Good day all,
First off this will be a bit of a long question so sorry about that. I have been having some problems with my button quail since moving to an electric hen. Previously I was brooding my button quail under a heat lamp but one day when the lamp became loose and nearly burned my house down I invested in an electric hen. I used the electric hen on a previous batch of buttons but abandoned it after a few days as the chicks were wandering off and not returning under the plate and getting chilled, but luckily I was able to catch them before they died and I never lost any.
My latest clutch of buttons has been a nightmare besides the high hatch rate, to cut a long story short I decided I would try the electric hen again but this time keep the room light on 24/7 so they would not get lost etc, and this seemed to work except now my buttons are suffering with pasty butt and getting on their backs and not being able to get back on their feet without help.
I also noticed they are not growing very fast and judging by past clutches at 8 days old should be double the size they are now. I have had to clean the pasty butts on two occassions now and only 1/3 of the chicks have got pasty butts and the rest not.
I have done nothing different this time than all my previous tries and I know the hen is working fine as I have used it for ducks and coturnix without issues, and the only thing that changed was the hen I was collecting the eggs from. Now I know chicks grow slower under a hen as they are not in the light all the time so are not eating as much but could the hen be causing the pasty butts and the other problems? or could this be genetics.
Thanks for reading and thanks for any answers in advance.
First off this will be a bit of a long question so sorry about that. I have been having some problems with my button quail since moving to an electric hen. Previously I was brooding my button quail under a heat lamp but one day when the lamp became loose and nearly burned my house down I invested in an electric hen. I used the electric hen on a previous batch of buttons but abandoned it after a few days as the chicks were wandering off and not returning under the plate and getting chilled, but luckily I was able to catch them before they died and I never lost any.
My latest clutch of buttons has been a nightmare besides the high hatch rate, to cut a long story short I decided I would try the electric hen again but this time keep the room light on 24/7 so they would not get lost etc, and this seemed to work except now my buttons are suffering with pasty butt and getting on their backs and not being able to get back on their feet without help.
I also noticed they are not growing very fast and judging by past clutches at 8 days old should be double the size they are now. I have had to clean the pasty butts on two occassions now and only 1/3 of the chicks have got pasty butts and the rest not.
I have done nothing different this time than all my previous tries and I know the hen is working fine as I have used it for ducks and coturnix without issues, and the only thing that changed was the hen I was collecting the eggs from. Now I know chicks grow slower under a hen as they are not in the light all the time so are not eating as much but could the hen be causing the pasty butts and the other problems? or could this be genetics.
Thanks for reading and thanks for any answers in advance.