➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[Kiki]

The info I read were in articles specific to quail incubation on various homesteading sites but obviously there isn’t a hard and fast rule for everyone. I really appreciate everyone’s feedback and experience here! With only 10 viable eggs I want to do right by each and every one of them. She is doing great in the brooder; I dipped her beak in the waterer and she ate a bit of food and is napping under the heat lamp.
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I am not a fan of random homestead blogger websites.

 

[H@tcher]

Now I’m confused; everything I’ve read says the chicks can survive off of the absorbed yolk for 24-36 hours...I’ve also got multiple eggs with external pips so I don’t want to open the lid to get just one chick out for fear of shrink wrapping the others...I misworded my post above and should have said “up to” 24 hours but will get her out before that time if these other pips make progress. How long do you leave yours in?

I don't open the bator until the last egg hatches. 2 to 2 1/2 days. I have left them for 3 days with no trouble but 2 days is pushing it. Eggs hatching after that usually don't make it.

 

[Kiki]

I don't open the bator until the last egg hatches. 2 to 2 1/2 days. I have left them for 3 days with no trouble but 2 days is pushing it. Eggs hatching after that usually don't make it.

O m g I'm going to pretend I didn't read this.

Do you have a lot that die Young?

 

[H@tcher]

O m g I'm going to pretend I didn't read this.

Do you have a lot that die Young?

No, I have very few to die. Mostly the ones that do are the late hatchers or the tiny runts.

 

[Kiki]

No, I have very few to die. Mostly the ones that do are the late hatchers or the tiny runts.

I think you are lucky.
I am terrified they will start dying without food and water after just a few hours.

 

[CindyinSD]

What I’ve read (FWIW) is that birds are like this (able to go so long between hatching and food/drink) is because mommybird is obliged to stay on that nest until the last viable baby has hatched.

Meantime the more precocious sibs just have to be patient and wait. They go on the strength of the yolk. If they can’t wait, they die and thus they don’t pass on that maladaptive trait. So, chicks who can wait will eventually pass on the same ability to the next generation.

The early hatchers mustn’t leave the nest without mommy’s supervision to go in search of food, or something is likely to eat them. If this happens, they won’t get the chance to reproduce and chickens who do wait will produce chicks who can and do wait.

This is why poultry hatcheries are able to ship just-hatched chicks to us (some even ship just-hatched quail (but not the kind I want, that I know of)). If the chick eats and/or drinks, then that ruins it for shipping. Once they eat and drink I guess that kind of turns the key. Even if it’s right after hatching. After that they MUST eat and drink. They hatch, get fluffed up, someone pops them into a box and they’re off to meet their people. When they arrive, they are HUNGRY!

 

[R2elk]

What I’ve read (FWIW) is that birds are like this (able to go so long between hatching and food/drink) is because mommybird is obliged to stay on that nest until the last viable baby has hatched.

Momma bird does not stay on the nest until every last viable egg is hatched. She gets off the nest when she is ready even if there are still eggs left to hatch. I have had many cases of viable eggs being abandoned by turkey hens when they are ready to get off the nest with the ones that have already hatched.

 

[R2elk]

I think you are lucky.
I am terrified they will start dying without food and water after just a few hours.

Normal chicken chicks can go 3 days (72 hours) without food or water. Quail chicks will not have quite as long because their yolk is smaller but they can still handle far more than a few hours without food or water without any ill effects. It is not uncommon for newly hatched chicks to not show any interest in food until they have begun to absorb the yolk.

 

[Kiki]

Normal chicken chicks can go 3 days (72 hours) without food or water. Quail chicks will not have quite as long because their yolk is smaller but they can still handle far more than a few hours without food or water without any ill effects. It is not uncommon for newly hatched chicks to not show any interest in food until they have begun to absorb the yolk.

I exaggerate a little. I know that quail won't die that quick but I still think 24 hours is just too long.

 

[CindyinSD]

Does anyone know whether it would work to heat quailchicks from the bottom up? I was looking at those thermostats ya’ll showed me, and there were some that were designed to control the heat mats you use for starting seedlings indoors. People apparently use them in reptile housing. The heat mats are pretty reasonable; the thermostats a bit pricey, but of course, you gotta have infrastructure.

I was thinking (sometimes dangerous) you could put one or two under the puppy pad or wood chips, etc. They’re vinyl, slick, easy to wipe clean or sanitize.

On the plus side,

• I don’t see how a chick could hurt itself on one (like the heat plates/mama hen heating pad/caves some here have had bad luck with).
• Also, you don’t have the unnatural constant lighting you do with overhead bulbs,
• nor the danger of fire.

On the minus side,

• Hens (when they used to brood their babies) did it from above not below.
• It might be harder for the chicks to come to or flee from the heat if there’re no visual indicators as to where the heat’s coming from.
• It seems a chilly sort of heat, but maybe not. We have in-floor heat and it keeps us comfortable.