March 6, 2025 • 38 mins
🎙 Quail & Homesteading Insights with Stellar Game Birds 🐔🌿
In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, we sit down with Alexandra Doss of Stellar Game Birds to talk all things poultry, homesteading, and resilient breeding. From her early days sneaking a quail chick into her apartment to becoming a USDA-certified transporter and author, Alexandra shares her journey of building a sustainable, diversified farm in Florida.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How Alexandra got started in poultry farming & game bird breeding
✅ The importance of selective breeding for resilient, long-lived flocks
✅ Tips on incubating game birds, chickens, and even emus! 🥚
✅ Why homesteaders should prioritize strong genetics for their birds
✅ The pros and cons of different incubators, breeding methods, and poultry housing
✅ A sneak peek into her new book on modern incubation techniques
Whether you're a gamefowl enthusiast, homesteader, or poultry nerd, this episode is packed with expert advice on raising strong, self-sufficient birds.
🔗 Find Alexandra & Stellar Game Birds
🌍 Website: www.stellargamebirds.net
📖 New Book on Incubation: Available on Amazon!
📱 Social Media: Just search Stellar Game Birds
🎧 Tune in now & level up your poultry knowledge! 🐣🔥
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EggFoam.com get your egg shippers and live shipping boxes and always get free shipping!
ShowPro feed supplement for all your feathered friends! Grow them bigger and healthier with the best ingredients.
Coturnix Quail hatching eggs from Bryant's Roost, including jumbo celadons!
Quail cartons and Supplies from Double R Farms
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer (00:02):
Hey, poultry nerds.
We're here today with you go byAlex or Alexandra.
Alexandria (00:07):
I go by either.
So whichever you
Jennifer (00:10):
can call me.
Alexandra
Alexandria (00:10):
today.
Jennifer (00:11):
Can we just say, Hey, you down there.
You
Carey (00:15):
can call me Alexandria today.
Jennifer (00:18):
We're going to use the whole name.
Carey (00:20):
Heck yeah.
We'll use all of it.
Jennifer (00:22):
We'll say Mrs.
Doss and stellar game birds dotnet.
Correct.
Carey (00:29):
Mrs.
Doss is Stellar Game Birds
Jennifer (00:34):
down in Florida, and she's with us today to tell us
all about her farm, her new bookthat just came out, and just
chit chat nerdy style.
So welcome, Alex.
Alexandria (00:50):
Yeah, I always think I'm in trouble.
If someone's calling meAlexandra, when you're in
college, they call youAlexandra.
If you fall asleep, they callyou your full name or my yeah,
it just it's definitely a.
A pleasure to be here today.
I do go by Alex or Alexandra,whichever.
(01:12):
You want to call me?
It's not a huge deal.
I call me whatever they want tocall me or the quail lady.
I've been farming for quite sometime now.
I started farming in 2009 whereI started Stellar Game Birds,
Poultry, Waterfall, LLC.
Beforehand I was in Oregon incollege from 2005 to 2009, it's
(01:33):
been 20 years now.
Oh, goodness.
Are you from Oregon?
I am not.
I'm actually from Chicago,Illinois.
I hang
Carey (01:44):
on pause.
Alexandria (01:45):
Yeah.
Carey (01:45):
Where are you now?
Alexandria (01:47):
I'm in Florida.
Carey (01:49):
So you went from Chicago, Oregon to Florida.
Okay.
Jennifer (01:58):
Why not?
Carey (01:59):
Yeah.
Why not?
Jennifer (02:01):
You go to Oregon for college now, I've read your
first book a while back, so tellus about college.
Alexandria (02:07):
Yep.
I I went to Oregon stateuniversity in 2005, in which I
majored in animal sciences andpre vet the pre vet option.
I added poultry option laterdown the road.
Since at that time, poultry was,the poultry department was
super, super small.
I'm talking about six peopleinterested in poultry.
(02:27):
But I I went in for a pre vet tobe a veterinarian and I fell in
love with the animal husbandryfarming aspect to it.
The medicine part just didn't.
Really fit well.
But I finished my degree withboth of the minors and animal
sciences degree.
In 20 2009.
I keep wanting to say 2029 forsome reason because it's been so
(02:50):
long ago, but we're not goinginto the future now.
So I during my time in college Igot my first quail during avian
embryology.
His name was Stella and Ibasically knew nothing about
coil at that time.
I just, he was cute.
They we hatched out a bunch ofchicks and my professor's oh,
you can have this.
(03:11):
You can sneak it in yourapartment.
No big whoop.
So I put them in my sweatshirtpocket.
And almost killed him that daybecause I forgot he was in my
sweatshirt.
I put my cell phone in there andat that time you have those
bulky cell phones.
So it squished him for a while.
Ran, ran into the vet schoolbecause I do work there.
And I showed it to my co workerand she's are you sure he's
(03:31):
alive?
He was limp there and she's whatare you going to do with a
quail?
I'm like I've raised parrotsbefore.
I don't think it's that hard.
So I went to Petco.
I got, the fish tank, thereptile heat the heat lamp and.
shavings or I think it was yeah,shavings.
And brought him into theapartment and I raised him and I
(03:51):
thought it was a girl until itdid his first crow.
So it ended up being a boy.
I kept the name Stella.
I'm a major fan of Gilmoregirls.
And so there's a scene in whichshe loses the chick and they
called it Stella and they goscreaming Stella in the room.
And so that's how the bird gotits name.
And he's a boy, but that's okay.
So he was my foundationfoundation quail, and I wanted
(04:16):
to get him a buddy.
My friend who was also in theavian embryology class got a
chick.
She got a female.
And so she actually ended upcalling the male that she had
because it got too aggressive.
So she gave me the female inwhich she became Tara.
And so we had Stella and Tara,and that's how I started my
small little breeding program.
in my two bedroom apartment.
(04:37):
And the story just continues onand on.
I wanted all the quail, you endup being hyper, hyper fixated
and you want to raise more quailand you want to hatch more eggs.
However, in the small twobedroom apartment, you can't
really buy 50 to 100 eggs at atime.
I bought the incubator.
I was learning how to incubateeggs from my own and I contacted
(04:58):
Stromberg Hatchery because atthat time I looked up a hatchery
and I contacted Stromberg inwhich they said, Oh, hey, we
have somebody who's willing towork with you to get a small
number.
And so that's how I got someother colors.
I got English white, I gotItalian, I got red range and I
got addicted since.
So I took that little group,graduated college and moved back
(05:24):
home to Chicago.
And my parents sold the houseand said, Hey, we're moving to
Florida.
We bought five acres in Florida.
So I didn't have a job at thattime.
So I packed up the birds and Imoved with them.
And so I started farming on thefive acres and then later down
(05:45):
the road after.
Meeting my husband, moved downto Ruskin in a Tampa Bay area.
And now I have my own farm here.
But I don't just raise quailanymore.
My quail population grew.
I studied quail in college inavian embryology and I did
genetics in there.
And I brought all of theknowledge that I have with the
birds that I have that I broughtover to Fort Myers, and then now
(06:07):
here in Tampa Bay, and I just, Igrew the lines.
I made friends and connectionswith other quail breeders and
farmers.
I worked with them on certaintraits.
I brought in varieties.
I have many varieties here and Icontinue to work with them.
Unfortunately, a lot of mymentors and quail quail folks
are no longer with us.
(06:29):
But with the quail and thelines.
They, they stay in there.
But besides quail, I now,because I wanted to do
diversified farm withregenerative agriculture and
self sustainability, I have allsorts of animals.
I wanted that traditional lassiewhere you have everything in
their pens.
We have Gloucestershire old spotpigs.
We got dairy goats.
(06:50):
We got some mini cows.
I got emus and some other exoticbirds, pheasants, peacocks.
I also raised the chickensdifferent kinds of chickens.
A lot of our animals are fromthe livestock conservancy, as we
do want to work on heritageanimals.
They're very good selfsufficiency breeds and other
animals.
And.
(07:10):
I just continue on doing that.
I want survival of the fittest.
I want strong, resilientanimals.
And that's what I strive withthe genetics that I know of
selective breeding, and I just,I can basically take an animal,
learn from it and try to succeedwith it.
And then help other farms alongthe way.
(07:32):
So that's a little bit about me.
I know there's much more I havewritten about myself so many
times.
So when I put on the spot, Idon't remember half of the stuff
I do nobody does.
It's okay.
Carey (07:46):
No, but the cool thing is you were talking about how you
breathe for resiliency and thatsort of stuff.
That to me, that's what ahomesteader should be concerned
about, cause nobody look, noteverybody went to vet school.
Okay.
Two of y'all in your vet school.
(08:08):
Yeah, I'm just a guy fromAlabama.
I don't know a lot of thatstuff.
So I want an animal that I canhatch out, put it out, let it
grow, let it do its thing.
To me, Yeah.
Breeding for that and havingpeople that do know that you can
trust.
Is important for homesteader towhere they can get good stock
(08:31):
that they know that as soon asthey put it on the ground, it's
not going to get sick and die.
Alexandria (08:35):
That's correct.
And we did on our website.
We do have higher price pointsand the reason why is that they
are.
We do produce quality.
And it's very important forpeople to know that you have
quality.
It's not going to be a hatcherybird in which you do put it on
the ground and in two weeks itdies, and then they want to
blame you for it.
It's these birds have beenthrough a lot.
(08:57):
We have birds that have beenthrough three or four hurricanes
and then they just had a directhit and they still made it, we,
people want to have, they, whenthey put in.
When they put in their purchase,they want to have something that
lives a long time.
I'm hoping that people wantsomething that lives a long
time.
And so that's why, I do have ahigher price point in my
(09:20):
products, but I do also offermentorship and they never get
rid of me.
A year later, I'll contactsomething, but somebody and be
like, Hey, how are these birds?
And they'll be like, Oh,something happened.
The Fox got them.
I'm like why didn't you tell me?
Why didn't you?
Why didn't you communicate tome?
And they're like because if I,told the breeder or hatchery,
(09:41):
they won't do anything.
And I'm like why don't you cometo the farm and let's see what
we can do to get your flockgoing again.
And they just, they reallyappreciate that support.
And so they're purchasing mymentorship.
They're purchasing my supportthat I actually care.
I'm an ethical breeder and Ionly do pre orders because.
(10:01):
I want to make sure that theyare committed to these animals.
I don't want to just, give abunch of people throw away birds
or pigs or dogs at that.
I really work hard.
I will hold on to goat kidsuntil they're at weaning.
If they're not feelingcomfortable for bottle feeding,
I don't want these animals todie.
I want them to live on and Iwant people to appreciate and
(10:24):
understand.
The quality and the resiliencethat these animals can bring for
their betterment too.
Jennifer (10:31):
You were just telling me when we were talking the
other day, because you just gotback from a transport route that
aren't you U.
S.
D.
A.
certified to transport acrossstate lines.
How does that work?
Alexandria (10:43):
Yes, we have a we have a permit.
We have a permit that is throughUSDA.
It is, I believe it's for, it'sanimal ethicality or animal
welfare.
It's under the Animal WelfareAct.
My apologies and we are allowedto transport animals across
state lines.
They still need to have theirvet slips.
(11:04):
They need, they all, they haveto always, they have to be
health checked and they have tobe safely, okay.
The permits within each state,but we do USDA transport so that
we can bring our animals frompoint A to point B, but we can
also help other animal farmersalong the way with transporting
their animals because noteverything can be shipped and I
(11:25):
don't know about you all.
But U.
S.
P.
S.
is not very reliable on chicksand birds, and I really don't
want to put something that is sovaluable into the post.
So I would rather hand deliverthem
Carey (11:37):
and, I'm glad they finally started mending that
today.
They started turning awaypeople, bringing them chicks.
Because they know the weather isgoing to be bad and they can't
handle it.
Alexandria (11:49):
It doesn't give, if you're starting out with birds
and you get a box of deadanimals it's not really, a
positive feeling, especially ifyou're not.
If you're not used to culling,if you're not used to the, the,
I guess you would say the badside to homesteading, you know
what you have, so I do.
I did see that and I was veryhappy to see that they're
(12:10):
turning people away.
It will also show patients.
Hopefully it shows more patienceand people are more
understanding because animalsare not, a product that you just
get at Walmart.
I call it the now generation.
I want it now.
The Amazon people same daydelivery,
Carey (12:27):
so
Alexandria (12:28):
hopefully this shine some light to some people that,
hey, these are live.
Live critters to, you were
Jennifer (12:34):
talking about that.
I just got an email notificationacross my screen from an angry
customer who hasn't got herperch yet.
They only grow as fast as theygrow, we can only, we only have
room for so many birds.
Definitely
Alexandria (12:50):
that's
Jennifer (12:52):
not just me.
That's you that's.
Even the big hatcheries, we onlyhave enough room for so many
birds.
So if you've ordered birds, justbe patient because I'm actually
iced in today and can't doanything.
Carey (13:04):
So I don't understand that.
Like people will place an order.
And then, I've had it happen theother day, somebody called, they
placed an order at 2 o'clock inthe morning.
Don't take a notion to call thepeople at 2 o'clock in the
morning and be like, hey, I justplaced an order, because that's
(13:28):
that's not going to get you anyfavors when it comes time to
ship it.
Jennifer (13:32):
We'll just leave that one because.
Yeah, we do the best we can iswhat I hope what we can do.
And you don't know everythingthat's going on behind the
scenes.
So
Alexandria (13:42):
definitely 1 of the services that I do, because not
very many people can haveroosters in the area.
For the past 3 years, I, insteadof straight run, because for, I
want to say, 10 plus years, itwas just straight run.
It is what it is.
If you pay for it, right?
You get what you pay for.
I am offering four to eight weekold pullets and should any
(14:06):
become a rooster, they can bringback and either trade for a
pullet or I can process it forthem.
That's the newest thing that Ican process a rooster for you,
but because they're guaranteedpullets, I tried I, I tried to
make the best I can becausesome.
Times they will look like a pullit until they're eight months.
And then all of a suddencockaroo to do.
I've been offering the four toeight weeks, sometimes a little
(14:29):
bit, like we know that oliveacres and some other breeds are,
they show their gender a littlebit later, but I do offer them
the guaranteed pull it so thatthey can start out right with
the animal that they need.
Without having to return orsaturate the market with
roosters.
So I try really hard to givethem that specific service.
(14:50):
And it's usually the best sellerbecause people want hens.
And so the only way to get ahand is to get a pull it now.
They won't lay tomorrow.
You're still going to have towait for them to lay, but it
still allows them and gives thema peace of mind to get that
female bird.
And we do that.
We do the service with quail,even though the quail cocks
(15:11):
don't really make a huge racket.
People still think that.
They're like a rooster thatthey'll make that loud now, loud
noise.
So I offer that service and it'smy kind of service to the
community to help them get whatthey need without, without
having to keep returningroosters, but things happen,
(15:32):
roosters come back and you can,everyone's human, you make
mistakes.
Exactly.
Carey (15:38):
Yeah.
Alexandria (15:39):
So tell us about your new book that you have.
Oh, yes.
I recently I recently publishedan ebook, but it's now a hard
cover on Amazon since so manypeople wanted to print it out
and it's all in color and fancyand not everybody has a printer.
So I did end up having to do ahard cover, but I did write an
(16:00):
incubation book.
Yeah.
for modern incubationtechniques.
And that has been, I think, outsince December.
It can be purchased online orAmazon now.
And it's a, it's basically allof the experiences that I've had
(16:20):
as well as troubleshooting,learning from others.
Basically a guide to help youwith incubating.
We're you know, we're at thisage and time where people want
to buy more live birds becausethey don't have faith in
breeders for hatching eggs.
And this way they can purchasethose cheaper, hatching eggs and
have success for incubation.
(16:41):
So this was a recent, this wasjust an idea I have.
I know there's tons of books outthere on incubation and stuff,
but I just wanted to put my twocents in there to help people
And it also has if you get the ebook now, the downside for the
Amazon is that you can'tdownload on Amazon, all of the
fun trackers.
But if you get the e book, youalso get hatching trackers and
(17:04):
incubator checklist and inaddition as downloadables for
the price of, the whole e bookprice.
But for Amazon, you don't getthose extra downloadables, but
you get a hard copy that youdon't need to print out.
So you're welcome to go back tothe website to get those
downloadables and print thoseout because that's I want to say
(17:24):
maybe six pages versus 80 pagesof an ebook.
So those I wanted to give someoptions out, if you're in the
incubator in your egg room orincubator house and everything.
Sometimes you don't want to haveyour computer with all the dust
and everything.
You just bring out the book, seewhere you're at.
And the good thing about thebook and the it talks about,
(17:45):
what to do in power outages andhurricanes.
And yes, that was a chapter thatI wrote by hand because I was
out for two weeks for poweroutage when the hurricane hit
but it is also there's areas ofspecies specific because when
you get an incubator, you haveto set things up for.
(18:07):
Specifically different species.
We have quail.
We have emu peacocks.
Everybody has different needs.
And so there are sections foreach of those species.
And what's also really awesomeabout this book is that I.
I I took out, I took all of thedifferent incubator companies
because there's so manyincubator companies including
(18:28):
the off brands, of course, onAmazon.
But we have the we have hatchingtime.
We have the Dickies incubatorGQF.
I basically show the pro andcons of each of the incubators.
The different models because youmay not want a cabinet, you may
just want a tabletop and whereto purchase it.
So that was another section thatI put in the book so that it's
(18:50):
basically an all in one guide tohelp you succeed in your
incubation journey and has alittle bit of story from me, of
course.
And my, some of my flaws andstuff, because we're human.
And I want to share thetransparency to that.
I didn't just get an incubatorand had full success.
What kind of
Jennifer (19:08):
incubator do you use?
Alexandria (19:10):
I use Dickies and GQFs.
I also have a Brenzea.
I want to try the hatching time.
I just haven't got into it yet.
Might be one of the trials thatI do this year.
I'm all for if it's not broken,don't fix it.
And so I've had these incubator,these cabinet incubators on and
up running for Literally 24seven.
(19:34):
The only time they were off iswhen we lost power for, from the
hurricane.
So the only things I need to dois change the fans once in a
while and the heating elements,which I do in the winter time
when it's slower anyways.
So they've been really amazingincubators.
I really did not, I don't haveany concerns with them for me.
It's a set it and forget itbecause I'm so used to.
(19:56):
incubating.
I love the Brinsea.
It's easy to clean.
It's my only tabletop right now.
I'm full on all the cabinets, soI had to fill, I had to turn on
the Brinsea.
And so I use that.
I also have an older incubator,but it's it's not in service
right now.
It's a Buckeye incubator, soit's like one of those walk in
(20:16):
incubators.
It just needs a Some partsreplaced.
It's it was a ostrich incubatorat one time and you can
basically fill it up withthousands of eggs.
It's awesome, but I have, it'sout of service right now.
Hopefully I can get it running.
It's pricey to keep it up andrunning and with all of the
inflation and Increase inprices.
(20:37):
It's more cost effective for meto keep the other captive
incubators running.
I believe at the time when I hadit on the Buckeye would cost an
extra a hundred dollars a month.
It really was pumping, but itwas connected to the water.
So every time it wasoverheating, it would spray
water in there to cool it down.
It kept everything to the 10thof the degree.
(20:58):
It was an awesome incubator.
So we just got to fix it up.
Like any other machinery, and itshould be back up and running
whenever I want it up andrunning again.
Jennifer (21:08):
I can't imagine having an incubator that you can walk
into.
Alexandria (21:13):
It's pretty cool in all honesty.
I,
Carey (21:15):
that would be awesome.
I
Alexandria (21:17):
had it running for a long time.
We did take it down when we werebuilding the house because
obviously the room that it wasin was.
Getting demolished.
That was the, that was a sadmoment to turn off an incubator
in all honesty, but it's a cool,it's a cool incubator.
But yeah, I just have mycabinets right now running.
We have emus in one, we gotquail and most of them and the
(21:39):
chicken started producing forthe spring orders a couple of
days ago.
So we're pretty full right now.
Jennifer (21:45):
Yep, yep, I am too.
Smashing them in the top and thebottom.
I'm post tucking them in thereeverywhere I can, honestly.
I got eggs everywhere.
I just have to know how old isthat little tiny emu that you
have posted?
That
Alexandria (22:05):
emu is 3 weeks old right now.
He may seem little, but he wasso much little before.
I vent sexed him and he's amale.
He's super cute, super sweet.
Just need to make room becausewe have more emus hatching.
And he was the last one The lastone standing there, everybody
else went to homes.
And so I wanted to give him ahome, but he might stay, he
(22:25):
might get a name and he mightstay, emus live up to 30 years
plus.
How
Jennifer (22:30):
long does it take for them to mature?
Alexandria (22:33):
About two years.
They can lay at 18 months about,but usually two years for them
to mature.
Carey (22:40):
I want it.
Alexandria (22:42):
They're fun.
Carey (22:43):
It looks like a Pharaoh.
Alexandria (22:46):
It does, but they do grow up and they do change
colors.
Carey (22:49):
So do kids, but I have a lot of those.
Jennifer (22:52):
Okay so what is a whole bunch of emu together?
A mob.
I would just love to tell DavidI'm going outside to take care
of my mob.
Alexandria (23:05):
Man, a group of Guinea foul is called a
confusion.
Doesn't that work with theirpersonality?
Jennifer (23:14):
It makes sense.
I did not know that though.
Carey (23:16):
I did not either.
Jennifer (23:17):
I know it's a murder of crows,
Carey (23:19):
which I'll say this.
It wasn't until the last couplemonths that I learned the term
quails.
Was proper because I thoughtquail was plural, like deer,
but.
No.
They
Jennifer (23:35):
were.
Carey (23:36):
Quails.
Quails is actually the properway to refer to them in plural.
Alexandria (23:43):
I think it still can go both ways last I checked.
I honestly, I cannot do quails.
I can't do quails.
It's like fish and fish.
It's a fish.
Yeah, it's a fish.
So on I, if it's the, if it'sthe proper name, that is okay.
But I did see that it still canbe referred to quail as plural.
(24:04):
In my very first book, I wouldhave which was Coturnix
Revolution was published in2013.
That one, and Cat's trying toget on this video here that book
I would have what the properterms was in the beginning of
each chapter, and there is onethat says the plural form of
quail is quail.
Jennifer (24:27):
I wonder if it's a modern dictionary that has
changed it to quails, because Ithought it was the same thing.
Carey (24:33):
I'll go with that.
I think it's modern because.
I like quail being quail withyour, cause like when I tell my
wife, Hey, I'm going to go takesome quail out of the incubator
and I pull 600 of them out.
She just thinks quail.
Yeah, she doesn't.
She doesn't realize there's 600of them, or if it's, a trade
(24:53):
that's got 90 in it.
It sounds better, right?
Alexandria (24:59):
I think it sounds much better, but There will be a
time and there'll be a day wherequail disappears and every, the
proper form is just quails.
They'll probably make me twitcha little bit in all honesty, but
I will continue.
I will continually call themquail.
As plural.
Jennifer (25:16):
You have geese too, don't you?
Alexandria (25:18):
I do.
I have heritage geese.
We have pomeranians Chinesebrown Chinese and cotton patch.
I have three lines of cottonpatch.
Jennifer (25:28):
Okay.
Is it a flock of geese?
Alexandria (25:31):
It's a gaggle.
Gaggle?
Gaggle of geese.
Gaggle of geese.
Yep.
And you have guineas?
I have guineas.
The other I call them my feralchildren.
They they are just free rangearound the property.
I do have groups penned up rightnow.
Because I wanted to keep thempenned.
(25:53):
It's it is the season ofpredators.
So I wanted to make sure I keepthem penned so they don't fly
into the woods.
But other than that, after theyget to a certain age, I let them
loose and.
They have fun and they lay inthe woods and it's like an
Easter egg hunt and everythingdo is your guineas
Jennifer (26:10):
Cuz let's just let me just tell you or tell everybody
so I've had guineas twice andguineas are like boats You're
really excited the day you getthem and you're super excited
the day you get rid of them.
And so And then one would stayin the yard, and then they would
all run back and forth along thefence trying to figure out how
to get in to go to bed.
(26:32):
And you would have to go andscoop them up, if you could
catch them, and throw them backover the fence.
Because they forgot that theywere birds and could fly back
over.
Are yours smarter than mine?
Alexandria (26:43):
Mine will wait at the gate to be let in.
We don't, I don't have issuesright now with them leaving the
property.
We used to have some open landacross the street.
TECO purchased it, the electriccompany.
And so now it's a solar farm.
So they put this big giant chainlink fence.
(27:07):
To block it, right?
To fence in that land.
So the guineas used to go acrossthe street to lay eggs.
And so one day they tried to getacross the street and they kept
hitting the fence and theydidn't understand why they
couldn't get into that land.
And they stopped really tryingto wander.
There are times when they leavein the property and I have seen
that.
People calling me saying, Hey, Ithink your bird is out.
(27:30):
I think, Oh my goodness, youhave 10 babies with this mama.
And I'm like, Oh my goodness,there, that's where she went.
So I tell them that she's going,they're going to come back.
They're going to come back.
They're going to wait at thegate.
And surely enough that evening,they wait at the gate and you
let them in and they act likethey're, tourists and they tour
(27:51):
the property and everything.
And it's all good.
So I, they're just.
They're just not bright whenthey leave that fence.
It's they know how to cross, butthey can't come back
Jennifer (28:01):
and they play in the road and get run over.
Alexandria (28:04):
They do.
Mine have been pretty good.
I actually think that they'vebeen helping the community a
little bit to stop speeding onour road.
Carey (28:14):
Hey, whatever it takes.
Jennifer (28:16):
So I had my, I had dwindled mine down to, I think I
had a flock of.
And I had pinned them up so Icould collect their eggs.
To hatch them.
And it was, they were in the penon the far side of the barn.
And it was Christmas morning, Idon't know, maybe four years
(28:38):
ago, three years ago.
And it was like 80 degrees thatmorning.
And so David says, let's havebreakfast on the deck.
So outside we go.
And we could not hear each othertalking for the guinea
screaming.
And I kid you not.
What is that, Kerry?
Maybe 200 feet from my deck tothe far side of the barn?
Carey (29:00):
Probably.
Jennifer (29:01):
Yeah, and then the sound would have had to come
around the barn towards thehouse.
And so I sold the guineas tomake him happy.
But yes, that was the secondtime I've sold all my guineas.
Alexandria (29:16):
Yeah, it's one of those love and hate birds.
For years I would get, I wouldjust have seven or eight.
And some of them would die offfrom old age.
We had a blind one for somereason.
And I was surprised that thinglived for seven, eight years.
But hey, we figured it out.
But they would disappear in thewoods and then I eventually just
(29:36):
sold them off.
And then one day they, I guessthey just hatched really well
and I ended up with 70, 70 to80.
And so that was my free rangeflock for a while and then
dwindled down a little bit.
And I think we're at 40 rightnow.
And then 40, including the onesthat I'm growing out and that's
going to be the next generation.
I like them because they eat theticks and I haven't seen a tick
(29:58):
on a single goat, a single dog,a cow, none of the livestock.
They just, so I know thatthey're doing their job.
I don't have to feed them.
They're like pigeons.
They eat whatever scraps theycan find and then they go into
the woods and then they come outwith 40 or 50 babies one day and
then I have to get a fishing netand I have to catch them and
it's a whole circle of life.
(30:20):
I can't imagine
Jennifer (30:21):
having that many guineas.
That's a lot of noise.
Carey (30:24):
You wouldn't need it.
You wouldn't need an LGD if youhad that many guineas.
Jennifer (30:29):
Reads those to you.
Carey (30:31):
All that racket,
Alexandria (30:33):
Surprisingly, they're not that loud.
When I have over or somepersonnel, they don't even
notice that the geese are there,I feed everybody.
They're content.
They're happy.
It's all about space.
And if they're, happy obviously,if something annoys them if they
see a turkey vulture orsomething, then they will go
after it.
(30:54):
But other.
Otherwise, after I feed himwater, everything is just quiet.
It's like I don't have animals.
It's weird.
The geese too.
I had a friend, I have geese alldown the driveway and different
pens.
Because it's I want to keep itaway from the waters, of course.
And I want to keep, I want tokeep them in their own area.
(31:14):
And I had somebody drive up thedriveway and they didn't even
know I had any geese.
They're just quiet.
So maybe I have just welltrained animals at this point.
Now the dogs will bark all nightif they want to, but otherwise,
once I feed the birds they'repretty quiet.
(31:34):
Unless that's just, I don't hearthem anymore because I'm used to
it.
Who knows?
Jennifer (31:40):
One of these days I'm going to have to come visit so I
can see all these animals.
What kind of cows do you have?
I
Alexandria (31:46):
have many jerseys.
Do you milk them?
Not right now.
We did have one that we met.
We were able to milk, but rightnow we're just trying to get
them bred again.
Jennifer (31:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have a jersey, but she's not amini.
Alexandria (32:01):
I don't have a lot of land.
I have close to 6 acres.
And so a lot of my livestock aremeant for that smaller
homestead.
So we have I have dairy goats.
I raised many La Manchas.
I've been working on them.
I guess I think for nine or 10years and I have the mini cattle
(32:22):
for milk too.
And I do, most of my chickensare large pout chickens.
And I do raise large pigs, butother than that, everything that
I have is.
good for the homestead.
They don't tear it up.
You got your hands full.
We have, I have a bunch of kidsright now.
I'm bottle feeding them three tofour times a day because I pull
(32:44):
them and I milk the I milk thegoats too.
Yep, definitely it's spring,even if it's February.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Jennifer (32:53):
And I just have to say she works full time too.
Alexandria (32:56):
I do, yep.
It's up, it's time management.
I have mastered time managementat this point.
I'm able to do a full time joband farm.
I wouldn't say farm full time,but it is a full time job too.
Yes, yeah, it is.
Jennifer (33:12):
Thank you for coming on today.
Tell everybody where they canfind you all of your handles and
addresses and all that goodstuff.
Alexandria (33:21):
You can on Facebook you can look me up at Stellar
Gamebirds.
I almost forgot my name here.
Stellar Gamebirds PoultryWaterfowl.
It's been a day.
Waterfowl LLC.
Also, www.
stellargamebirds.
net, which is the main hub.
We have two storefronts, one forthe animals and then one for our
(33:43):
locals for meat and eggs becausewe also raise pasture raised
animals for food and then I havemy blog, you can, it directs to
my blog, which is oureducational site basically
talking about.
Every single topic animalconcern and personal stuff.
And but other than thatbasically, if you look up
(34:05):
stellar game birds, it usuallywill get to get over to me
Jennifer (34:10):
is stellar become from Stella your 1st quail.
Alexandria (34:14):
That is correct.
Yep.
I also like stars and so wantedto have something of a
constellation.
So yep, stellar game birdsbecause of Stella and how
stellar he was.
And he lived
Jennifer (34:28):
to be like nine years old, right?
Alexandria (34:30):
He did.
I believe it was nine years old.
I lose track of time as timegoes by, but yeah he was pretty
long.
Long living bird.
Most of my quail tend to live upto seven, eight years from the
lines that I work on.
Because I do also, I do givethem breaks during the
wintertime and during theirmolting as well.
(34:51):
I want resilience and I wantthem to live long lives so I can
continue the lines a little bitmore.
But of course, I have to cull.
You have to cull heavily whenyou're selectively breeding too
not all of them make that cut,but the good breeders that I
want to work with they tend tolive long lives, and all the
other species that I raise tootend to live long lives, like
the button quail.
Jennifer (35:10):
Oh, yeah,
Alexandria (35:11):
we
Jennifer (35:11):
forgot button quails.
You have the itty bitty ones andthe ginormous ones.
All you need now is ostriches.
Alexandria (35:18):
My husband said no.
Yeah, no, it's been aconversation.
I have emus and that's thebiggest bird that I will
probably have here.
While I live on this property,that is, although I do have
fencing for ostriches.
I'm not allowed to have anostrich.
Sometimes we have to makeconcessions
Jennifer (35:38):
to keep the peace.
Carey (35:42):
That's a thing.
Jennifer (35:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, we do have a lot going on.
Alrighty.
Carey (35:47):
My wife, she gets really nervous when like a Rhode Island
Red or a Jersey Giant comes andgreets her at the car.
I don't want to know how muchtrouble I would get into if an
EMU.
That was like 5 foot tall cameto the car
Alexandria (36:03):
because
Carey (36:03):
I couldn't hide it at that point.
Alexandria (36:06):
What's funny when we had the hurricane, we had to
have the linemen come to fix ourpower pole.
And I have quite a bit oflivestock guardian dogs.
I breed them and I'm alsotraining Four puppies right now
older puppies and they were notconcerned about the dogs.
They were concerned about thisweird, we call him weird owl
(36:29):
because he's super weird, thespeckled Sussex extra rooster
that was walking aroundfollowing them.
They were more concerned of himthan the dogs that were barking
at them.
Carey (36:39):
Yeah, I've gotten phone calls from Amazon drivers about
chicken.
I'm like, I'm not home.
It says.
It's not gonna hurt you.
Alexandria (36:52):
Yeah, what is it doing?
It's, it was just funny.
It's like you have a bunch ofdogs that you would They're big
dogs, don't get me wrong.
And they're afraid of thischicken.
Carey (37:02):
That is funny.
Alexandria (37:03):
And that rooster is harmless.
He just He's curious about theworld.
He just follows you around andthen he wonders what you're
doing.
He's just a weird rooster.
He's not a typical rooster atall.
Jennifer (37:15):
I have about Probably eight at this point just walking
around outside at the barn Freeranging and I have a leak in the
barn roof And I had a guy comeout to put a piece of metal on
it He wouldn't get out of histruck.
I mean because my roosters arenot small And he was like, not
getting out, so I had to parkthe sea of Orpingtons so he
(37:37):
could get to the barn.
There
Alexandria (37:42):
must be a bunch of evil rooster, evil chicken
TikToks out there that justterrifies them.
But I just, I'm still laughingat the fact that the dogs were
right there.
I think there was like six dogs.
Six dogs barking at them, andthey were worried about one
bird.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I
Carey (38:00):
mean, it's they're afraid it's gonna find out that they
had their cousin for dinner lastnight or something, I don't
know.
Alexandria (38:06):
But yeah, no, it's people are interesting.
That's for sure.
Jennifer (38:09):
Yep.
All right.
It's been great having you ontoday.
Alexandria (38:13):
So we're going to wrap it up.
Definitely.
Thank you for having me.
And once again, if you need tofind me
www.stellargamebirds.Net, orjust look up stellar game birds,
I'm pretty much everywhere, evenon Google.
There you go.
Carey (38:28):
Mhm.
Hey, poultry nerds.
We're here today with you go byAlex or Alexandra.
Alexandria (00:07):
I go by either.
So whichever you
Jennifer (00:10):
can call me.
Alexandra
Alexandria (00:10):
today.
Jennifer (00:11):
Can we just say, Hey, you down there.
You
Carey (00:15):
can call me Alexandria today.
Jennifer (00:18):
We're going to use the whole name.
Carey (00:20):
Heck yeah.
We'll use all of it.
Jennifer (00:22):
We'll say Mrs.
Doss and stellar game birds dotnet.
Correct.
Carey (00:29):
Mrs.
Doss is Stellar Game Birds
Jennifer (00:34):
down in Florida, and she's with us today to tell us
all about her farm, her new bookthat just came out, and just
chit chat nerdy style.
So welcome, Alex.
Alexandria (00:50):
Yeah, I always think I'm in trouble.
If someone's calling meAlexandra, when you're in
college, they call youAlexandra.
If you fall asleep, they callyou your full name or my yeah,
it just it's definitely a.
A pleasure to be here today.
I do go by Alex or Alexandra,whichever.
(01:12):
You want to call me?
It's not a huge deal.
I call me whatever they want tocall me or the quail lady.
I've been farming for quite sometime now.
I started farming in 2009 whereI started Stellar Game Birds,
Poultry, Waterfall, LLC.
Beforehand I was in Oregon incollege from 2005 to 2009, it's
(01:33):
been 20 years now.
Oh, goodness.
Are you from Oregon?
I am not.
I'm actually from Chicago,Illinois.
I hang
Carey (01:44):
on pause.
Alexandria (01:45):
Yeah.
Carey (01:45):
Where are you now?
Alexandria (01:47):
I'm in Florida.
Carey (01:49):
So you went from Chicago, Oregon to Florida.
Okay.
Jennifer (01:58):
Why not?
Carey (01:59):
Yeah.
Why not?
Jennifer (02:01):
You go to Oregon for college now, I've read your
first book a while back, so tellus about college.
Alexandria (02:07):
Yep.
I I went to Oregon stateuniversity in 2005, in which I
majored in animal sciences andpre vet the pre vet option.
I added poultry option laterdown the road.
Since at that time, poultry was,the poultry department was
super, super small.
I'm talking about six peopleinterested in poultry.
(02:27):
But I I went in for a pre vet tobe a veterinarian and I fell in
love with the animal husbandryfarming aspect to it.
The medicine part just didn't.
Really fit well.
But I finished my degree withboth of the minors and animal
sciences degree.
In 20 2009.
I keep wanting to say 2029 forsome reason because it's been so
(02:50):
long ago, but we're not goinginto the future now.
So I during my time in college Igot my first quail during avian
embryology.
His name was Stella and Ibasically knew nothing about
coil at that time.
I just, he was cute.
They we hatched out a bunch ofchicks and my professor's oh,
you can have this.
(03:11):
You can sneak it in yourapartment.
No big whoop.
So I put them in my sweatshirtpocket.
And almost killed him that daybecause I forgot he was in my
sweatshirt.
I put my cell phone in there andat that time you have those
bulky cell phones.
So it squished him for a while.
Ran, ran into the vet schoolbecause I do work there.
And I showed it to my co workerand she's are you sure he's
(03:31):
alive?
He was limp there and she's whatare you going to do with a
quail?
I'm like I've raised parrotsbefore.
I don't think it's that hard.
So I went to Petco.
I got, the fish tank, thereptile heat the heat lamp and.
shavings or I think it was yeah,shavings.
And brought him into theapartment and I raised him and I
(03:51):
thought it was a girl until itdid his first crow.
So it ended up being a boy.
I kept the name Stella.
I'm a major fan of Gilmoregirls.
And so there's a scene in whichshe loses the chick and they
called it Stella and they goscreaming Stella in the room.
And so that's how the bird gotits name.
And he's a boy, but that's okay.
So he was my foundationfoundation quail, and I wanted
(04:16):
to get him a buddy.
My friend who was also in theavian embryology class got a
chick.
She got a female.
And so she actually ended upcalling the male that she had
because it got too aggressive.
So she gave me the female inwhich she became Tara.
And so we had Stella and Tara,and that's how I started my
small little breeding program.
in my two bedroom apartment.
(04:37):
And the story just continues onand on.
I wanted all the quail, you endup being hyper, hyper fixated
and you want to raise more quailand you want to hatch more eggs.
However, in the small twobedroom apartment, you can't
really buy 50 to 100 eggs at atime.
I bought the incubator.
I was learning how to incubateeggs from my own and I contacted
(04:58):
Stromberg Hatchery because atthat time I looked up a hatchery
and I contacted Stromberg inwhich they said, Oh, hey, we
have somebody who's willing towork with you to get a small
number.
And so that's how I got someother colors.
I got English white, I gotItalian, I got red range and I
got addicted since.
So I took that little group,graduated college and moved back
(05:24):
home to Chicago.
And my parents sold the houseand said, Hey, we're moving to
Florida.
We bought five acres in Florida.
So I didn't have a job at thattime.
So I packed up the birds and Imoved with them.
And so I started farming on thefive acres and then later down
(05:45):
the road after.
Meeting my husband, moved downto Ruskin in a Tampa Bay area.
And now I have my own farm here.
But I don't just raise quailanymore.
My quail population grew.
I studied quail in college inavian embryology and I did
genetics in there.
And I brought all of theknowledge that I have with the
birds that I have that I broughtover to Fort Myers, and then now
(06:07):
here in Tampa Bay, and I just, Igrew the lines.
I made friends and connectionswith other quail breeders and
farmers.
I worked with them on certaintraits.
I brought in varieties.
I have many varieties here and Icontinue to work with them.
Unfortunately, a lot of mymentors and quail quail folks
are no longer with us.
(06:29):
But with the quail and thelines.
They, they stay in there.
But besides quail, I now,because I wanted to do
diversified farm withregenerative agriculture and
self sustainability, I have allsorts of animals.
I wanted that traditional lassiewhere you have everything in
their pens.
We have Gloucestershire old spotpigs.
We got dairy goats.
(06:50):
We got some mini cows.
I got emus and some other exoticbirds, pheasants, peacocks.
I also raised the chickensdifferent kinds of chickens.
A lot of our animals are fromthe livestock conservancy, as we
do want to work on heritageanimals.
They're very good selfsufficiency breeds and other
animals.
And.
(07:10):
I just continue on doing that.
I want survival of the fittest.
I want strong, resilientanimals.
And that's what I strive withthe genetics that I know of
selective breeding, and I just,I can basically take an animal,
learn from it and try to succeedwith it.
And then help other farms alongthe way.
(07:32):
So that's a little bit about me.
I know there's much more I havewritten about myself so many
times.
So when I put on the spot, Idon't remember half of the stuff
I do nobody does.
It's okay.
Carey (07:46):
No, but the cool thing is you were talking about how you
breathe for resiliency and thatsort of stuff.
That to me, that's what ahomesteader should be concerned
about, cause nobody look, noteverybody went to vet school.
Okay.
Two of y'all in your vet school.
(08:08):
Yeah, I'm just a guy fromAlabama.
I don't know a lot of thatstuff.
So I want an animal that I canhatch out, put it out, let it
grow, let it do its thing.
To me, Yeah.
Breeding for that and havingpeople that do know that you can
trust.
Is important for homesteader towhere they can get good stock
(08:31):
that they know that as soon asthey put it on the ground, it's
not going to get sick and die.
Alexandria (08:35):
That's correct.
And we did on our website.
We do have higher price pointsand the reason why is that they
are.
We do produce quality.
And it's very important forpeople to know that you have
quality.
It's not going to be a hatcherybird in which you do put it on
the ground and in two weeks itdies, and then they want to
blame you for it.
It's these birds have beenthrough a lot.
(08:57):
We have birds that have beenthrough three or four hurricanes
and then they just had a directhit and they still made it, we,
people want to have, they, whenthey put in.
When they put in their purchase,they want to have something that
lives a long time.
I'm hoping that people wantsomething that lives a long
time.
And so that's why, I do have ahigher price point in my
(09:20):
products, but I do also offermentorship and they never get
rid of me.
A year later, I'll contactsomething, but somebody and be
like, Hey, how are these birds?
And they'll be like, Oh,something happened.
The Fox got them.
I'm like why didn't you tell me?
Why didn't you?
Why didn't you communicate tome?
And they're like because if I,told the breeder or hatchery,
(09:41):
they won't do anything.
And I'm like why don't you cometo the farm and let's see what
we can do to get your flockgoing again.
And they just, they reallyappreciate that support.
And so they're purchasing mymentorship.
They're purchasing my supportthat I actually care.
I'm an ethical breeder and Ionly do pre orders because.
(10:01):
I want to make sure that theyare committed to these animals.
I don't want to just, give abunch of people throw away birds
or pigs or dogs at that.
I really work hard.
I will hold on to goat kidsuntil they're at weaning.
If they're not feelingcomfortable for bottle feeding,
I don't want these animals todie.
I want them to live on and Iwant people to appreciate and
(10:24):
understand.
The quality and the resiliencethat these animals can bring for
their betterment too.
Jennifer (10:31):
You were just telling me when we were talking the
other day, because you just gotback from a transport route that
aren't you U.
S.
D.
A.
certified to transport acrossstate lines.
How does that work?
Alexandria (10:43):
Yes, we have a we have a permit.
We have a permit that is throughUSDA.
It is, I believe it's for, it'sanimal ethicality or animal
welfare.
It's under the Animal WelfareAct.
My apologies and we are allowedto transport animals across
state lines.
They still need to have theirvet slips.
(11:04):
They need, they all, they haveto always, they have to be
health checked and they have tobe safely, okay.
The permits within each state,but we do USDA transport so that
we can bring our animals frompoint A to point B, but we can
also help other animal farmersalong the way with transporting
their animals because noteverything can be shipped and I
(11:25):
don't know about you all.
But U.
S.
P.
S.
is not very reliable on chicksand birds, and I really don't
want to put something that is sovaluable into the post.
So I would rather hand deliverthem
Carey (11:37):
and, I'm glad they finally started mending that
today.
They started turning awaypeople, bringing them chicks.
Because they know the weather isgoing to be bad and they can't
handle it.
Alexandria (11:49):
It doesn't give, if you're starting out with birds
and you get a box of deadanimals it's not really, a
positive feeling, especially ifyou're not.
If you're not used to culling,if you're not used to the, the,
I guess you would say the badside to homesteading, you know
what you have, so I do.
I did see that and I was veryhappy to see that they're
(12:10):
turning people away.
It will also show patients.
Hopefully it shows more patienceand people are more
understanding because animalsare not, a product that you just
get at Walmart.
I call it the now generation.
I want it now.
The Amazon people same daydelivery,
Carey (12:27):
so
Alexandria (12:28):
hopefully this shine some light to some people that,
hey, these are live.
Live critters to, you were
Jennifer (12:34):
talking about that.
I just got an email notificationacross my screen from an angry
customer who hasn't got herperch yet.
They only grow as fast as theygrow, we can only, we only have
room for so many birds.
Definitely
Alexandria (12:50):
that's
Jennifer (12:52):
not just me.
That's you that's.
Even the big hatcheries, we onlyhave enough room for so many
birds.
So if you've ordered birds, justbe patient because I'm actually
iced in today and can't doanything.
Carey (13:04):
So I don't understand that.
Like people will place an order.
And then, I've had it happen theother day, somebody called, they
placed an order at 2 o'clock inthe morning.
Don't take a notion to call thepeople at 2 o'clock in the
morning and be like, hey, I justplaced an order, because that's
(13:28):
that's not going to get you anyfavors when it comes time to
ship it.
Jennifer (13:32):
We'll just leave that one because.
Yeah, we do the best we can iswhat I hope what we can do.
And you don't know everythingthat's going on behind the
scenes.
So
Alexandria (13:42):
definitely 1 of the services that I do, because not
very many people can haveroosters in the area.
For the past 3 years, I, insteadof straight run, because for, I
want to say, 10 plus years, itwas just straight run.
It is what it is.
If you pay for it, right?
You get what you pay for.
I am offering four to eight weekold pullets and should any
(14:06):
become a rooster, they can bringback and either trade for a
pullet or I can process it forthem.
That's the newest thing that Ican process a rooster for you,
but because they're guaranteedpullets, I tried I, I tried to
make the best I can becausesome.
Times they will look like a pullit until they're eight months.
And then all of a suddencockaroo to do.
I've been offering the four toeight weeks, sometimes a little
(14:29):
bit, like we know that oliveacres and some other breeds are,
they show their gender a littlebit later, but I do offer them
the guaranteed pull it so thatthey can start out right with
the animal that they need.
Without having to return orsaturate the market with
roosters.
So I try really hard to givethem that specific service.
(14:50):
And it's usually the best sellerbecause people want hens.
And so the only way to get ahand is to get a pull it now.
They won't lay tomorrow.
You're still going to have towait for them to lay, but it
still allows them and gives thema peace of mind to get that
female bird.
And we do that.
We do the service with quail,even though the quail cocks
(15:11):
don't really make a huge racket.
People still think that.
They're like a rooster thatthey'll make that loud now, loud
noise.
So I offer that service and it'smy kind of service to the
community to help them get whatthey need without, without
having to keep returningroosters, but things happen,
(15:32):
roosters come back and you can,everyone's human, you make
mistakes.
Exactly.
Carey (15:38):
Yeah.
Alexandria (15:39):
So tell us about your new book that you have.
Oh, yes.
I recently I recently publishedan ebook, but it's now a hard
cover on Amazon since so manypeople wanted to print it out
and it's all in color and fancyand not everybody has a printer.
So I did end up having to do ahard cover, but I did write an
(16:00):
incubation book.
Yeah.
for modern incubationtechniques.
And that has been, I think, outsince December.
It can be purchased online orAmazon now.
And it's a, it's basically allof the experiences that I've had
(16:20):
as well as troubleshooting,learning from others.
Basically a guide to help youwith incubating.
We're you know, we're at thisage and time where people want
to buy more live birds becausethey don't have faith in
breeders for hatching eggs.
And this way they can purchasethose cheaper, hatching eggs and
have success for incubation.
(16:41):
So this was a recent, this wasjust an idea I have.
I know there's tons of books outthere on incubation and stuff,
but I just wanted to put my twocents in there to help people
And it also has if you get the ebook now, the downside for the
Amazon is that you can'tdownload on Amazon, all of the
fun trackers.
But if you get the e book, youalso get hatching trackers and
(17:04):
incubator checklist and inaddition as downloadables for
the price of, the whole e bookprice.
But for Amazon, you don't getthose extra downloadables, but
you get a hard copy that youdon't need to print out.
So you're welcome to go back tothe website to get those
downloadables and print thoseout because that's I want to say
(17:24):
maybe six pages versus 80 pagesof an ebook.
So those I wanted to give someoptions out, if you're in the
incubator in your egg room orincubator house and everything.
Sometimes you don't want to haveyour computer with all the dust
and everything.
You just bring out the book, seewhere you're at.
And the good thing about thebook and the it talks about,
(17:45):
what to do in power outages andhurricanes.
And yes, that was a chapter thatI wrote by hand because I was
out for two weeks for poweroutage when the hurricane hit
but it is also there's areas ofspecies specific because when
you get an incubator, you haveto set things up for.
(18:07):
Specifically different species.
We have quail.
We have emu peacocks.
Everybody has different needs.
And so there are sections foreach of those species.
And what's also really awesomeabout this book is that I.
I I took out, I took all of thedifferent incubator companies
because there's so manyincubator companies including
(18:28):
the off brands, of course, onAmazon.
But we have the we have hatchingtime.
We have the Dickies incubatorGQF.
I basically show the pro andcons of each of the incubators.
The different models because youmay not want a cabinet, you may
just want a tabletop and whereto purchase it.
So that was another section thatI put in the book so that it's
(18:50):
basically an all in one guide tohelp you succeed in your
incubation journey and has alittle bit of story from me, of
course.
And my, some of my flaws andstuff, because we're human.
And I want to share thetransparency to that.
I didn't just get an incubatorand had full success.
What kind of
Jennifer (19:08):
incubator do you use?
Alexandria (19:10):
I use Dickies and GQFs.
I also have a Brenzea.
I want to try the hatching time.
I just haven't got into it yet.
Might be one of the trials thatI do this year.
I'm all for if it's not broken,don't fix it.
And so I've had these incubator,these cabinet incubators on and
up running for Literally 24seven.
(19:34):
The only time they were off iswhen we lost power for, from the
hurricane.
So the only things I need to dois change the fans once in a
while and the heating elements,which I do in the winter time
when it's slower anyways.
So they've been really amazingincubators.
I really did not, I don't haveany concerns with them for me.
It's a set it and forget itbecause I'm so used to.
(19:56):
incubating.
I love the Brinsea.
It's easy to clean.
It's my only tabletop right now.
I'm full on all the cabinets, soI had to fill, I had to turn on
the Brinsea.
And so I use that.
I also have an older incubator,but it's it's not in service
right now.
It's a Buckeye incubator, soit's like one of those walk in
(20:16):
incubators.
It just needs a Some partsreplaced.
It's it was a ostrich incubatorat one time and you can
basically fill it up withthousands of eggs.
It's awesome, but I have, it'sout of service right now.
Hopefully I can get it running.
It's pricey to keep it up andrunning and with all of the
inflation and Increase inprices.
(20:37):
It's more cost effective for meto keep the other captive
incubators running.
I believe at the time when I hadit on the Buckeye would cost an
extra a hundred dollars a month.
It really was pumping, but itwas connected to the water.
So every time it wasoverheating, it would spray
water in there to cool it down.
It kept everything to the 10thof the degree.
(20:58):
It was an awesome incubator.
So we just got to fix it up.
Like any other machinery, and itshould be back up and running
whenever I want it up andrunning again.
Jennifer (21:08):
I can't imagine having an incubator that you can walk
into.
Alexandria (21:13):
It's pretty cool in all honesty.
I,
Carey (21:15):
that would be awesome.
I
Alexandria (21:17):
had it running for a long time.
We did take it down when we werebuilding the house because
obviously the room that it wasin was.
Getting demolished.
That was the, that was a sadmoment to turn off an incubator
in all honesty, but it's a cool,it's a cool incubator.
But yeah, I just have mycabinets right now running.
We have emus in one, we gotquail and most of them and the
(21:39):
chicken started producing forthe spring orders a couple of
days ago.
So we're pretty full right now.
Jennifer (21:45):
Yep, yep, I am too.
Smashing them in the top and thebottom.
I'm post tucking them in thereeverywhere I can, honestly.
I got eggs everywhere.
I just have to know how old isthat little tiny emu that you
have posted?
That
Alexandria (22:05):
emu is 3 weeks old right now.
He may seem little, but he wasso much little before.
I vent sexed him and he's amale.
He's super cute, super sweet.
Just need to make room becausewe have more emus hatching.
And he was the last one The lastone standing there, everybody
else went to homes.
And so I wanted to give him ahome, but he might stay, he
(22:25):
might get a name and he mightstay, emus live up to 30 years
plus.
How
Jennifer (22:30):
long does it take for them to mature?
Alexandria (22:33):
About two years.
They can lay at 18 months about,but usually two years for them
to mature.
Carey (22:40):
I want it.
Alexandria (22:42):
They're fun.
Carey (22:43):
It looks like a Pharaoh.
Alexandria (22:46):
It does, but they do grow up and they do change
colors.
Carey (22:49):
So do kids, but I have a lot of those.
Jennifer (22:52):
Okay so what is a whole bunch of emu together?
A mob.
I would just love to tell DavidI'm going outside to take care
of my mob.
Alexandria (23:05):
Man, a group of Guinea foul is called a
confusion.
Doesn't that work with theirpersonality?
Jennifer (23:14):
It makes sense.
I did not know that though.
Carey (23:16):
I did not either.
Jennifer (23:17):
I know it's a murder of crows,
Carey (23:19):
which I'll say this.
It wasn't until the last couplemonths that I learned the term
quails.
Was proper because I thoughtquail was plural, like deer,
but.
No.
They
Jennifer (23:35):
were.
Carey (23:36):
Quails.
Quails is actually the properway to refer to them in plural.
Alexandria (23:43):
I think it still can go both ways last I checked.
I honestly, I cannot do quails.
I can't do quails.
It's like fish and fish.
It's a fish.
Yeah, it's a fish.
So on I, if it's the, if it'sthe proper name, that is okay.
But I did see that it still canbe referred to quail as plural.
(24:04):
In my very first book, I wouldhave which was Coturnix
Revolution was published in2013.
That one, and Cat's trying toget on this video here that book
I would have what the properterms was in the beginning of
each chapter, and there is onethat says the plural form of
quail is quail.
Jennifer (24:27):
I wonder if it's a modern dictionary that has
changed it to quails, because Ithought it was the same thing.
Carey (24:33):
I'll go with that.
I think it's modern because.
I like quail being quail withyour, cause like when I tell my
wife, Hey, I'm going to go takesome quail out of the incubator
and I pull 600 of them out.
She just thinks quail.
Yeah, she doesn't.
She doesn't realize there's 600of them, or if it's, a trade
(24:53):
that's got 90 in it.
It sounds better, right?
Alexandria (24:59):
I think it sounds much better, but There will be a
time and there'll be a day wherequail disappears and every, the
proper form is just quails.
They'll probably make me twitcha little bit in all honesty, but
I will continue.
I will continually call themquail.
As plural.
Jennifer (25:16):
You have geese too, don't you?
Alexandria (25:18):
I do.
I have heritage geese.
We have pomeranians Chinesebrown Chinese and cotton patch.
I have three lines of cottonpatch.
Jennifer (25:28):
Okay.
Is it a flock of geese?
Alexandria (25:31):
It's a gaggle.
Gaggle?
Gaggle of geese.
Gaggle of geese.
Yep.
And you have guineas?
I have guineas.
The other I call them my feralchildren.
They they are just free rangearound the property.
I do have groups penned up rightnow.
Because I wanted to keep thempenned.
(25:53):
It's it is the season ofpredators.
So I wanted to make sure I keepthem penned so they don't fly
into the woods.
But other than that, after theyget to a certain age, I let them
loose and.
They have fun and they lay inthe woods and it's like an
Easter egg hunt and everythingdo is your guineas
Jennifer (26:10):
Cuz let's just let me just tell you or tell everybody
so I've had guineas twice andguineas are like boats You're
really excited the day you getthem and you're super excited
the day you get rid of them.
And so And then one would stayin the yard, and then they would
all run back and forth along thefence trying to figure out how
to get in to go to bed.
(26:32):
And you would have to go andscoop them up, if you could
catch them, and throw them backover the fence.
Because they forgot that theywere birds and could fly back
over.
Are yours smarter than mine?
Alexandria (26:43):
Mine will wait at the gate to be let in.
We don't, I don't have issuesright now with them leaving the
property.
We used to have some open landacross the street.
TECO purchased it, the electriccompany.
And so now it's a solar farm.
So they put this big giant chainlink fence.
(27:07):
To block it, right?
To fence in that land.
So the guineas used to go acrossthe street to lay eggs.
And so one day they tried to getacross the street and they kept
hitting the fence and theydidn't understand why they
couldn't get into that land.
And they stopped really tryingto wander.
There are times when they leavein the property and I have seen
that.
People calling me saying, Hey, Ithink your bird is out.
(27:30):
I think, Oh my goodness, youhave 10 babies with this mama.
And I'm like, Oh my goodness,there, that's where she went.
So I tell them that she's going,they're going to come back.
They're going to come back.
They're going to wait at thegate.
And surely enough that evening,they wait at the gate and you
let them in and they act likethey're, tourists and they tour
(27:51):
the property and everything.
And it's all good.
So I, they're just.
They're just not bright whenthey leave that fence.
It's they know how to cross, butthey can't come back
Jennifer (28:01):
and they play in the road and get run over.
Alexandria (28:04):
They do.
Mine have been pretty good.
I actually think that they'vebeen helping the community a
little bit to stop speeding onour road.
Carey (28:14):
Hey, whatever it takes.
Jennifer (28:16):
So I had my, I had dwindled mine down to, I think I
had a flock of.
And I had pinned them up so Icould collect their eggs.
To hatch them.
And it was, they were in the penon the far side of the barn.
And it was Christmas morning, Idon't know, maybe four years
(28:38):
ago, three years ago.
And it was like 80 degrees thatmorning.
And so David says, let's havebreakfast on the deck.
So outside we go.
And we could not hear each othertalking for the guinea
screaming.
And I kid you not.
What is that, Kerry?
Maybe 200 feet from my deck tothe far side of the barn?
Carey (29:00):
Probably.
Jennifer (29:01):
Yeah, and then the sound would have had to come
around the barn towards thehouse.
And so I sold the guineas tomake him happy.
But yes, that was the secondtime I've sold all my guineas.
Alexandria (29:16):
Yeah, it's one of those love and hate birds.
For years I would get, I wouldjust have seven or eight.
And some of them would die offfrom old age.
We had a blind one for somereason.
And I was surprised that thinglived for seven, eight years.
But hey, we figured it out.
But they would disappear in thewoods and then I eventually just
(29:36):
sold them off.
And then one day they, I guessthey just hatched really well
and I ended up with 70, 70 to80.
And so that was my free rangeflock for a while and then
dwindled down a little bit.
And I think we're at 40 rightnow.
And then 40, including the onesthat I'm growing out and that's
going to be the next generation.
I like them because they eat theticks and I haven't seen a tick
(29:58):
on a single goat, a single dog,a cow, none of the livestock.
They just, so I know thatthey're doing their job.
I don't have to feed them.
They're like pigeons.
They eat whatever scraps theycan find and then they go into
the woods and then they come outwith 40 or 50 babies one day and
then I have to get a fishing netand I have to catch them and
it's a whole circle of life.
(30:20):
I can't imagine
Jennifer (30:21):
having that many guineas.
That's a lot of noise.
Carey (30:24):
You wouldn't need it.
You wouldn't need an LGD if youhad that many guineas.
Jennifer (30:29):
Reads those to you.
Carey (30:31):
All that racket,
Alexandria (30:33):
Surprisingly, they're not that loud.
When I have over or somepersonnel, they don't even
notice that the geese are there,I feed everybody.
They're content.
They're happy.
It's all about space.
And if they're, happy obviously,if something annoys them if they
see a turkey vulture orsomething, then they will go
after it.
(30:54):
But other.
Otherwise, after I feed himwater, everything is just quiet.
It's like I don't have animals.
It's weird.
The geese too.
I had a friend, I have geese alldown the driveway and different
pens.
Because it's I want to keep itaway from the waters, of course.
And I want to keep, I want tokeep them in their own area.
(31:14):
And I had somebody drive up thedriveway and they didn't even
know I had any geese.
They're just quiet.
So maybe I have just welltrained animals at this point.
Now the dogs will bark all nightif they want to, but otherwise,
once I feed the birds they'repretty quiet.
(31:34):
Unless that's just, I don't hearthem anymore because I'm used to
it.
Who knows?
Jennifer (31:40):
One of these days I'm going to have to come visit so I
can see all these animals.
What kind of cows do you have?
I
Alexandria (31:46):
have many jerseys.
Do you milk them?
Not right now.
We did have one that we met.
We were able to milk, but rightnow we're just trying to get
them bred again.
Jennifer (31:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have a jersey, but she's not amini.
Alexandria (32:01):
I don't have a lot of land.
I have close to 6 acres.
And so a lot of my livestock aremeant for that smaller
homestead.
So we have I have dairy goats.
I raised many La Manchas.
I've been working on them.
I guess I think for nine or 10years and I have the mini cattle
(32:22):
for milk too.
And I do, most of my chickensare large pout chickens.
And I do raise large pigs, butother than that, everything that
I have is.
good for the homestead.
They don't tear it up.
You got your hands full.
We have, I have a bunch of kidsright now.
I'm bottle feeding them three tofour times a day because I pull
(32:44):
them and I milk the I milk thegoats too.
Yep, definitely it's spring,even if it's February.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Jennifer (32:53):
And I just have to say she works full time too.
Alexandria (32:56):
I do, yep.
It's up, it's time management.
I have mastered time managementat this point.
I'm able to do a full time joband farm.
I wouldn't say farm full time,but it is a full time job too.
Yes, yeah, it is.
Jennifer (33:12):
Thank you for coming on today.
Tell everybody where they canfind you all of your handles and
addresses and all that goodstuff.
Alexandria (33:21):
You can on Facebook you can look me up at Stellar
Gamebirds.
I almost forgot my name here.
Stellar Gamebirds PoultryWaterfowl.
It's been a day.
Waterfowl LLC.
Also, www.
stellargamebirds.
net, which is the main hub.
We have two storefronts, one forthe animals and then one for our
(33:43):
locals for meat and eggs becausewe also raise pasture raised
animals for food and then I havemy blog, you can, it directs to
my blog, which is oureducational site basically
talking about.
Every single topic animalconcern and personal stuff.
And but other than thatbasically, if you look up
(34:05):
stellar game birds, it usuallywill get to get over to me
Jennifer (34:10):
is stellar become from Stella your 1st quail.
Alexandria (34:14):
That is correct.
Yep.
I also like stars and so wantedto have something of a
constellation.
So yep, stellar game birdsbecause of Stella and how
stellar he was.
And he lived
Jennifer (34:28):
to be like nine years old, right?
Alexandria (34:30):
He did.
I believe it was nine years old.
I lose track of time as timegoes by, but yeah he was pretty
long.
Long living bird.
Most of my quail tend to live upto seven, eight years from the
lines that I work on.
Because I do also, I do givethem breaks during the
wintertime and during theirmolting as well.
(34:51):
I want resilience and I wantthem to live long lives so I can
continue the lines a little bitmore.
But of course, I have to cull.
You have to cull heavily whenyou're selectively breeding too
not all of them make that cut,but the good breeders that I
want to work with they tend tolive long lives, and all the
other species that I raise tootend to live long lives, like
the button quail.
Jennifer (35:10):
Oh, yeah,
Alexandria (35:11):
we
Jennifer (35:11):
forgot button quails.
You have the itty bitty ones andthe ginormous ones.
All you need now is ostriches.
Alexandria (35:18):
My husband said no.
Yeah, no, it's been aconversation.
I have emus and that's thebiggest bird that I will
probably have here.
While I live on this property,that is, although I do have
fencing for ostriches.
I'm not allowed to have anostrich.
Sometimes we have to makeconcessions
Jennifer (35:38):
to keep the peace.
Carey (35:42):
That's a thing.
Jennifer (35:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, we do have a lot going on.
Alrighty.
Carey (35:47):
My wife, she gets really nervous when like a Rhode Island
Red or a Jersey Giant comes andgreets her at the car.
I don't want to know how muchtrouble I would get into if an
EMU.
That was like 5 foot tall cameto the car
Alexandria (36:03):
because
Carey (36:03):
I couldn't hide it at that point.
Alexandria (36:06):
What's funny when we had the hurricane, we had to
have the linemen come to fix ourpower pole.
And I have quite a bit oflivestock guardian dogs.
I breed them and I'm alsotraining Four puppies right now
older puppies and they were notconcerned about the dogs.
They were concerned about thisweird, we call him weird owl
(36:29):
because he's super weird, thespeckled Sussex extra rooster
that was walking aroundfollowing them.
They were more concerned of himthan the dogs that were barking
at them.
Carey (36:39):
Yeah, I've gotten phone calls from Amazon drivers about
chicken.
I'm like, I'm not home.
It says.
It's not gonna hurt you.
Alexandria (36:52):
Yeah, what is it doing?
It's, it was just funny.
It's like you have a bunch ofdogs that you would They're big
dogs, don't get me wrong.
And they're afraid of thischicken.
Carey (37:02):
That is funny.
Alexandria (37:03):
And that rooster is harmless.
He just He's curious about theworld.
He just follows you around andthen he wonders what you're
doing.
He's just a weird rooster.
He's not a typical rooster atall.
Jennifer (37:15):
I have about Probably eight at this point just walking
around outside at the barn Freeranging and I have a leak in the
barn roof And I had a guy comeout to put a piece of metal on
it He wouldn't get out of histruck.
I mean because my roosters arenot small And he was like, not
getting out, so I had to parkthe sea of Orpingtons so he
(37:37):
could get to the barn.
There
Alexandria (37:42):
must be a bunch of evil rooster, evil chicken
TikToks out there that justterrifies them.
But I just, I'm still laughingat the fact that the dogs were
right there.
I think there was like six dogs.
Six dogs barking at them, andthey were worried about one
bird.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I
Carey (38:00):
mean, it's they're afraid it's gonna find out that they
had their cousin for dinner lastnight or something, I don't
know.
Alexandria (38:06):
But yeah, no, it's people are interesting.
That's for sure.
Jennifer (38:09):
Yep.
All right.
It's been great having you ontoday.
Alexandria (38:13):
So we're going to wrap it up.
Definitely.
Thank you for having me.
And once again, if you need tofind me
www.stellargamebirds.Net, orjust look up stellar game birds,
I'm pretty much everywhere, evenon Google.
There you go.
Carey (38:28):
Mhm.
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