How to breed Quails using chickens?

[Lobodugald]

Good day everyone.
I was given a trio of Quails but the one had bumble foot when it arrived so I started antibiotics immediately but sadly it died in one day because presumably the antibiotics were started too late.
Anyway so now the rooster Quail only has one hen and he is destroying her feathers from constant daily mating because obviously he needs more than one hen.
So I've been trying to breed more Quails for my rooster quail. I first tried with one of my Silkies that went broody but each time a baby quail hatched it would run away from her out into the cold and then obviously start screeming so I had to stop my work to collect all the babies as they hatched and ran away from the Mom and I kept them warm in my hands and taught them to eat and drink, then once they had all hatched I put them back under the mom but in an enclosure where they were unable to escape from her, and she was talking to them and feeding them etc. The next morning ALL the babies were gone, not a trace of them anywhere or their bodies.

So now I had another broody Silkie, a different hen and so I tried again but now today I see that as they hatch she tries to kill them so as they are hatching I am having to take them away from her but I am unable to run my business while holding baby Quails as I need both my hands and since we don't really get electricity in my country anymore, and when it is available it's far too expensive, I don't know how to keep them alive and still be able to work to pay my extremely high rent.

So I'm wondering what the problem is since Google clearly states that you are supposed to use chickens to hatch Quails since Quails don't go broody.

I also can't find any info on how the babies can dissappear or why my second hen wants them dead. I've never had a problem with Silkie hens hatching and raising chickens so I'm confused as to why they cannot raise Quails.

Is it a mental problem with Silkies or is it all chickens that will refuse to raise quail?

Because I do also have Pekin Bantams and Old English Game Bantams that I can use when they go broody but I don't want to risk it if they are also going to reject the quail babies.

Anyone with any advice please? I really need to hatch some more hens for my rooster quail lol.

Thank you in advance and have a gorgeous weekend everyone.

 

[saysfaa]

I don't know how to encourage chicken hens to raise quail chicks.

However, I raised my chicken chicks without electricity by using a wool hen and hot water bottles. The posts where I got the information on wool hens did it without the hot water bottles.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wool-hen-or-wool-and-feather-hen-build.1463487/

Link to the post given above

This is my post about trying it. And has the addresses of the posts I learned from.

I didn't lose any chicks.
I don't know how different quail chicks might be.

 

[Nabiki]

I have heard of people using small breed chickens to hatch quail, but they usually end up in a brooder to grow. Chickens are likely to peck the poor little things to death. Even the smallest chicken is much larger than an adult quail.

I would recommend using an incubator and brooder.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I used a phoenix hen and her own eggs to brood a quail egg. Her nest was too tall and small for it to get very far, but he also didn't wander much anyways. Once her chicks started wandering more, I moved them all into one of my broody boxes that mice couldn't get to until he was old enough to take away and put with some hens. She nor her chicks really noticed anything different. She just thought he was a dumb, runty chick.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I used a phoenix hen and her own eggs to brood a quail egg. Her nest was too tall and small for it to get very far, but he also didn't wander much anyways. Once her chicks started wandering more, I moved them all into one of my broody boxes that mice couldn't get to until he was old enough to take away and put with some hens. She nor her chicks really noticed anything different. She just thought he was a dumb, runty chick.

 

[Huntmaster]

Google clearly states that you are supposed to use chickens to hatch Quails

Hatch is the key word here I'm sure it doesn't say hatch and brood/raise with chickens. And as quail eggs are so small along with the size of hatchlings there is many things that can go wrong but can and is done. But quail hatchlings are usually taken away at hatch time not only to prevent incidents, but the needs of quail and chickens are different and should also be taken into consideration. If you do use your chicken to HATCH your quail, I would remove hatchlings as they hatch and brood them separately yourself until old enough to introduce to your pair.

 

[CliftonQuail]

I agree with the other posters that, once they've hatched, the quail should be taken away from the bantam and brooded separately.

Without electricity, using a hot water bottle is probably the best way to brood the quail chicks, assuming you can get hot water by some other means.

 

[Lobodugald]

I don't know how to encourage chicken hens to raise quail chicks.

However, I raised my chicken chicks without electricity by using a wool hen and hot water bottles. The posts where I got the information on wool hens did it without the hot water bottles.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wool-hen-or-wool-and-feather-hen-build.1463487/

Link to the post given above

This is my post about trying it. And has the addresses of the posts I learned from.

I didn't lose any chicks.
I don't know how different quail chicks might be.

Oh wow that sounds awesome. How do you get hold of hot water to put into the hot water bottles?

 

[Lobodugald]

I have heard of people using small breed chickens to hatch quail, but they usually end up in a brooder to grow. Chickens are likely to peck the poor little things to death. Even the smallest chicken is much larger than an adult quail.

I would recommend using an incubator and brooder.

Thank you, I would love to. Do you have any idea how to make an incubator and/or brooder warm/hot?

 

[Lobodugald]

View attachment 3767622

This is too precious, I've never heard of this breed before, so beautiful.