Broody button quail question

[NewbieButtonQuail]

So, I have a broody button who has been sitting on a huge clutch of eggs for three days. The other ladies in the cage keep adding eggs to her pile. Is this ok?

 

[Nabiki]

You will want to mark the eggs that you are willing to let her keep then take the rest away. The others will continue to add to the pile, and you will want to keep taking the new eggs away. If you don't, she won't be able to cover all of the eggs, and as a result, some will start to develop, get pushed to the sides and die.

 

[NewbieButtonQuail]

Will she give up because she will see me disturbing the little nest she makes?

 

[Nabiki]

Will she give up because she will see me disturbing the little nest she makes?

She might. Wait until she leaves the nest to eat and drink if you can.

 

[NewbieButtonQuail]

How many should I let the button keep?

 

[Nabiki]

As many as she can comfortably cover. This is usually between 6-10.

 

[NewbieButtonQuail]

So, broody hen has been sitting on eggs dedicatedly for about a week but this morning I found the eggs cold and she playing around the pen and not sitting on them. I put the eggs in the incubater (not sure how long they have been left cold).

What settings do you do for the incubater at this point? I don’t know when is lockdown day and when to stop turning. I am estimating about 7 days of her sitting on the eggs. There’s a few eggs that are probably at various stage of development because I wasn’t able to remove all the new eggs other hens add to her nest during this point…

 

[Nabiki]

You're going to have to lockdown the eggs manually. I would start by candling the eggs. If you can post pictures, we might be able to give you an idea of how far along they are.

The settings on the incubator should be 99.5 F at about 50% humidity for buttons.

 

[NewbieButtonQuail]

Candling just look like dark eggs with air cell, like it is full of chick (too dark to see any movement or vessels); while other looks more like day 4-7 with a heart and vessels.

 

[Nabiki]

It sounds like you want to treat them as 7 days along, then. I would put them in the incubator and lock them down in a week. Lockdown date is actually very flexible, and a day or two in either direction won't do them any harm.