BOBWHITE QUAIL CHICK EMERGANCY!!!!!

[dc3085]

Is it the sunlight? I mean, is the photoperiod long enough to trigger their hormones? Days are getting shorter, so anything on a photoperiod is gearing down for winter.

Bobs are probably more acclimated to lay and set in spring, when their little biological clocksctell them thecdays are getting longer and, "its spring"....

But bobs don't like white light.... Hmmmmm additional lighting like we use for chickens won't work.....

But its just a theory... ?

Nope. They don't brood because of some environmental factor missing when they hatched in brooded in an incubator. I believe that it is actually environmental damage to their genetics, from not having a mother there to teach them, they don't have the instinct to pass on themselves. This is not something people can fix. I've got many hundreds of hours of experimenting on the subject with less than zero results, and my time spent on the subject is but a drop in a bucket. I've heard since I've been around BYC at least a hundred people say they would figure something out to make quail brood. None of them succeeded either.

In all the years I've been doing this I've seen evidence of two coturnix hatching chicks and none of any other quail aside from buttons who will brood very occasionally.

 

[313759]

Well ill haveto try it. I may fail too but will not give up!

 

[shortgrass]

Nope. They don't brood because of some environmental factor missing when they hatched in brooded in an incubator. I believe that it is actually environmental damage to their genetics, from not having a mother there to teach them, they don't have the instinct to pass on themselves. This is not something people can fix. I've got many hundreds of hours of experimenting on the subject with less than zero results, and my time spent on the subject is but a drop in a bucket. I've heard since I've been around BYC at least a hundred people say they would figure something out to make quail brood. None of them succeeded either. 

 
In all the years I've been doing this I've seen evidence of two coturnix hatching chicks and none of any other quail aside from buttons who will brood very occasionally. 

Hmmmm that makes me curious to see if I couldn't catch some of the ones around the yard and freshen up the breeding stock lol... You're probably onto something though, being kept in captivity so long, and trying to mimic a series of conditions for them to be not only WILLING, but WANTING to brood..... I'm in the middle of bobwhite territory, so it makes me think it's the conditions of captivity, for sure.

 

[shortgrass]

Well ill haveto try it. I may fail too but will not give up!

Me too its worth a shot anyway lol

 

[kingmt]

Just a suggestion but if you have a permit to handle wild quail you might want to mention that in any post like this. Some of the people that read through here can't read between the lines & don't know they can go to jail for interfering with wildlife.

If it in your signature sorry I can't see that on the mobile version.

 

[shortgrass]

Just a suggestion but if you have a permit to handle wild quail you might want to mention that in any post like this. Some of the people that read through here can't read between the lines & don't know they can go to jail for interfering with wildlife.

If it in your signature sorry I can't see that on the mobile version.

Thanks, that's a good point I don't....yet. I had to learn how to brood them first

I'm right in the middle of a relocation nightmare, so I wouldn't DARE do that anyway, not without some SERIOUS research and a good talk with the Div.of Wildlife

It would be too stressful on them, anyway...their range averages 40+ acres, there's NO WAY I can make an enclosure big enough to make will quail even remotely comfortable. They wouldn't nest without the right habitat and partner.

 

[313759]

Just a suggestion but if you have a permit to handle wild quail you might want to mention that in any post like this. Some of the people that read through here can't read between the lines & don't know they can go to jail for interfering with wildlife.

If it in your signature sorry I can't see that on the mobile version.

I don't own pure breeds, they have a very small percent of coturnix in them. Or that's what the guy that I bought them from said.

 

[dc3085]

I don't own pure breeds, they have a very small percent of coturnix in them. Or that's what the guy that I bought them from said.

The guy who told you that didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. Coturnix don't hybridize without artificial insemination, and then I've only seen proof of them being able to do it with chickens. Since I'm sure you don't have chicken-quail, which have to be F1 hybrids since they are sterile, you have regular coturnix.

What he most likely meant to say was that he has mixed color phases and didn't give you birds that breed true to color. Texas A&M, Pharaoh, Golden Manchurian, Tibetan, etc. are all just different colors of coturnix quail. Your birds are 100% coturnix, if they are coturnix at all.

 

[313759]

No, we have bobwhites. I want to make a pied bobwhite if possible and I want to try and make a pure black bobwhite.

 

[kingmt]

I'm pretty sure that won't cross with a Bob ether.