs when they first crack out. As quail eggs are about a quarter the size of a chicken egg I do mean tiny. Hearing their cheaps as they begin to the crack through is both adorable and exciting.
This experience has had some tough moments. Not all chicks make it. Not all of them are strong enough to get out not all of them form properly to be able to twist their necks around in the proper way to crack through the shell. One was working on hatching for nearly two days. It wasn’t looking good. When it did eventually make it out the chicks back wasn’t formed properly and so it can’t walk.
There’s nothing that can done. This chick won’t live for much longer. This chick will have siblings and cousins that never even make it out of the shell. Which is harder. You see you can’t help them. It they can’t break through the shell on their own they won’t be strong enough to survive after.
It’s difficult not being able to help. But this has been a good exercise in letting go of control. They make it or they don’t. There are many things in life that we don’t have power over or responsibility for. All you can do is breathe and hope for the best and smile at the quail chicks that do make it.
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