Another question.

[Elza]

Today is day 18 of my quail hen sitting on her eggs and she has done so well, but iv noticed today she has spent a little less time on her eggs then usual do I need to be worried or is this normal? She is still sitting on them but is getting up more often then usual. Is there a way to find out if the eggs will have chicks or has she possibly spent a lot of time on eggs that arnt fertile? I really have just left her to her own devices and just been watching closely over the past couple weeks.

 

[DK newbie]

You could candle the eggs, but you'd risk causing her to abandon them. I wouldn't touch or disturb in any way. I have a button hen who recently hatched out chicks - those hatched on day 18. But on one occasion I had one who hatched them out on day 21 - I guess she wasn't sitting very tight at first. I'd give her till day 23 and then remove the eggs.

 

[Elza]

She is back on her eggs tightly again maybe I was just watching at her break time and being anxious. I'm going to just let her go. It's winter here in wild not like it gets very cold but the weather is cooler at the moment then usual, so yep IL just let her sit and wait it out. I'm assuming she wouldn't sit if they wernt fertile right? Or maybe she is the rare quail hen that wants to be a mummy.

 

[DK newbie]

Saw that you got chicks - congrats! But to answer your question, quail do sometimes sit on eggs that are not fertile. People keep solitary pet buttons sometimes and those hens will also sit on their eggs.

 

[Elza]

Thank you for replying I was really hoping after all her efforts at least one would hatch. I had a look earlier on and still only one chicky, it looked as though another egg was starting to hatch but she is nesting tightly and the male is right by her side nesting with her so I'm assuming there may be more by morning.. how long do I leave un hatched eggs, some sites say day 21, some say day 23 and others say day 26. Bit confusing. There r 16 eggs all up.

 

[DK newbie]

Just remove them when she leaves the nest with her chicks - or, if she doesn't leave the nest (I recently had a hen who only hatched 2 chicks and she decided to stay on the eggs, rather than taking care of her chicks, causing the death of the chicks), remove them within 24 hours to force her to take care of the chick/chicks she already has, rather than incubating a bunch of eggs that might never hatch. From your pictures, it looks like she actually has too many eggs to be able to keep them equally warm, so if you only get a few chicks, I think that's the cause.

 

[Elza]

I thought that from the beginning that's why I was so sceptical about whether any would hatch at all.. I'm about to move her off her eggs now to inspect them as I don't think she has taken the baby for a feed so thank you for that info I didn't even think about the fact she would keep trying to hatch eggs and not look after the young

 

[Elza]

Had a look, there is another about to hatch, and looks like 2 more have started pipping, I think I know also why she hasn't moved off her eggs and baby to feed at least herself, the male looks to be pecking the babies which I didn't think he would do because he is so protective and also been sitting on the eggs. Iv just removed him for now as I'm not 100% certain he is pecking or helping the babies but better to be safe then sorry at this point..

 

[Elza]

Mother baby and father are doing great. I removed the other eggs , the hen looked very stressed and overwhelmed with one egg hatching one baby running off and sitting on so many eggs, so iv removed all the eggs, I left the mother with the first hatched chick, I have the second hatched chick and keeping it warm and cosy and a third started hatching but it has a small bleed so just keeping an eye on the little fella . The other eggs looks as tho they died half way thru incubation they had a smell to them that wasn't nice and we had 5 cooked yolk eggs. Will post pics later .

 

[DK newbie]

Good to hear they are doing well Are they all together now, or is daddy separated? My roo is a good father, but I've read about some that aren't, so if he really does peck the chicks, you might need to keep him separated for a while. But maybe he's just curious and will soon realize that's not what he's supposed to do. Good luck with the last two chicks too - hope they make it.