“Planning is prudent when it comes the pursuit of any goal. But most get stuck in that preemptive stage. All theory. All whiteboard. All hypothesis. No action. Progress, however, requires more than a game plan. It requires you to get in the game. It requires you to get your head out of the books. To get dirty, make mistakes, and accumulate failures. Only through testing your hypothesis will you figure out the true meaning of the how.”
Incubators. Humidity Levels. Hatch Rates. The world of chicks – the fuzzy, cute avian variety.
A few months ago, I came across an ad on Craigslist – it pushed all the right buttons for me, and I HAD to have what was being advertised. That’s how I came to purchase 4 chickens for $55 each.
I know. It’s seems dumb in hind sight. But the lady had done a brilliant job of marketing. You couldn’t help but be convinced that her chickens were far superior to any others that you could buy for only $15-20 each.
A month later, and all 4 have died for no apparent reason. But now, I have been bitten by the bug – I know that I too, could be a chick maven if I set my mind to it. Only I wanted to try this with quail instead of garden-variety chickens.
Are there more lucrative endeavors? Absolutely. This project is time and labor intensive. But the pay-off is adorable, soft, tiny chicks. Which can each be sold for $6 to $12 each.
And they produce dozens and dozens of tiny little eggs.
We waded right out there and started with our first quail a few months ago. We discovered quickly that they needed more light, they needed a better water system. And oh, yes, they are SNAKE magnets. Now that we have dispatched the big rat snake that was eating them, all we have to do is pray that I can learn how to care for the quail in such a way that our big gamble pays off.
420 quail eggs are going in the incubator now. Seems straightforward. However, I know from our first experimental hatching that there will be bumps in the road.
But one of the reasons I have the confidence to jump into this project and learn to master a new skill is that I have already done this in other areas. The more you learn new skills, the more confidence you have that you can take on anything you choose to.