hatching wild quail- help!

[motherofchicks6]

My mom found a nest of quail eggs and has been incubating them (the mother quail had an unfortunate run-in with a mower). They are in a shoebox with a heat lamp at 99 degrees and she has been turning them twice daily, until the 15th day. Today is the 17th day and one of the eggs has pips! What now? How long will it take for a chick to emerge? At what point do you help the chick out (peel the shell)? Is there anything else we should do? Once they have hatched (hopefully), what should we feed them? Any other care instructions? We have chickens, but have never raised quail.
thank you in advance!!!

 

[The Quail Guru]

1. The best you could do (by experience) is to leave the eggs to hatch. Keep on checking on them however. I have never had to peel the shell or anything whilst hatching quail. You should also move them to a brooder after they are dry. The temperature of the brooder should be set at 100 Fahrenheit and lowered by 5 degrees each week until it is at room temperature or the chicks are about 6 weeks old.

2. You can feed them finch/canary mix or anything alike, chicken feed or chick starter, turkey feed which is really good or if you have it, quail or quail chick feed! Anything that is high in protein is great as quail chicks need lots of protein in their diet. Do NOT feed them medicated feed, this is bad for them. The most important thing when feeding the chicks is to grind down the feed you are going to give them, if it is too big they will either not eat it or struggle to eat.

3. Provide them with some fresh room temperature water and make sure the container is not too big for the chicks! If it is too big you can put some marbles in it to ensure that they wont drown.

4. You should add some bedding to their brooder. Anything apart from newspaper, cedar shaving or cat litter, these contain toxins that will kill the chicks. Good bedding is paper towels, wood shavings or hay/straw.

5. Hmmm... that's basically it apart from the fact that you should put the brooder (with the chicks) in a room that is quiet, has no drafts, has low-traffic, no disturbances and is away from pets. The brooder doesn't have to be anything 'big' for the first week as they are small things!

Hopefully those chicks hatch out alright, any more questions just ask as I'de be happy to help! Oh and just one question - do you know the breed of quail?

 

[dc3085]

1. The best you could do (by experience) is to leave the eggs to hatch. Keep on checking on them however. I have never had to peel the shell or anything whilst hatching quail. You should also move them to a brooder after they are dry. The temperature of the brooder should be set at 100 Fahrenheit and lowered by 5 degrees each week until it is at room temperature or the chicks are about 6 weeks old.

Start the brooder at 95* for coturnix and 97* for bobwhites. 100* is too hot and if any birds have aggressive tendencies high heat will bring it out.

2. You can feed them finch/canary mix or anything alike, chicken feed or chick starter, turkey feed which is really good or if you have it, quail or quail chick feed! Anything that is high in protein is great as quail chicks need lots of protein in their diet. Do NOT feed them medicated feed, this is bad for them. The most important thing when feeding the chicks is to grind down the feed you are going to give them, if it is too big they will either not eat it or struggle to eat.

I'd like to see science that proves medicated feed is bad for quail chicks. That's a wives tale that's spent entirely too much time in circulation.

If you feed anything besides a formulated crumble you will need to provide digestive grit. Crumbles are water soluble, seeds and like are not and quail cannot digest them, especially as chicks.

Quail chicks should be fed 30% game bird starter or at the very least 28% turkey starter. Feeding them chicken feed or starter would be like raising a child on top ramen noodles.

3. Provide them with some fresh room temperature water and make sure the container is not too big for the chicks! If it is too big you can put some marbles in it to ensure that they wont drown.

4. You should add some bedding to their brooder. Anything apart from newspaper, cedar shaving or cat litter, these contain toxins that will kill the chicks. Good bedding is paper towels, wood shavings or hay/straw.

5. Hmmm... that's basically it apart from the fact that you should put the brooder (with the chicks) in a room that is quiet, has no drafts, has low-traffic, no disturbances and is away from pets. The brooder doesn't have to be anything 'big' for the first week as they are small things!

Hopefully those chicks hatch out alright, any more questions just ask as I'de be happy to help! Oh and just one question - do you know the breed of quail?

ETA: Don't help them hatch, if they can't do it on their own they probably weren't fit to. Not every egg contains a viable life, at this point it is bet to let Darwin decide which birds will make it.

Leave them in the brooder for 18-24 hours after they hatch so that as many as possible can hatch before you open the door. If eggs are pipped and you open the door you'll shrink wrap them in their shell effectively killing them.

From pip to hatch can take more than 30 hours so just be patient and resist the temptation to help, it's easier to kill a chick assisting than it is to save them.