Old Spruce Quails

08/20/2023

Hello everyone!

I have taken a long hiatus from here! I just wanted to pop on and give you all an update. The reason I have been gone is we found out we are expecting a little girl in December! First trimester and the beginning of the second wasn’t very kind to me in regards to morning sickness.
I stopped hatching chicks and decided that next year I will be restarting my covey. I will start to work with larger coturnix quails and possibly feather sexable varieties. I had plans to do this all this year, but I wasn’t able to do all of it with my nausea.
I will be selling and culling the quails in my current covey. If you are interested in any of the following please PM me or let me know you would like to be contacted. I have:

2-3 Coturnix Roos
30-40 Coturnix Hens
2-3 Blue Scale Quails
6 Button Quail Roos
1 Bobwhite Hen

Some of the birds are either molting or growing back feathers from me having too many roos not too long ago. They are all laying age. They will be priced according to their conditions.

I hope you all have been well!

-Sarah Rucker

04/01/2023

Lockdown! I decided to put a small batch of eggs in the incubator before our trip and they are finally in lockdown! Someone has already reserved ten babies from this hatch, but anyone left over is still up for grabs! Let me know if you are interested!
Thanks!
Sarah Rucker

03/27/2023

I have a friend that is trying to find a home for some blue scale quails. These guys are RARE and hardly show up around Wisconsin. They need a heated space until summer and are housed in pairs. They lay beautiful white eggs with sandy speckles. If you are interested comment or DM me. She has two roos and four hens.

Thanks!
Sarah Rucker

The scaled quail (Callipepla squamata), also commonly called blue quail or cottontop, is a species of the New World quail family. It is a bluish gray bird found in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States to Central Mexico. This species is an early offshoot of the genus Callipepla, divergi...

03/21/2023

**sold**

It looks is like I have 10 - week old coturnix chicks available! If anyone is interested send me a private message or comment!

Some chicks are just turning a week old and some are a few days older. The one on the left was the last to hatch and is likely either full or recessive for celadon! (Blue egg layer) The chick on the right is a few days older!

03/15/2023

The chicks from the small incubator are almost two weeks old and the chicks from the large incubator are almost a week old. They are all in a scruffy ugly duckling phase, but look at a week’s difference between these chicks!

I just wanted to remind you all that Easter will be here before you know it and chicken eggs aren’t the only ones you can dye. 😘 I did a test on some eating eggs and I think they turned out great! Let me know if you are interested in eggs for Easter.

03/07/2023

Chicks are hatching!

We had one dark tuxedo baby born on lockdown! We don’t know exactly why he hatched so early, but a yellow chick decided to join him shortly afterwards. Today we have had two chicks hatch. This little red headed tuxedo and another dark one. Enjoy this video of him drunkily tipping around…

When we have a big boom in hatches I will start contacting you individually for those of you who wanted two day old chicks.

Sarah Rucker

03/06/2023

Welp….I didn’t expect that! 🐥

This little guy decided to hatch on Lockdown! First time this ever happened to me. The only thing I can think of is he heard the chicks next door and wanted to join them. 🤷‍♀️ We will see if others follow suit and join him early.

03/06/2023

LOCKDOWN!!! 😆

We have entered lockdown for chicks today! It is always such an exciting day when lock down comes around!

I will be contacting you all that are in this hatch to make sure the order I have from you is still correct. We are probably looking at this weekend (11th & 12th) for picking up couple day old chicks and the week/weekend after that for week old chicks.

I will making sure people are getting their chicks on a first come, first serve basis. If for some reason this hatch doesn’t go well,🤞I will have more eggs hatching the first week of May.

Hope everyone is doing well. Let me know if I can help in any way!

Sarah Rucker

03/05/2023

16 chicks from my small incubator have hatched so far. I haven’t been feeling 100% the last couple days and took the simplest route to setting up a brooder for the chicks. My button quails have been living in my brooder and I didn’t have the energy to move them. This is proof that at the very least you need a big cardboard box. The chicks are quiet, they are all eating, drinking and going under the brooder plate on their own. They must be happy! (The chirping you hear in the background are my buttons talking)

Lockdown on Monday for the next batch! Once chicks start hatching I will start contacting everyone individually that is on the reserve list to set up times for picking up.

Sarah Rucker

03/03/2023

Oh! Good morning!! 🐥 One chick and a bunch of wiggly eggs! 😂

This is from my small incubator. Lockdown is on the 6th for the chicks everyone is waiting for. ❤️

03/02/2023

I have been working hard to write up two guides for you all! One is for hatching coturnix eggs and the other is for raising coturnix chicks. Chicks are coming next week so it is time to give them a read! I have written down a lot of tips and tricks to avoid losing chicks that I have learned from many hatchings! Hopefully they help you!
Let me know if you have any technical issues, or questions!

Sarah Rucker

Hatching Eggs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhqqnmefb5nh1xj/OLD%20SPRUCE%20QUAIL%20HATCHING%20GUIDE.pdf?dl=0
Chick Care:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6uw7su42dxs64jj/OLD%20SPRUCE%20QUAILS%20CHICK%20GUIDE.pdf?dl=0

03/01/2023

Oh boy! It’s both lockdown and candling day today!

Today is lockdown for my small incubator that has eggs from another coturnix breeder. I did a second candling candling and only 3 of 32 eggs had stopped developing. Pretty good!! We will start to be seeing chicks in 2-3 days now!

My large incubator, the reason most of you are following right now, had its first candling day! 🥰
We had 8 eggs out of 96 unfertilized. That’s pretty good for the first hatch of the year! I have one problem hen, Big Birtha, who is almost twice the size of some of my roos. I noticed our tiniest roo was able to jump up on her a few times and that some of her eggs were showing signs of being fertilized. Turns out about half of her eggs were good and half weren’t. I know what her eggs look like and haven’t been putting them in hatching eggs that I sell.
🤦‍♀️ I double checked the eggs that I had in the discard pile and five were in fact viable. 😂 Learn from my mistakes and double check the eggs you candle. Lucky chicks. I’m glad I checked.

We are expecting the chicks everyone is waiting for around the end of next week!! (Week of March 6th)Can’t wait! 😊 As always feel free to reach out with any questions you have!

Sarah Rucker