Lost electricity overnight - lost a hatch

Fortunately, my 1 week old chickens and Jumbo Brown Coturnix Quail survived 4 hours last night without heat lamps during a black out.  I covered the brooders with blankets and they appear to be doing well now.  However, I did lose the 18 chicken eggs I had in the incubator.  This happened to me previously.  About 4 days before the hatch I lost power for three hours and had no way to add heat to the incubator.  Only one chick hatched.  She survived and is still laying eggs today.

I have the opportunity to pickup a free generator from my stepdad and I think I'm going to do it now - before this happens again!

Blessings.

Wally

Hiking the Gahuti Trail in Fort Mountain State Park - North Georgia

Below Fort Mountain from Gahuti Trail

Now, this doesn't have much to do with raising quail or chickens, but it does have to do with life in north Georgia.  One of the great plusses about living up here is hiking and camping in the mountains!  We went Saturday, the 22nd of October and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Still, a few too many leaves on the trees to see all the vistas that were available, but nonetheless, it was a memorable day.

Fort Mountain Park from the Gahuti Trail - north Georgia

Well, first of all, it was a 8.2 mile hike - to begin with.  I have never hiked 8.2 miles anywhere, let alone up and down a bunch of mountains.  Add to the fact that I am 61 and the adventure seems a bit more dangerous.  But, I figured, what the hey!  My wife said, you should do it! So our grandson, Dillan, our oldest son, Mike, and myself, headed out early Saturday morning for our great adventure. We ended up taking a side route which added almost a mile to the hike so we ended up doing close to 9 miles.

At the end of the day, it was a great time with my son and grandson, but we were absolutely beat!  Don't think I'll be doing a 9-mile hike anytime soon, but I will say that this has got us excited about doing some 3-4 mile hikes now that we know what we are in for.

As a disclaimer, Mike is the one who planned the trip and invited us.  I would never have said let's go hike up and down the mountain for 9 miles.  But, as Mike said, it helped us to realize that we can push ourselves much further than we think.

I really recommend the Gahuti Trail for those seeking an adventure in the north Georgia mountains.  We have lived up here 10 years and this is only my second hiking trip.  I plan on doing many more shorter trips!
Check out all the links to share in our adventure!!!

Starting out:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Ylu1627kw
Dillan on a natural rock formation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?
3 Miles from the end with the 3 amigos!  
The end of the hike:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0d5LyH1LCQ

Day 3 - growing strong and fast

I've taken the larger pieces of cage covering out already and just left a small section of paper towel to give their feet a break.  They are all healthy and eating and drinking well.  This will be a good batch of birds to start off my breeder selection with!

Check out the video!

New quail chicks are doing great!

Day 2 after the hatch and all is well.  I lost a total of 5 chicks which isn't bad. 2 had splayed legs and the other three had some other issues.

However, my hatch rate was over 80% and that was on mailed eggs.  That is great!!!  I normally expect only about 50-60% hatch rate when eggs are mailed to me so I count myself blessed.

Here are a couple of photos of what is going on in my basement.  I love my new hand-made brooders!  They were easy to make and are doing a great job for me in my setup.

Let me know if you have any questions I can answer for you. Also, keep checking my online store page to see what is available for sale.

Blessings,

Wally

Watch for our online store!

Keep an eye out for updates in our online store page.  We will have birds and other product for sale soon!

Blessings,

Wally

We have new quail and chickens

My first hatch of this year went off well.  Hatching chickens for meat and the quail are going to get my business started again.  They will be laying eggs in about 7 weeks and I'll be up to full production by spring.  I hope to have eggs to sell before then so stay tuned!  Remember, I have a free e-book on raising the quail.  Just email your request to waltersingingr@gmail.com.

New Homemade brooders

These are the best brooders I've made so far - made with the help of my grandson, Dillan! 36" x 24", fits a roll of 36" or 24" hardware cloth perfectly.  I just hang a heat lamp above one end and add feed and water and it's ready to go.  I'll add some more photos after the birds go in tonight.

Good news is that this is all made from scrap lumber.  The 1x12 is shelving grade that was discounted.  The legs are made from pallet scraps and the supports for the tray are scrap 2x laying around.

Back up on my old blog again!!!

Decided to switch back to my original site here as it has been a good draw for traffic in the past and the price is right!!  I've got new breeders hatching today so I will be back in the egg business in about 8 weeks.  I'm still giving away my How To Raise Quail book for those just getting started in the business.  Just send me an email requesting it!

Also hatched a few Black Australorps at the same time.  Send me any questions you might have on equipment, feed or methods and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

Blessings,

Wally