Incubating button quail eggs

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CoopedChik

CoopedChik

Chirping
8 Years
May 24, 2011
226
4
91
Louisville Kentucky
I have incubated my Coturnix Quail before had "some" successful hatches in one of those little class room stile incubators, nothing major just something small and cheap to start with. Well I decided I wanted some button quails to raise since my little Coturnix are so much fun. But no one around my area sells buttons, so I'm ordering some hatching eggs after I get my new incubator. I'm buying this incubator, http://www.strombergschickens.com/p...rvation-Incubator-Hova-Bator/basic-incubators it seems like it would do the job better then my littler one.

If any one could give me some hints on button quail hatching that would be great. Please and thank you.
 
Keep in mind that button quail are very different that coturnix. Buttons are kept in single pairs and mate for life. They are touch-me-not birds and do not tame. Buttons hatch at the same temp and humidity as chicken eggs. They hatch at day 16 and go into lockdown on day 13. A 50% hatch rate for buttons is a really good expectation. My buttons are 8 weeks old and are laying machines. They make many different calls and sounds. None are too loud. Buttons are kept in the house and will die in the cold. I'm having a really hard time finding homes for all the pairs. If you don't have an automatic egg turner, I'm not sure how you're going to manage turning those tiny eggs. The eggs are the size of a small olive. Let me know when you're ready to incubate button eggs and I'll send you some to try free of charge. Save my info and just let me know.

Also, check out the quail section in the forum for tons of good information.
 
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Wow thank you, that's too kind of you
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I have one little quail that is mixed in with my Coturnix who I think may be a large Button or a Button mix but she lays little olive size eggs I have hatched those before turning by hand I hope I do this right. I'm so excited Button's are adorable and awesome little birds.
 
ok
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yeah because when i bought from stormberg everything was chaos
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Also, I've incubated buttons many times and twice I've had 100% hatches using a water bottle technique. what I do is I will up a bottle of water and close it tight and put it in the incubator next to the eggs. I also hand turn the eggs on their sides on a towel. It sounds like a lot but like that I got 100% hatches. Total 14 out of 14.
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I used a still air but if you use a forced air incubator, I recommend placing a towel on top of the eggs too. I found that it REALLY helps.
 
Hi there
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what do you mean by the water bottle technique? New to this and currently incubating using my DIY incubator.... Would love to know more. Thanks!!
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sure!

At first it sounded quite weird, but after I tried I wouldn't stop getting great hatches. The key is keeping steady heat. You see, if you fill the bottle all the way with water, the water will become the average temperature of the incubator, and if placed next to eggs it will prevent a constant change of temperate in the eggs. I used it with an old homemade incubator with a light bulb and a little cheap thermostat that never got it right. Temps were going between 95 and 105!! I put in 2 water bottles and everything changed. Temps were 99.4 to 99.5 all day.

People use this in little giants (and everyone knows how sucky little giants are
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) and they can actually get some to hatch.
 

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