- Feb 27, 2017
- 90
- 25
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Okay, here goes … any and all advice/constructive criticism is welcome, I need as much info as anyone’s willing to take the time to give. This will probably be long, apologies and thanks in advance if you make it to the end.
We purchased 10 coturnix quail, they were 5 days old. We lost 3 of the chicks in the first few days, totally unsure of why, but I suspect inadequate heat/food/water for their initial needs. Out of the 7 survivors, 4 were male. We’ve kept 1 male and the 2 females from that batch. They’re doing well! They’re now 8 weeks old (tomorrow).
We then purchased jumbo coturnix hatching eggs. I set 7 in the incubator, only one hatched!
We now have one chick that hatched Friday (Dec 8).
We use a Brinsea Mini II Advance incubator and a Brinsea EcoGlow in the brooder.
Now for the questions:
- will this little chick be okay by itself? It just hangs out under the EcoGlow chirping away. We often see it laying on its back under there, is that normal? I nearly always panic and pick it up to make sure it’s still alive, when I do pick it up, it snuggles so tight into my hand and then falls asleep. Is it just too cold under there?
- any ideas or advice on better hatch rates? I have no idea how old these eggs were when we got them (they said 48 hours max, but with one hatch, I’m not convinced). Could totally be my inexperience though!
We’ve hatched many batches of chickens eggs and had great success. I’m a bit frustrated with the quail process so far.
We originally purchased 30 hatching eggs, incubated 7, so I have 23 more, but they’re now 20 days old and have been sitting at room temp the whole time. I’m going to try a new batch with slightly different settings that I found on YouTube. Only difference from the video and what I did before was the turning cycle was slightly different and they used a cooling period, I did not. Will that make the difference? I’m well aware that these eggs may not hatch at all due to their age, but this will be an experiment, so I want to make sure all my settings and process are ideal so I know if it’s something I’m doing/not doing or if it’s the quality/age of the eggs.
Also, do quail require nest boxes? We have our other quail in a large brooder cage in the garage right now. Everyone has said they should start laying around 6-7 weeks old. They’re 8 weeks and no eggs. I don’t want to rush the egg laying or anything, they can start on their own time, but I’m curious if it’s something in their environment that’s delaying it. They do not currently have supplemental heat (the garage is heated to 50-55*F). Maybe lack of light? It’s cold and dark/gloomy here right now.
If you made it this far, thank you again for taking the time! We tried googling for all the advice, but it seems like there are very few sites with great quail information out there.
We purchased 10 coturnix quail, they were 5 days old. We lost 3 of the chicks in the first few days, totally unsure of why, but I suspect inadequate heat/food/water for their initial needs. Out of the 7 survivors, 4 were male. We’ve kept 1 male and the 2 females from that batch. They’re doing well! They’re now 8 weeks old (tomorrow).
We then purchased jumbo coturnix hatching eggs. I set 7 in the incubator, only one hatched!
We now have one chick that hatched Friday (Dec 8).
We use a Brinsea Mini II Advance incubator and a Brinsea EcoGlow in the brooder.
Now for the questions:
- will this little chick be okay by itself? It just hangs out under the EcoGlow chirping away. We often see it laying on its back under there, is that normal? I nearly always panic and pick it up to make sure it’s still alive, when I do pick it up, it snuggles so tight into my hand and then falls asleep. Is it just too cold under there?
- any ideas or advice on better hatch rates? I have no idea how old these eggs were when we got them (they said 48 hours max, but with one hatch, I’m not convinced). Could totally be my inexperience though!
We’ve hatched many batches of chickens eggs and had great success. I’m a bit frustrated with the quail process so far.
We originally purchased 30 hatching eggs, incubated 7, so I have 23 more, but they’re now 20 days old and have been sitting at room temp the whole time. I’m going to try a new batch with slightly different settings that I found on YouTube. Only difference from the video and what I did before was the turning cycle was slightly different and they used a cooling period, I did not. Will that make the difference? I’m well aware that these eggs may not hatch at all due to their age, but this will be an experiment, so I want to make sure all my settings and process are ideal so I know if it’s something I’m doing/not doing or if it’s the quality/age of the eggs.
Also, do quail require nest boxes? We have our other quail in a large brooder cage in the garage right now. Everyone has said they should start laying around 6-7 weeks old. They’re 8 weeks and no eggs. I don’t want to rush the egg laying or anything, they can start on their own time, but I’m curious if it’s something in their environment that’s delaying it. They do not currently have supplemental heat (the garage is heated to 50-55*F). Maybe lack of light? It’s cold and dark/gloomy here right now.
If you made it this far, thank you again for taking the time! We tried googling for all the advice, but it seems like there are very few sites with great quail information out there.