Incubating coturnix eggs question?

[perrym1962]

My coturnix have started laying the last 3 to 4 days. How long should I wait to start incubating them? I'm a newbie of course. Thanks, Perry.

 

[saddina]

Whenever you're ready (this assumes you've a male with them and that maiting is going on).

 

[perrym1962]

Yes I have 1 male and 3 females in one cage, and 1 male and 4 females in another cage. I love to hear them "crow". And they are so docile.

 

[FenDruadin]

Personally I'd wait a week or two to make sure the girls are fully mature. I don't know for sure about quail, but with ducks the first eggs are often imperfect, frequently infertile, and if incubated tend to have a higher rate of small or weak babies hatch out. Perhaps quail are different, but it would be worth a week's wait to me not to have to find out the hard way. Quail mature fast, so an extra week should be plenty of time.

Good luck! (Oh yes, and make sure they have a mature roo in with them, of course, lol!)

 

[perrym1962]

Yeah I may wait a bit. They are pretty eggs. I may just eat them for while. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Stellar]

I don't incubate the first egg but the others I do. Quail are pretty good.

 

[Chinchilla2]

When I was raising cortunix, the first week's worth of eggs from any hen was destined for the pickled quail egg jar. Even if I saw the roo doing his thing, my thinking was that he was just getting primed up and it was better to wait a bit than start the "OHH Goody!!! Crank up the 'bator!" dance. This gave the girls time to settle in a bit with the egg laying process and him to get his first initial "I think I'm doing it right" jitters out of the way.

That and it did give me a chance to try my quail egg recipe

 

[TheRealTimShady]

Quote:
i pickle mine.....so tasty

 

[chrishel]

I'm in the same situation. My girls just started laying. It took them a good week for the eggs to get to "full" size, so I'm eating them until next week when I start collecting for the Hatch-a-Long!