Farm Journal – April 2013
Between my professional role as a technical support manager, our Creek Street Micro Farm, three integrated food production web sites and various other writing projects, time is at a premium - so I'm always looking for new ways to leverage my efforts so that they benefit the largest number of people … [Read More...]
Japanese Quail #7 – the Post Mortem
Incubation is about hatch percentages - and every unhatched egg is an opportunity to review (and improve upon) your management practices Any competent incubator operator should be able to conduct a basic post mortem examination of the unhatched eggs. Incubated eggs start to go off very quickly - … [Read More...]
Japanese Quail #6 – Analysing the Hatch
The hatch commenced some time prior to 6.00am yesterday - by which time, we had 8 chicks. By nightfall, the numbers looked to be around 25 chicks. I ended the hatch at 7.00am on Thursday 2nd May - number remain unchanged from 25. Theoretically, we could have hatched 100 live chicks from 100 … [Read More...]
Japanese Quail #5 – Hatching Chicks
The hatch is underway. My partner Jan drew my attention to the fact that "there is somethin' happening in the incubator" at 6.00am this morning - and she was right. The first 8 or 10 chicks were staggering about drying off. Last night, some 334 hours after setting them, I took all of the eggs … [Read More...]
Japanese Quail #4 – Care of Fertile Eggs
In Japanese Quail #3, we looked at the incubator in terms of its role, its component parts and how it works. When it comes to producing healthy viable chicks, however, the incubator is only part of the process - so it's appropriate that we give some thought to the production and care of the … [Read More...]