Idaho?

Ok, one of the quail has hatched. He/she finally decided to get out of the shell. One question though, how long do you leave them in the bator before moving them to the brooder?

Great!

Depends. My incubator recovers very fast after opening it up, both temp & humidity wise.

I'll typically pull out the chicks when several have hatched. I do it as quickly as possible & keep the humidity high during hatching. If I had an incubator that didn't recover as quickly I'd be hesitant to open it up any more than absolutely necessary.

I dip each chick's beak in the waterer as I move them to the brooder to be sure they know where to get water. Once the first few are eating/drinking the others will likely learn from watching them. To get them eating I'll spread some food in the brooder & peck at it with my finger, this gets them interested in the food.

I've read both that quail chicks can and that they cannot go the first day or two without food/water. So not sure which to believe so I like to see them eating & drinking sooner rather than later.

In my experience hatching quail, they zip and hatch quite quickly. If they start to zip & stall I'll cautiously help them. It seems quail get stuck in the shell more readily unless your incubator has a really great turner. Possibly due to quail eggs having a higher ratio of yolk to egg white.

Good luck hope you have more hatching soon!
 
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And they don't need water or food in that time?
I keep a small lid filled with marbles/water in my quail hatcher so they can get a drink. I hatch snowflake bobwhite quail which are even smaller than coturnix at hatch. They always do much better for me if they are kept in the hatcher until they are running around. The little bumble bees chill easily.
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Once they start laying I separate them into cages with one male to 3-4 females. You could probably put one male to 5-6 females too. I haven't had two breeding males in the same cage past about 6 week of age. I've heard they will fight but don't have any experience with it. One of my 2 month old coturnix hens lays huge eggs! My typical quail eggs weigh around 11 grams, her egg from yesterday was 17 grams!
Thanks for the info! We have one big cage that we can easily divide in half...so maybe one boy on each side with 3 girlseach :) or one boy with four or five in the whole cage. Will see how they do and go from there! We are in love with these little babies, my grandaughter thinks they are 'birdie frogs" haha. My daughter is going to take a boy and a few females for their house too. About what age before the coloring differences start to show so we know how many of which gender we have? Right now they all look the same pretty much, maybe a few lighter and darker but that's it. Also I wanted to ask, if the females are called hens what are the adult males called?
 
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What? This is your freshly tilled garden area? We thought it was the new turkey dust bathing resort!



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Boy, I sure am looking forward to a long weekend!! Selling some chicks and older chicks tomorrow, YAY!! Also sending the others with birdguys' parents for some peeps in UT, YAY!!!
 
Wow. You're a long thread from home!! Hehehe! I use to live in Sycamore Creek, off the 15 and Indian Truck, moved up here about 2 and 1/2 years ago.
Susan, I am just north of there off the Ontario Ave exit Corona. I live in the county El Cerrito area on an acre and have chickens and turkeys. We are selling and moving to the Parma area. Can barely contain my excitement! So thought I'd check out the Idaho threads and see what is going on. We have 35 acres w/two homes in escrow. Husband is just driving home from spending a week there to help get things done.
 

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