Farming Friends

Did you know that as soon as piglets are born they start to suckle and hunt for the sows teats. The suckling instinct kicks in within minutes of being born.

Initially the piglets will fight for the teats and there is alot of movement between teats and then within a day they settle down and always stick to the same teat. The most dominant piglets get the best teats. Some of the piglets even get to suckle on more than one if they are canny!

 Moe from Iowavoice left a comment,

“I just watched on animal planet a story about how piglets fight pretty agressively for the teets the first time, with the dominant piglet getting the best teet, and on down the line, and how once the piglets establish who has what teet, they never change. Even if you take all of the piglets and mix them up they will all go back to “their” teets without any fighting.”

Animal behaviour is so interesting to watch.

It is important for quail eggs that are not incubated straight away, to be stored correctly.

Cracked, poorly shaped, soiled, thin shelled, unusually large or unusually small quail eggs should not be kept for incubation.

Only select clean and undamaged quail eggs for incubation.

Quail eggs should not be washed.

Try not to handle the quail eggs too frequently.

When handling quail eggs make sure that hands are washed to avoid bacterial contamination.

Before incubation, quail eggs can be stored for up to 7 days.

When storing quail eggs before incubating, make sure that they are kept at a constant temperature of 13-18 degrees Celsius or 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do not store the quail eggs at ordinary room temperature or in a refrigerator.

Avoid placing the quail eggs in a draft when in storage before incubation.

Store quail eggs with the small end facing down.

Try to keep the quail eggs at the correct humidity prior to incubation which is a humidity of 84-88%.

Make sure the stored quail eggs are turned twice daily before they are incubated.

Keep the stored quail eggs in an egg carton and prop up one end at a 35 degree angle.

Hope this information helps. I have followed this information myself and had guinea fowl and quail eggs hatch out.

I have recently set up a forum with a section on quail. It is free to join and you can chat about your quail or ask questions and myself and other quail enthusiast are there to help. http://farmingfriends.com/forums/forum.php?id=4

I am thrilled that my khaki campbell ducks have just started to lay. Since Friday, I have got a duck egg each day. I have read that ducks can start laying at about 20 weeks and my khaki campbell ducks are now 18 weeks old so they are on track. I haven’t cooked any of the duck eggs yet but I will let you know how they taste when I do.

Broody hens can feather pick when they are sitting on the nest so don’t be alarmed. They will sometimes pluck the feathers from their breast to line the nest and also to transfer their body heat to the egg more efficiently.
I have recently set up a forum all about hens and chickens which is free to join. so if you have any question about chickens and hens or you just want to chat about your hens then register today http://farmingfriends.com/forums/forum.php?id=8

I have 11 guinea fowl poults or so I thought! I house my guinea fowl in a large hut on a night with my chickens. I recently placed a run inside the hut with the 11 guinea fowl poults in it so that the could get used to their new surroundings and so that the other guinea fowl and hens could get used to the guinea fowl poults.

In the last week I have been been letting the guinea fowl poults out of the run and letting them spend the day in the hut with the door open and a screen across the door so that they can’t get out, or so I thought.

The screen doesn’t cover the whole door and I went out a few of the guinea fowl poults were out of the hut. I got them back in and didn’t think to count them. it was only when I went back later and put them back in their run that I realised there were only 9 and not 11 guinea fowl poults.

I did a search of the area but couldn’t find the two missing guineas. I did see some feathers and wondered if they had been taken by a fox or one of the farm cats as the guinea fowl are still only small.

As the light began to fade something caught my eye in the trees and there were the two guinea fowl poults. I wasn’t able to get them down in fact the more I tried the higher up the tree they went.

The guinea fowl remained in the tree that night and when I got up the next morning they were on the roof of the poultry hut. I was relieved when I managed to get the guinea fowl poults down from the roof and reunited with the other 9 guinea fowl.

How long does it take to lay fertile quail eggs is an excellent question and was asked by one of my regular readers and quail keepers, Junior.

“hi Sara

would the hen japenese quail dig out a nest of sawdust and share it with the male all day without eggs?

my quail or chickens havent been laying for 15days since one of my rabbits got killed by a fox.my camera is broke and I’m savin up 4 a new 1 but my button quail are feathery and out in the aiary already.
also how long does it take until they lay fertile eggs?

thanx so much”
Junior

Hi Junior,
Thanks for your comment.
I have some quail on sawdust and some on sandy soil. The ones on the sawdust tend to lay their eggs on top of the sawdust, whereas the quail on the sandy soil dig out a nest area.
Once the male and female quail start to mate then you will get fertile eggs. An indication that male quail are fertile is the foamball they have on their droppings. Eggs are usually fertile from about week 7/8 a week or two after the females start laying as long as they have had males in with them. It is a good idea to give the femal and males a week together after the hens have started to lay before you take the eggs for incubation.
I am sorry to hear that your camera is broken.
I look forward to hearing more about your quail.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends

Quail are amazing birds that start laying at about 6 weeks of age and produce fertile eggs from about 7 weeks once they are mating with the male quail.

I am delighted to say that Cagney, my Saddleback sow has had nine healthy piglets.

On Tuesday tea time I placed Cagney in the farrowing crate as she had milk when I squeezed her teats. I was able to do this on my own as Cagney is a very placid and gentle sow. It wasn’t long before she had her first piglet.

This is Cagney’s third litter. The second litter she farrowed unaided and before I got to the barn as it was in the early hours. In some ways it is better when you are not there as the sow and piglets just get on with it. However it is always good to be there so that you can assist if a piglet needs help or the sow is becoming aggressive like Lacy did over a week ago. With Lacy biting one of her piglets whilst she was farrowing I became very nervous when Cagney started to farrow. Once bitten twice shy if you’ll excuse the pun.

Cagney was very restless and after the first piglet was born she kept turning round and I thought that she might snap at the piglet so I decided to put the piglet in a box. I gathered each piglet into the box under the lamp as they were born.

When the piglets are born they instinctively start to search for the teats within minutes of being born. I let each piglet do this for a few minutes so that Cagney would know that the piglets were there.

The first five piglets arrived quite quickly but then there was a long gap and I had to put my hand in to check that the piglet wasn’t stuck.

Farrowing pigs is always difficult because you never know how many piglets they will have.

When cagney had her 7th piglet there was alot of cleansing which is a sign that the farrowing is over. However her behaviour was unchanged and she seemed to still be having contractions and pushing.

Another two piglets arrived and then as Lacy was feeding her piglets Cagney started to cleanse. Once she had done this I let her rest for a bit and then took out a piglet and let it try to nuzzle at the back of Cagney. I was very nervous as I didn’t want to release the piglets for Cagney to attack them. I got a stick and pretended that the stick was a piglet and moved it around near Cagney’s face. She looked at the stick but didn’t snap at it. I thought that it would be safe to let the piglets go in with Cagney. I gently emptied them from the box and there was a lot of grunting and squealing and then Cagney laid on her side and the piglets started to suckle. When they first go to the teats it is interesting to watch as they swop teats and try to find one that they are happy with. I stayed to make sure all was well and then went to bed at 2.45 in the morning.