Can chicken hens hatch quail?

[Redhead Rae]

Can chicken hens hatch quail eggs and raise the chicks effectively? Has anyone done this? I will be giving some chickens to a friend who has quail and incubates their eggs. He often complains about how stupid quail chicks are. I'm wondering if they would do better with a chicken mama. I intend to give him a broody with chicks in the spring so he has a proven mama.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Another member tried it last year and the eggs got broke by the chicken, so she never had any success.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Has anyone given a hen quail chicks after incubating them?

 

[gpop1]

quail chicks are stupid but with a little experience you should be able to get them to adults with out much of a problem.

1/ keep water dishes shallow or add pebbles so they don't drown
2/ grind the food for the first few weeks
3/ show them where the food and water is
4/ if they are making a lot of noise they are unhappy
5/ keep a light over there food
6/ don't have any places they can get trapped
7/ change the litter or suffer poopy toe
8/ never allow them on a slippery surface
9/ after a few weeks they will jump so the brooder needs to be set up so they don't hit the lid hard and break there necks
10/ never mix older chicks that haven't grown up together always introduce using a cage for a few days.

Using a chicken will not work as it will just ignore the chicks and to be honest there's nothing the quail need from a hen. if you have a young chicken chick (days old) that you can add to the brooder then that can help with showing the chicks where to eat and drink.

 

[henaynei]

You might want to watch some of the videos posted by this quail breeder.
She uses bantam Cochin and some specific techniques and gets interesting results

 

[Redhead Rae]

OMG! That is so CUTE! Great, another reason for me to consider getting tiny chickens.

 

[Bryam]

What a nice video!

 

[chickens really]

My Friend has used a Tiny Slikie Hen to hatch out Quail Chicks...She was fantastic...