Hatching quail with a chicken

[Chickety Charcoal]

Fantastic thread! Thank you for doing this ChickenLegs13,and keeping us updated. I had been considering doing this with my standard-sized broody hen but now realize I don't have the setup for it (separate quarters and the time to check up on them). I would be curious to see if these quail make it to adulthood and brood their own.

 

[James the Bald]

Anyway, if they can survive the looming pestilence of chicken disease & misery I'll remove the chickens and dedicate the pen to the quail and I bet that in several months I'll have a flock of quail that will reproduce naturally. But I'm remembering the old saying "Don't count your quail before they hatch." Or something like that.

Gosh, I don't believe I'm about to say this, as normally, I'm on a huge soap box preaching that quail and chickens don't mix... ughhhh, if you practice enough bio security with that one hen, restricting her from the rest of the flock, ughhhh, you don't know how hard this is.... cough, cough, cough, man, I'm feeling woozzy, maybe, just maybe these little chicks will be imprinted with the instinct to become broody.
It's like somebody has a gun to my head forcing me to say this, as, well, I'm going to take some medicine and lay down now.
James

 

[ChickenLegs13]

LOL @ James. Who knows, maybe eating all that nasty chicken dirt help build an imunity to chicken death.
I practice bio-security as much as practical though I don't decon my feet while walking between pens or steralize my hands between servicing cages.
Even before this experiment I knew chickens & quail don't mix because chickens will scalp & kill a quail long before their germs kill it. If I were to put even a full grown quail in any of my chicken pens it's life expectancy would be about 10 minutes.

 

[GuineaFowling]

My friend gave his serama some quail eggs and she went un-broody the next day lol.

It depends on the hen. I let my broody hens be broody for a week on fake eggs to see if they are actually up for the task. Then I move them to the broody pen and if they are still broody after the move I put fertile eggs under them. Sometimes a hen will decide she no longer wants to be broody.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

The little guys are starting to get feathers on their wings so I guess they are progressing. Been 2 days without injuries or deaths.
When I open their pen door it makes quite a commotion because it's made of tin with rattly chains to secure it to a nail on the gate post. At this time 2 chicks make a beeline straight to moma hen while 2 run in the opposite direction and hide. Wonder if this is some kind of instinct that means something, like maybe the 2 that run to moma are hens and the 2 that run away are roosters acting as decoys.

 

[member 129538]

Any updates? I've been following this thread closely.

 

[dc3085]

It depends on the hen. I let my broody hens be broody for a week on fake eggs to see if they are actually up for the task. Then I move them to the broody pen and if they are still broody after the move I put fertile eggs under them. Sometimes a hen will decide she no longer wants to be broody.

Yeah I was pretty sure she'd quit on them, she's still really young she was spending a good amount of time off the blank chicken eggs he let her keep. I only cared to do it as an experiment on nest raised quail's ability (or inability) to brood.

 

[GuineaFowling]

There is a woman who lives in France who hatches quail with her bantam hen. Its a rare breed Ardenner hen and it raises them perfectly and she doesn't step on them. I have a new breed to look for!

 

[dc3085]

There is a woman who lives in France who hatches quail with her bantam hen. Its a rare breed Ardenner hen and it raises them perfectly and she doesn't step on them. I have a new breed to look for!

This is an experiment. i wouldn't recommend using chickens to hatch quail if you can avoid it. Everyone thinks they won't be the one who has a problem with disease and then we get an irate person starting threads seeking help treating their birds for coryza....When you play russian roulette there may only be a 1 in 6 chance your going to get shot, but there is still a BULLET in the gun...

 

[ChickenLegs13]

And what a fun experiment. I only meant for it to be an "OK I'll show ya " kind of thing but thanks to DC it turned into a 3 part experiment:
Can a chicken hatch quail?
Can a chicken raise quail?
Can quail be taught to brood and raise their own chicks?

I'm doing everything you're NOT sposed to do with quail; having them in contact with the large fowl who is unmentionable here, no brooder or protection from the elements, substandard feeding routine, and raising them on the ground. All around bad husbandy as far as raising quail is concerned. When I started this I was willing to accept any losses from death, injury or disease.
I lost 20% of the eggs during incubation and 71% of the chicks the first 2 or 3 days. That in itself would be interpreted as a FAIL from a practicability standpoint of incubating, brooding and raising quail with chickens.