After my button quail chicks hatch then what do i do??

[Pumpkan]

Can I put them back with the parents? Or leave them in a box with a heat source...till when? And I heard I can use a reptile rock in the box as warmth so they can get warm if they want or cool down if they want! I do not want to use a heat lamp!! So any other suggustions on how to keep them warm that does not include a light bulb?!! Please any and all information is welcome but if you have real experience we love to hear from you the most!! Thank you all!!

 

[Chiko]

Well, you should keep them in a brooder(draft free box) with quail starter feed, a waterer, with marbles in the water so the chicks can still get water but can't drown, and some clean bedding(pine works best) If you don't want to use a heat lamp, the only thing i can think of is using a small room heater that can keep the brooder at about 98 degree's without burning. Also the chicks NEED light to see their food, and water, and eachother, so you will need some sort of bright light source on them. I say just use a heat lamp.They need the heat source for about 4-5 weeks or until they are fully feathered. 60-75 watts would be the best option. Just make sure the floor is 98 degrees.

 

[soffeann1997]

Keep them in a box with a heat source. If you are hatching them in an incubator keep them in the incubator for 48 hours they have enough nourishment in there system. If the mother hatched them keep them with her unless it is cold out she should take care of them if she is still broody. Keep food and water with them at all times. There is a section in the learning center also with all the tips for newly hatched eggs. Have fun and congrats!

 

[Chiko]

Keep them in a box with a heat source. If you are hatching them in an incubator keep them in the incubator for 48 hours they have enough nourishment in there system. If the mother hatched them keep them with her unless it is cold out she should take care of them if she is still broody. Keep food and water with them at all times. There is a section in the learning center also with all the tips for newly hatched eggs. X2 Have fun and congrats!

 

[mossypath]

I hate to disagree but I have never left a button in longer than 12 hours.
Most of the time it has been less than 6. I don’t think it is wise to tell someone to leave them in for 48 hours there little bodies don’t have the reserves that a larger bird has. I have never lost a button doing as I have.
The dos and donts of button quail
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/424352/the-dos-and-donts-of-button-quail-cbbq
Why don’t you want to use a light to heat the brooder?

 

[Pumpkan]

Honestly I don't really have the whole set up and I want it to be an easy and inexpensive set up because I'm just doing this once for my son so to have a huge lightbulb on all the time that has to be hung etc etc in just not looking to do that someone told me they used a reptile heating rock for their babies and they sit on it when they are cold and get off of it when there warm and since I will only have 5 buttons ( I only put eight eggs in the incubator) maybe less I can't see to go to all that trouble for something that going to be so small!!! Any other suggestions? Can I just leave them in the incubator and keep the grate on the top above the heating element instead of on the bottom??? I have a small box all set up for them with a little covered place to sleep and a ledge for the food and water and a puppy pad for the bottom ( all made out of cardboard) and a boinking proof top I just need to add a heating element to keep them warm enough but I need something small

 

[mossypath]

Pumpkan
I really don’t know I’ve never tried it! I would still try to keep them in the warmest room in the house and cover the top to let the heat buildup in the box best you can. If they are too cold huddling on the rock heater will they eat and drink ???
Somewhere there is a YouTube video where someone made a brooder heater from a string of Christmas lights inside a length of PVC pipe with caps on the ends .
You have the time why don’t you test out your setup and see how warm your box stays.

 

[jbobs]

I have heared of people trying to use reptile rocks and nothing good comes from it. For starters, they are expensive as hell, especially if you are going to use them only once. They do not have any way that you can adjust the temperature.Same goes for heating pads. Button quail have very specific needs - the smaller the baby bird, the more leeway there is for something to go wrong because they just don't have the body mass to compensate for it.Under-floor brooders are generally considered a bad idea - they have the potential to burn the feet of the chicks.

A heatlamp is cheap, more convenient, more accurate, provides a better quality of heat and is by far the best option. You don't need a huge fancy bulb from the feed store that costs 20 bucks - for 5 buttons just get a red-tinted 40 watt bulb from walmart for a buck or two or better yet for a couple more bucks a red-colored 100watt flood light from home depot and put it in the fixture of an old lamp from the thrift store. Make a tin foil cone heat deflector for it, hang it in the box so that the center of the heat beam is 95 F (this may be only a few inches high for low wattage bulbs) and bob's your uncle. They only need heat for 2-3 weeks. More nice things about heat lamps include the fact that because they are red, you can sleep with them on and the light doesn't bother you (I once had 6 brooders and 6 different lights on in my room!) and because they emit light, you know right away when they aren't working. You can get reptile heating elements that fit into a light socket from the pet store, and I thought about using that once but if it blew a breaker, I wouldn't know right away. Baby chicks don't survive long without heat so if something isn't working right, I want to find out immediately. And those things aren't cheap either.

I definetly would not keep them in the bator for more than 24 hours, would prefer to get them out by 12 and if they are fluffy and fully ambulatory at six hours, I take them out. I want to get them eating and drinking ASAP.

I would do some reading about how to effectively brood baby chicks. There are a lot of seemingly easy short-cuts and improvisations out there but nothing works quite as well as the good old heat lamp and cardboard box. Brooding buttons is no different than brooding other quail (or chickens and turkeys for that matter) except for the fact that everything is on a smaller scale and you have far less wiggle room for mistakes!

 

[Pumpkan]

the eggs are in the incubator now i can't touch that! I have a small set of xmas lights The one thing i am mainly concerned about is fire if it's cardboard and bedding exuppy pads and paper bedding will it cause a fire!!??????? Is what temp do they need to be at? 100 degrees? Is this too hot for the bedding ?? My friend at the pet store said I can probally use the heating rock with a towel over it so they won't get burned..... Do you think that would work??

 

[soffeann1997]

You are not supposed to put chicks on bedding it can pierce their skin and kill them. Also a heat lamp in all will cost about $10 if you get a regular sized one. Reptile heat rocks don't work well with chicks and are WAY more exspensive.

the eggs are in the incubator now i can't touch that! I have a small set of xmas lights The one thing i am mainly concerned about is fire if it's cardboard and bedding exuppy pads and paper bedding will it cause a fire!!??????? Is what temp do they need to be at? 100 degrees? Is this too hot for the bedding ?? My friend at the pet store said I can probally use the heating rock with a towel over it so they won't get burned..... Do you think that would work??