*HELP* Start incubation Chinese Painted Quails

[quail101]

I am going to start incubating eggs soon but I need to know everything. I have an incubator from ebay, it is a mini one. My incubator has no humidity control but it has a place where I fill with water. What do I keep humidity at? How often do I turn eggs and for how long? What do I do when one starts hatching and what do I do on the last days of incubation? When is it safe to take out the quails? Please help I am not confident. I am getting 24 Chinese painted quail eggs.

P.s it also has a fan.

 

[nchls school]

Chinese painted and button quail are the same. This article writes about washing eggs. I do no think this is a good idea unless the eggs are soiled.

Guide to Incubating and Raising Button Quail

Published by thingys-n-stuff
June 2, 2006 . 39K Views . 145 Votes
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Button Quail are the smallest quail in the world, they are about the size of a bumble bee when hatched. They originated in China and now come in an array of colors and patterns. You cannot tell what color a bird will be by the egg color which ranges from lilac to green and everything inbetween. Button Quail hatch in only 16 days but it can take up to 22. Many things may contribute to delayed hatching such as humidity and the temperature of the incubator. Use two different kinds of thermometers in your incubator to make sure the temperature is precise or seperately purchase a high quality thermometer for your incubator especially if using inexpensive incubators. Always place nonslip liner (can be purchased at dollar or department stores) on the wire of your incubator, this protects the eggs from scratches and rolling around, bumping into eachother and may save a chicks life once they hatch. Gently wash eggs in cool water and mild soap before incubating. Washing will help kill bacteria on the eggs surface which can cause embryo death, the bacteria can survive and spread inside your incubator until it is sterilized, killing all embryos inside the eggs. Allow eggs that have been shipped to you to settle small end down for at least 12 hours before placing. When incubating, maintain a temperature of 99.5 degrees. Do not allow the temperature to ever go over 99.9. The humidity should range between 50-60% until the last few days, then raise the humidity about 10-15% higher. Using an incubator with an automatic turner is best but if rotating by hand-wash your hands first then rotate the eggs at least three times a day, up to 8 times. Turn the eggs as gently and quickly as possible. Each time you open the incubator you chill the eggs and release precious humidity. Humidity can be controlled by adding more or less WARM water to the incubator wells or placing a shallow tray in the bottom of the incubator. Alternate which side of the egg is up before bedtime so they don't lay on the same side every night, the longest period before turning again. Mark the sides with an X and an O in pencil or marker so you know which was last if turning by hand. I personally place the date (month-day) on the fat end of the egg (top side in the turner) so I know when they’re supposed to hatch, if placing eggs in with other dated eggs due to hatch at different times. This allows me to move eggs due to hatch into another incubator for hatching eggs only. This cuts down on bacteria and down particles in the first incubator plus it keeps chicks from getting crushed in an auto turner or unhatched eggs rolling around or chicks being crushed by eggs. Incubators should be cleaned periodically (besides being sterilized) by brushing lose down particles and any other mess free from the incubators parts with a toothbrush or similar soft brush. Down particles can eventually clog the thermostat and cause your incubator to overheat or stop working altogether. On the 13th day stop turning the eggs, at this time the chicks are moving into hatching position and should not be moved. You can raise the humidity up to 75% these last few days, especially if you have a poor incubator or bad hatches before. If Button Quail hatching doesn't happen on day 16, you can wait until day 22, by then they would have hatched if they were going to. You can, with experience open the unhatched eggs to see why they didn't hatch, this can help you to correct problems for the next hatch. ie. if it was infertile eggs there will be no sign of an embryo (called a germ which is a tiny blood and flesh mass). Or if the embryo died from a virus or old eggs which causes a visible blood ring and/or rotten eggs, to correct this use fresh eggs and clean your incubator with bleach, gently wash eggs with tepid soapy water before placing in the incubator but do not scrub them, that will only cram bacteria into the pores of the egg. Always wash your hands before handling eggs. If hatching was caused by poor incubation you will find growing or full grown embryos that just died, usually caused by incorrect temperature or humidity during incubation or improper turning, dropping of or banging eggs. If you hatch chicks that are sticky and die soon after hatching (if they don’t dry out fluffy and clean) or if they live and are extremely weak then your than your incubator temperature +/or humidity is most definitely wrong. Keep a high quality thermometer and hydrometer in your incubator or use two. Care of Newly Hatched Quail If everything goes well, on day 16 your chicks should start to hatch. Wait until chicks are completely dry and mobile before removing them from the incubator, it can be up to 24 hours. The chicks should be able to zip around the hatching incubator with ease before removing them. Brood the chicks for 5 weeks under artificial light/heat. Start brooding at 95º and lower the temperature each week by 5º until it reaches 75º at which point artificial heat shouldn’t be needed anymore. Electric brooders can be purchased or made by hand, most people use plastic tubs, a simple cardboard box or fish aquariums to brood in, using a light bulb for heat. Have a large enough area for the chicks so they can get out of the heated area if they get too hot and so they don’t have to pile up under the lamp to get warm. Decrease the temperature 5 degrees each week until the temperature reaches 75º, this is done with a lamp by simply moving it further up from the base of the heater or using a lower watt bulb. Under normal conditions it is safe to remove the heat source at five weeks but keep your eyes on the chicks for a few more weeks, they may still need some artificial heat for a while longer, especially outdoors, in cool months or a windy area. I prefer to use a 60 watt black pet bulb ($7 at Wal-Mart), this allows the chicks the warmth they need and they will sleep at night. A bright white bulb can cause pecking and doesn’t allow chicks the rest they need to grow so a colored bulb should be used, any color is fine but black or red are best. Place food in a very shallow jar lid or shallow dish of some sort and scatter a small amount on the floor of the brooder so they will begin eating. Button Quail are so small that a jar lid filled with marbles should be used for water or a special made small lipped GAME waterer filled with marbles can also be used. You must fill the lid or waterer with marbles so the chicks will not drown in them. Chicks should not get wet, if they do, do your best to gently dry the chick off and keep it warm until completely dry. At a week of age a plain GAME bird waterer can be used without marbles, do not use a chick waterer yet, it is too big and they will fall in, slip and drown. Quails legs are extremely fragile for a week or so after hatching and they MUST have good footing, especially the first week of life. Always keep clean litter (nonslip liner, rice hulls, hay, wood chips...) about 3 inches deep in the brooder. NEVER USE PINE SHAVINGS OR NEWSPAPER IN THE BROODER, newspaper is slick and pine shavings have been known to cause respiratory illnesses. Button quail chicks will back into an edge or corner to evacuate so the walls of their brooder will need to be washed and disinfected whenever you change the litter. Rinse and dry the brooder well after washing and reheat it before placing the chicks back in. Splay legs and dislocated hip quail chicks are not uncommon and is usually caused by bad footing in the incubator and/or brooder (occasionally from pile-ups or bad position in the egg). Chicks with splayed legs and dislocated hips should be disposed of in a humane manner and the problem in the brooder corrected immediately if that is the problem. Injured chicks will generally die within a couple days no matter how much you try to help them. Some websites claim that they can correct this problem and the steps to correct it is shown on various websites for raising parrots, cockatiels etc. I personally haven’t found it to be true to work for button quail and only slightly prolongs a miserable, short life. Buttons are very wired little birds from the minute they hatch and at about a week old the now feathered winged chicks start flying upward and can cause themselves great damage to their head and even death, called the “boink factor”. A soft cover is needed to keep the chicks from harm and escape (place soft screening or towel over the brooder).

 

[quail101]

How to controll humidity?

 

[GrandmaBird]

Never wash your eggs they are covered with a special bloom to help keep bacteria out of the shell.
Your incubator should have at least 2 thermometers and a hydrometer for humidity. You can buy fairly inexpensive ones at Walmart or the like be sure the temperature is taken level with the eggs. the humidity should be at 40-50% during incubation and then raised a bit to 50-60% for hatch NOT what is mentioned in the above article. I used a wet sponge in the incubator to raise the humidity it works well as all you have to do is add warm water to the sponge every couple days. The fan will dry them up faster but is good for temperature control. Leave the newly hatched chicks in the incubator until they are dry and fluffy then remove them to a brooder to keep warm, be sure you have food crumbled tiny on the floor and a small dish of water with rocks or marbles in it so the chicks do not get wet again. Place the food on the floor of the brooder and in a dish that they will find in a day or so, it helps if you tap it with your finger to get them to investigate. anyway good luck and enjoy your buttons. And do not make it harder then it really is!

 

[yellowherb]

you need to determine first what your humidity is. I incubate around 40% humidity and lock down at 60-70% humidity and have good hatches out of shipped eggs. I'm now working on my first eggs which come from my own quail and at that range above, it is working out really well.

I should add that I keep my humidity high at hatch because I'm in and out of the incubator at that time, I cant stand to leave the chicks alone once they dry.

 

[quail101]

Could I dry hatch? I was advised to.

 

[nchls school]

How to controll humidity?

With the incubator that you have keep the water container filled. Quail eggs are not as touchy about humidity compared to some other species. I do not know what, "dry hatch" means. You need to keep water in the incubator. At hatching humidity is important; should the membrane inside the egg become too dry the chicks will die in the shell. When the chicks are hatching do not open the incubator as that will lower humidity and temperature. During the hatching process it is important that humidity and temperature remain constant. When you do open the incubator after the hatch is complete be aware that the chicks will likely be jumping/running all over the place. Do not open it where the chicks could fall and be killed. The first time I opened an incubator after the quail had hatched I lost a number of chicks because of my ignorance.

 

[quail101]

Do I have to have the eggs standing up or can they lay on the floor of the incubator?

 

[yellowherb]

I normally hatch them laying down. There are people who stand them up and swear by it for bad aircells or floating aircells. I'm currently hatching some chicken chicks with a combo of upright until a good external pip then laying them down..but I have a awesome bator that the temp and humidity do not go up or down much when I open it up..Hands off if you have a slow bator. I think if you have bad aircells that you can see(normally shipped eggs), try them standing up. It may improve your hatch. If they are stable cells, like acquired locally or from your own birds a lay down hatch is just
fine.

Dry hatching would really depend on the humidity where you are located. If you hatch indoors and have A/C your humidity will be low and need to be boosted for sure. If you live in the tropics and have a good rain each day, humidity would be higher. Since it's your first time hatching, this probably will not be perfect and you will learn each time you do it Most people do need additional humidity at lockdown though. You do not want it in the 80's, but go for at least 60-65 humidity the last few days.

As an example. I live in Florida, it's humid here but I hatch inside my A/C house. My indoor humidity is normally around 30%. I have to add humidity during incubation because that's too low. I aim for 40% during the first 13-14 days on quail. Then I move them to the hatcher and put a larger humidity sponge in there and get my humidity up to between 60-70%.

My experience with quail says they get splay leg easily on slick surfaces. if you put them on the bator floor to hatch use something like rubber shelf liner over paper towels or a fine mesh screen..something they can get their toenails into and prevent splay leg.

 

[quail101]

I live in UK so I probably could do dry hatching?