Buying button quail eggs online

[broody rooster]

Hello i was wondering if button quail eggs are as prone to problems with shipping as chickens or other eggs in general id like to get button quail locally but to my knowledge no one locally sells them so i considered online possibly ebay as an option i've never kept quail before so any info on their care and habits would also be of use thankyou .

 

[kingmt]

Expect 50% or less hatch rate.

 

[Halloweengirl13]

Yeah that is about what I got on my last shipped egg hatch ,but I got what I ordered them for, unrelated quail to pair up with mine. Hatch rates can be sucky but it can be a good way to get color mutations that may not be available in your area or to add new blood to current birdies .

I feed my baby quail the chick starter from tractor supply it says for quail, pheasants and chukar on the bag . if you are diligent about keeping their house clean to prevent ammonia build up, you can use an aquarium I haven't had to do much cleaning yet with them they are so tiny . I keep my baby quail in an aquarium. I have my adult s in a bird cage decorated with fake plants and evergreen branches and they like it enough to go broody and hatch babies, but with even small spaces between bars the babies can wiggle their way out, which is why I put the little ones in the aquarium.

these are from my last hatch.

 

[broody rooster]

ive been told they rarely go broody is it an instinct that simply needs certain conditions to be met for it to happen or is it learned from parents to chicks ?

 

[broody rooster]

i was also curious if anyone that breeds button quail on here lives in louisiana that i could buy chicks preferably from

 

[Halloweengirl13]

A little of both it seems, privacy and feeling safe are a good start.I keep mine in pairs, I also let my girl choose between the two boys she was raised with and rehomed the extra boy. Their mother went broody too but they weren't raised by her, seems like it is a combination of environment and genetics in my case.
I wish she had chosen something other than the food dish for her nest tho Lol she always has her eggs in there and I put up a privacy screen out of evergreen branches to give her more cover.

 

[broody rooster]

what would be a large enough enclosure for a pair and what would be a suitable nest ?

 

[Halloweengirl13]

I use one of those rectangular bird cages that have the three doors with the big door having a little door in it.some people use hamster cages, I have my older babies in a crittertrail temporarily. I have solid floors even in the bird cage because they love to dig and scratch around in the bedding . they have a little shelf to hop on and look around from.

This is the type of cage, I haven't finished modifying it yet and I put the cardboard in to keep the current residents from kicking the bedding out.it also hardware cloth around the bottom

I didn't take a picture of the actual one I don't want to startle mama cause she has her nest in the front of the cage.like the one in the picture the bottom half is closed in but it's foamboard instead of cardboard. Their nest is a clear plastic ice cream bowl that's just big enough for the pair to both fit into.

This is what the little babies are in

It's a 37 gal tall aquarium so far I haven't had problems with the older ones bouncing up and hitting their heads they only can get halfway up so far. And they are somewhat used to my hands being in there with them. They are less likely to boink up if they have lots of cover and stuff to hide under or behind. If I startle the babies they hide behind the waterer instead of boinking. Or flushing up. But mostly they kinda stare a the giant hand that brings the food Lol

 

[broody rooster]

where would i be able to get a male female pair especially since i cant sex babies and dont have the room for a large number of adults if they are territorial and i dont want siblings breeding

 

[Halloweengirl13]

I not familiar with Louisiana , I live in Ga and I found mine by accident, a lady we know bought some at an auction and decided they were too much trouble, she kept all her birds outside and the buttons kept escaping so she gave the ones she had left to me for 3 bucks each. I hatched babies and sold most of them then my cat figured out how to open the cage and ate two of the four I had left. I hatched a few of their eggs then my cat got the parents. So I kept the babies till the female chose her mate and sold the extra male to my boyfriends brother for his aviary. So now we have 5 chicks from that pair and I have 5 from the eggs I bought on eBay . even with shipping I only ended up paying about 4 dollars a bird and that's not too bad if you think about it.