Day 71 Black Soldier Fly, Ice Cream to a Chicken

For about a year I have been wanting to make a compost bucket that attracts Black Soldier Flies. Why you might ask? The grubs make great compost from kitchen scrap and a great chicken feed supplement. They are around 40% protein and chickens love them.

 

 

Time for desert.

 

Adult female laying eggs.

 

Grubs ready for the chickens and quail.

Day 68 69 70

Just work.  Very Hot.

Day 67 Cucumbers

 

After 4 days cucumbers are poking their heads up. They are between the okra.

Days 64 65 66

Busy weekend but not much to write about.

Day 63

 

 

 

Planted today: tomatoes, okra, beets, cucumbers, egg plant, carrots.

                                                 Got me a new hat.



Day 62 Worm Castings and Mushroom Compost

 

2 bags of worm castings and a scoop of mushroom compost.

 

 

Tilled again

Worm castings added.

Compost added

 

Beds ready to plant.

 

Day 61 Fall Garden

 

This is where it is going

 

 

 

 

Taking out old raised beds

 

Top soil added and tilled.

 

Tomorrow I will be making 4 30" wide beds with 18" paths between.

Day 60

Monday I will be starting on the fall garden. I will post on the day to day progress on this.

Days 54-59

Nothing exciting. Just normal days at work.

Day 53 Work, Work and More Work

Work :

1. Changed mower blades
2. Cleaned shop
3. Cleaned garage
4. Mowed 3 acres
5. Driveway cleaned up
6. Cut burn pile in half
7. Fixed window grid

Home:

1. Feed and watered birds
2. Cleaned barn
3. Added compost to compost pile
4. Collected eggs
5. Went out to eat
6. Typed this blog
7. Going to bed

Day 52

Did a bunch of nothing today.

Day 51 Yard Work

Kaleb came over to help the old man work on the yard. We found out that it is still hot.

Day 50

Just a normal work day.

Day 49 Just Another Day

What a day. Stepped in a hole while weed eating. Thought I was going to break my leg, but just bruises and sore.

Got the tractor to get a bucket of dirt to fill the hole. While getting the dirt a hydraulic hose broke spitting fluid everywhere.

Now the hunt for a replacement hose. Auto part store... no, Northern tool... no, HD....no, Southern Hydraulics ... YES.    $20.00  Perfect fit and tractor working again.

Hopefully tomorrow will go better.



Day 48 The Meat

If you don't want to know how quail are turned to meat for the table and want to continue believing meat just magically gets wrapped up at the Walmart, skip this step now.



Day 47 The Egg

Each hen will lay around 300 eggs per year if you give them artificial light and keep them worm during the winter. You don't need any roosters for hens to lay eggs. Just need the roosters if you want fertile eggs for hatching.

Anyway you can use a chicken egg works with quail eggs. 4 to 5 quail eggs equal 1 chicken egg for use in recipes.

I don't notice any difference in taste.

Chicken and quail egg.

 

scissors for cutting quail eggs.

They cost about $10.00

http://www.amazon.com/Seki-Quail-Egg-Shell-Cutter/dp/B000AR2J5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436308405&sr=8-1&keywords=quail+egg+scissors

 

 



Day 46 Small Pen

I started with 5 of these smaller pens. Each pen held up to 6 quail. 1 male and 4 to 5 females.

The birds ended up with foot problems because of the wire cages. They seem much happier now that they can scratch the ground. I was worried about how many of the eggs would be fertile by moving them all to one big pen. The hatch rate has stayed the same.

If you only have a small area to raise them you might have to go with the small cages. Check out the internet for different kinds. They come in all shapes and sizes.

Day 45 The Pen

 

 

This pen will hold around 100+ quail. It was made as a chicken tractor to hold a dozen hens to be moved to a new patch of grass every day or so. Didn't work so well with quail. It is now put in one spot with a deep mulch method and is working well.

 



set over raised bed for quail to clean up last years crop.

 

 

 

 5 gallon bucket is the watered. It has 4 chicken nipples in the bottom.

5 ft long 4 inch PVC cut in half for feeder.

 

 

 

This pen cost about $200.00 in material and about 4 hours to build.

 

Here is the link to buy the plans.

http://foodcyclist.com/stress-free-chicken-tractor-plans/

 

I am pretty handy at building things and am glad I spent the $19.95 for John's plans. I am guessing it saved me at least 5 hours just because of the material list and trips to Home Depot..

 

John built these to raise meat chickens on his farm. Watch his videos on how they work.

 

Tomorrow, some pens I will not do again!

 

Day 44 The Feed

Quail need to have a minimum of 24% protein in there feed. 30% is better if you can find it. Laying chickens get around 16% for comparison.

We use a 24% game fowl starter/grower that I get at Ace Hardware. Tractor Supply also carries a chick starter that is 24%. Ace Hardware is $12.99 per 50lb bag and TS is 17.99 per 50lb bag.

100 quail go through about 50lbs per week.

Day 43. The Brooder

The brooder is just a 2 to 3 week holding pin you can keep the chicks worm and safe from predators.

If you are buying your chicks instead of hatching them start at this step.



I use a large Rubbermaid tote. For the first week this will easily hold 50 chicks.



You need to keep them worm.
         1st week 95 degrees
         2nd week 90 degrees
         3rd week 85 degrees


We keep this inside, for the 1st week, so we can regulate the temperature better.

I also use a heat lamp you can buy at Tractor Supply.





http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/producers-pridereg%3B-brooder-lamp-with-6-ft-cord  9.99

 

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/producers-pridereg%3B-heat-lamp-r-40-250-w-red-sb-pack-of-2?cm_vc=-10005.      8.99 for 2 bulbs

 

You will need a watered and feeder. Make sure the watered is for quail and not chickens. If you use a chicken watered some of you quail chicks might drown themselves.

 

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/harris-farms-screw-on-quail-base-for-quart-jar  2.49

 

 

 

 

 

Day 42 The Incubator

Since these quail will not hatch their own eggs any longer we must hatch them. You can use an incubator or find a broody bantam hen (small chicken).

To get started with your quail you don't have to get an incubator right away if you have someone in your area that sales chicks. I suggest starting this way because incubators can be pricey. Mine was $180.00 but I bought it after I already had some chicks from a local producer.

 

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incuview-egg-incubator.html

 

 

 

I bought this one because it has digital thermometer, humidity gauge, fan for moving air and an automatic egg turner. Basically it is set it and forget it for 17 days.

 

 

The eggs need to be turned 3 times per day. If you don't have an automatic turner you have to do it.

 

This incubator holds a steady 99.6 degrees. I have not used any other incubators but have friends that have used different brands and steady temperature has been a problem.

 

This incubator holds 50 quail eggs.

 

Process for hatching:

 

     Collect 50 eggs that are less than 7 days old

     Turn incubator on a couple of hours before placing eggs.

     Put eggs in and make sure turner is on.

     After 14 days turn turner off, add water to bring humidity up.

     Chicks start hatching from day 16 to 18.

     Let chicks dry before moving to brooder

 

You should get 40 - 60% hatch rate.

 

 

WARNING!!!!!

Once you have an incubator hatching is addicting.

My incubator has not been off for almost a year now.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Day 41 Coturnix Quail

This is a coturnix quail. They are full grown at 8 weeks. Start laying eggs at 8 weeks vs a chicken which starts at around 20 weeks.

They will not sit on their eggs for hatching so you have to use an incubator or find someone that has chicks for sale.

Each hen will lay about 300 eggs per year.

Tomorrow we will talk about incubators.

Rooster on the left, hen on the right.

Day 40 Raising Quail on Your Homestead or Backyard

I am starting a series of post that will show you the ins and outs of raising quail for meat, eggs and maybe some profit in your backyard.  We will go through each step, how much things cost, things I will not do again or what I would do differently.

I want your questions, so comment below.

I will keep each section short with a new section coming each day.

 

Day 39

Much cooler today. High around 85. Have to put a new transmission in the work truck.

8 baby quail hatched during the day.  Should have several more tomorrow.

Day 38

Great day today. Built our chicken pen fence taller so the two that keep hopping it can't. The have been eating our tomatoes. No more.....

Built a new gate so the dogs can't push it open and escape.

10 more bags of garden soil for the raised beds. Going to plant some radishes.

1

Taller fences

New Gate

Day 37

What a day. I don't usually put my political points of view out to the public but here it goes.

I was raised in a conservative republican home. I was taught that my vote mattered and that we the people ran this great country of ours.

At age 50 my views have changed. I don't see any difference between the R and the D any longer. Most likely there never was a difference. The powers at be seem to always give us, ''we the people'', two choices on what they want to distract us with.

I believe most Americans want to be left alone to live their life the way they want without the government telling you what to do.

Examples:

I want chickens.  Stay out of my backyard.

Gay people want to get married let them but don't make me be a part of it if I don't want to.
Government should not be involved with marriage period.

If I want any kind of flag I can have it. If Walmart doesn't want to sale them they don't have to.

If I want health insurance I will get it. Don't put a gun to my head and make me buy it.

Drugs, your choice.
Guns, your choice.

If you harm anyone with your choices you pay the price.

I am not sure what label you would have to put these views under, close to anarchist but not quite. How about min-archist.

Enough of this rant for now. Back to the garden.

 

Day 36

Just a normal Friday.

Day 35

Better day today. Had to take out 3 trees that died. Can't figure out what happened to them.

One left to cut down.

going to try to burn stump out.

fire is started.