Strange kid revelation....

[Jeff]

I am not really sure about this as I have not even noticed, but.....  My youngest was playing with the 3 day old quail.  She was saying how some of them had "bloody" beaks.  I looked and nope, not bloody.  the tops of their beaks were red, but when I rubbed one of them, it was not blood, it did not come off.  I did not think anything about it since I did a search on here and did not find anything.  She said they were bleeding and going to die, I told her they would not and not to worry.  Well.......

The next morning I woke and began to get ready for work.  When I came out and checked the quail before I left, there was a note next to the birds.  "Dad, 2 Qale dide with bloody beekes".  I looked and did not see any dead birds in the brooder.  I got home from work and saw a dead bird, sure enough, red beak.  I asked my daughter and told her I only saw 1 dead, she said she took out the 2 thru the night.  Hmmmm......

Anyone noticed this?  If so, what is it and can it be stopped?  I had 78 hatch out of 115 eggs and lost 5 so far.  I know loosing 5 is not too bad, but 3 from the red beaks?  I find it strange, any ideas?

Jeff

[Reeves]

Only two things come to mind.

One, do you have some kind of wire on your brooder ? If so, they may be barking up their beaks by poking their beaks through the wire. Shouldn't kill them though......

Second thought is they are grabbing the others beaks / fighting. Too small a brooder or too many in the space. Wrong color light. Too hot.

Quail love to find new ways to die.....

[slider]

Quail love to find new ways to die.....

That quote just about says it all...

[Jeff]

Well Piss....

My red light went out and all that Atwoods had was clear heat lamps, so I go one.  No wire on the floor, just pine chips and they dirty it up in no time.  I have been watching and it seems teh ones that get it are the smallest, figure they are trying to show their oats?  I've been loosing on averavege 3 birds a day since hatch.  Don't know what the problem may be, although, my youngest says "dad, there are ?? with bloody beaks" and sure enough, they will be dead in the morning.  And they are the smaller ones.

Brooding consists of a large plastic tub with a heat lamp, water and food.  Plenty of room for the babies.  I keep it inside, which I don't why because it is in the high 90's here.  I will look into breaking them up into smaller groups and try to keep down the fighting if that it what it is.

Jeff