Abandoned Quail Eggs- Advice Please!

[maxride14]

All the eggs look the same today, but I have a question about this one. The light barely passes through this egg, so is it more developed than the others? I've seen a test online where you can float the egg in warm water to see if it moves, should I try that?

 

[Nabiki]

Don't float test a live egg! That's a good way to kill it. Some eggs are harder to see through than others. I only candle mine a few times during the whole hatch. Usually around day 5, 8 and at lockdown. I'll candle again after I think everything has hatched to look for signs of life.

 

[maxride14]

Don't float test a live egg! That's a good way to kill it. Some eggs are harder to see through than others. I only candle mine a few times during the whole hatch. Usually around day 5, 8 and at lockdown. I'll candle again after I think everything has hatched to look for signs of life.

Thanks, I won't do it. The reason why I'm candling them so often is because I don't know how old they are and I have to estimate when to start lockdown. But I'll do it less often

 

[Chip76]

If they are gambel quail I don't think you need to worry about the humidity much. I also live in Arizona, Phoenix area, and I hatched my abandoned gambel quail eggs in a shoe box with a lamp. I turned them every morning and evening until I heard them peeping and moving around in their shells. I was shocked that they actually hatched. They were such adorable babies! A lot of work, very noisy, but I enjoyed them very much.

 

[maxride14]

If they are gambel quail I don't think you need to worry about the humidity much. I also live in Arizona, Phoenix area, and I hatched my abandoned gambel quail eggs in a shoe box with a lamp. I turned them every morning and evening until I heard them peeping and moving around in their shells. I was shocked that they actually hatched. They were such adorable babies! A lot of work, very noisy, but I enjoyed them very much.

That reminds me that I have to find a place for the breeder where they won't annoy my family lol. Did you keep the quail or is it possible to reintroduce them back into the wild? I'm still trying to find out what I should do with them once they're teenage or grown. Glad to hear humidity isn't much of an issue; if anything, I might be making it too high because sometimes I see it in the 60s. I also live around Phoenix so that's cool!

 

[Chip76]

At 10 weeks old (mid August 2019), I started taking my boys outside. I thought they would take off and I would never see them again, but they just stayed with me. So I showed them around and encouraged them to explore outside. For the next few months, we let them out in the morning and they would come back at night to eat and sleep on the screened in patio. If we called them they would run to us. Eventually they started sleeping outside and just came by to visit and eat everyday. When fall came, they joined the neighborhood covey and still came through the yard with the group. One even started bringing his girlfriend to the house with him! We knew ours bc they would run to see us. Gradually they became less and less interested in visiting us. Now it's hard to tell which boys are ours, but I know they come through every morning and every evening, now all with mates.

I only had one female. I had to keep her separate from the others since birth bc they hurt her anytime she was with them. She is still living on the patio. We take her outside, but she shows no interest in leaving us. She stays very close and runs back into the patio after only a few minutes. She did recently bring home a mate who now comes in and out of the patio with her for the past few days. She won't let him sleep too close to her, but she has laid a couple eggs. We're not too sure what to do about that, yet....

The wild ones don't have any humidity here, so they must not need it. If you want to set them free successfully, it will probably need to be a gradual process. They need to learn how to find food and water, get along with other birds, fly stronger, etc. before they will be ok out on their own. They also probably consider you part of their flock, so they won't want to leave you right away. The neighborhood where I released mine is a retirement community with no walls around the yards, so the quail are able to run through all the yards with no dogs or cats. A lot of people put seeds out for them and there are many fruit trees with water puddles. There are coyote, bobcats, hawks, but that is unavoidable in the wild. Do you have a place where you can safely and gradually introduce them to the wild? Are there a lot of other quail around?

What heat source are you planning for the babies? I think mine were so loud bc all I had was the lamp. With the light on they scream day and night. They were only quiet when I held them or if I was sitting at the table with them. They didn't like being alone. Since then I've seen this great info on a heating pad they can crawl under. If I had it to do all over again, I would make something like this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

Hope this helps! I had zero experience with animals or babies, so I learned a lot and never knew what to expect. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do if Pedro hatches me some grand-birdies on the patio...

 

[maxride14]

At 10 weeks old (mid August 2019), I started taking my boys outside. I thought they would take off and I would never see them again, but they just stayed with me. So I showed them around and encouraged them to explore outside. For the next few months, we let them out in the morning and they would come back at night to eat and sleep on the screened in patio. If we called them they would run to us. Eventually they started sleeping outside and just came by to visit and eat everyday. When fall came, they joined the neighborhood covey and still came through the yard with the group. One even started bringing his girlfriend to the house with him! We knew ours bc they would run to see us. Gradually they became less and less interested in visiting us. Now it's hard to tell which boys are ours, but I know they come through every morning and every evening, now all with mates.

I only had one female. I had to keep her separate from the others since birth bc they hurt her anytime she was with them. She is still living on the patio. We take her outside, but she shows no interest in leaving us. She stays very close and runs back into the patio after only a few minutes. She did recently bring home a mate who now comes in and out of the patio with her for the past few days. She won't let him sleep too close to her, but she has laid a couple eggs. We're not too sure what to do about that, yet....

The wild ones don't have any humidity here, so they must not need it. If you want to set them free successfully, it will probably need to be a gradual process. They need to learn how to find food and water, get along with other birds, fly stronger, etc. before they will be ok out on their own. They also probably consider you part of their flock, so they won't want to leave you right away. The neighborhood where I released mine is a retirement community with no walls around the yards, so the quail are able to run through all the yards with no dogs or cats. A lot of people put seeds out for them and there are many fruit trees with water puddles. There are coyote, bobcats, hawks, but that is unavoidable in the wild. Do you have a place where you can safely and gradually introduce them to the wild? Are there a lot of other quail around?

What heat source are you planning for the babies? I think mine were so loud bc all I had was the lamp. With the light on they scream day and night. They were only quiet when I held them or if I was sitting at the table with them. They didn't like being alone. Since then I've seen this great info on a heating pad they can crawl under. If I had it to do all over again, I would make something like this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

Hope this helps! I had zero experience with animals or babies, so I learned a lot and never knew what to expect. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do if Pedro hatches me some grand-birdies on the patio...

Thank you! I have a pretty big backyard with walls, but I don't know if there's really a water source within my backyard to search for water (the pool is chlorinated). I might be able to put a shallow bowl somewhere though. There are a ton of quail in our area, I often see them in my backyard and we can't go a day without finding one. I do only have a heat lamp, so I can try to make the heating pad cave. I don't have wire fencing so I'm not 100% I'll be able to make one, but I'll look into it. Did you keep them in the brooder for 10 weeks, or were they moved somewhere else before you took them outside? I'll try to find the lamp and get a picture of the box.

 

[maxride14]

So I found some stuff that might be useful. I'm planning on keeping the hatch quails (that is, if any of them do hatch) in a ten gallon aquarium with a heat pad and possibly a heat lamp. The heat pad is already stuck at the bottom of the tank because there's currently a leopard gecko in there. I'm thinking that, since it's already stuck under the tank, I could put a dishcloth on top of it and use the thermometer/humidity measure to see how warm it gets. I'll also try using the red light and see how warm it gets with that. It's only a 40 or 50 watt heater, but that might be okay since the tank is so small. I think it should be closer to the bottom of the tank instead of sitting on the lid, so I'll have to figure out a way to hang it inside the tank. Right now I can only think of using masking tape but I'm still figuring it out. As for the lid, I found a wire screen in my garage, so I'm going to try to cut out a piece and diy a lid somehow. The bedding will be paper towels and maybe some shredded towels if necessary. If the quails get too big for the tank, I'll be moving them to a plastic tote. I can cut the plastic lid and put in the wire, and heat should be less of an issue because I'll be lowering the temp every week. I don't want to get it too cold though because it easily gets over 100 here outside.
Anyways, that's where I'm at so far. I still have no idea how long it'll be until the eggs are ready to hatch, but I put some paper towels to cover the holes on each shelf in the incubator. If they hatch, then they won't get stuck or fall through. Since it's been a week in the incubator, I'm going to try to drop down the humidity since it's probably not necessary for them to be around 65%. Instead of going into lockdown, I think I'm just going to continue to turn the eggs like Let me know if I should be doing anything else

 

[Nabiki]

You want a warm and a cool side in your brooder. Put the food and water in the cool side. This helps the chicks learn to self regulate their temperature. They'll settle in the place that's at a comfortable temp for them.

 

[maxride14]

You want a warm and a cool side in your brooder. Put the food and water in the cool side. This helps the chicks learn to self regulate their temperature. They'll settle in the place that's at a comfortable temp for them.

Do you think I'll need both the heating pad and the red heat lamp? Maybe if the lamp is sitting on top of the lid it won't be too hot with the heating pad. I was thinking of putting them on one side together so the other is completely cool.