Hi questions about quail sitting on eggs

[amandria1]

Holy canenoli I have a chick today. I went in the backroom to all kinds of commotion. The hen that had been sitting was on top of the may0naise jar my husband had fixed up for the first to hide in when he was alone.

She was on top making a weird sound then I saw my rooster pecking everyone in there going crazy. I peeped in to look at eggs saw one egg cracked open thought that is weird and pretty sure I see a fuzzy baby just sitting there while my rooster and hen fight over who is going back in with the nest.

I grabbed the jar/eggs/chick, then after some wrangling grabbed her too. We have a smaller tank we put them in when we clean the big one.

I need to know what to do now? only thing I am worried about is water I have a water dish in there because that other one I have is to big, plastic dome with water that by gravity comes down.

Please any recommendations would be appreciated. First chick ever and it came really quick I think. Thank you, Adreanna

 

[DK newbie]

Wow, she must have been incubating for a while before you noticed ^^ Is she taking good care of the chick? Is she sitting on the nest or outside it?
You can use small jar lids or similar as water dishes for chicks. Fill them with pebbles so the chicks can't get wet if they walk into the dish. Using such a lov dish, you might need to fill it several times a day as they will probably get lots of bedding in there.
Do you have a feed with 24+ % protein? The chick will need something like that to survive. If you don't have it, you can feed it hard boiled eggs, finely chopped, but you will need to change it several times daily at it spoils quickly.

 

[amandria1]

Thanks again for writing to me. I have Kaytee start and grow? I am boiling an egg now. I have been putting the waterbowl in and out because I fear it getting wet. I wondered how in the world he.she was going to get water and not get wet.

Thanks for the water and rocks idea luckily I have fish too so using thier rocks for mayonaise jar top water jar its less high than my silver dish I used for my 1 roo originally.

He still seems very agitated running back and forth in the tank the housing a plastic jar decent size is where the eggs are but he . Any special bedding I should use? Just yesterday had granddaughter count eggs and there was no difference stopped at 11, so far only the one chick.

Yes I do think she is a good Mommy, she sat on them, and she is till gathering up this baby, keeping it and the other eggs warm. I have them alone in the cleaning tank. 100 gallon is what the were in now they are in the 10 gallon together.

Really appreciate the tips. I had 11 eggs they normally laid 3 eggs a day and the one named chopsticks sat on them I only noticed 5 days ago.

This one is a fluffy little yellow with dark brown strips down middle of back. She could be raising anothers baby as it seemed all 3 were laying.

 

[DK newbie]

I have no experience with Kaytee, but you are supposed to mix it with water, right? Can it be fed dry? The chick can probably eat wet feed as well, but I have a feeling it might spoil even faster than the egg and the chick might get wet and sticky from walking in it, so I'd try to avoid that. And it only has 22% protein (according to my google search), which might be slightly too low.. Perhaps you can mix the egg with dry kaytee, but really, I'd get a bag of proper game bird starter and - if necessary - crush it to button-baby-beak-size. That would make your life much easier and you would know the chick gets everything it needs.
Now, for the next issue I suspect you might experience (I have) - if she doesn't get anymore chicks soon, she might opt to stay on the nest, rather than to care for the chick that already hatched. If she does this, she might get more chicks, but it might also cause the death of the one that already hatched because she doesn't show it the feed and teaches it to eat but rather goes to eat on her own and then just returns to the nest.
In this case, you need to decide whether you'll 'follow her lead' and let her do it her own way, or you want to give the current chick the best possible chance and remove the eggs to force her to take care of the chick. I would remove them within 24 hours.

As for bedding, I use shavings, but it's not all that important, as long as you don't just put a piece of newspaper or similar in the bottom - it needs to be something that doesn't cause the chicks legs to slip, as this could cause 'splay leg' - a condition where one or both legs become dislocated (I think that's what happens) and useless (can sometimes be mended with treatment).

 

[amandria1]

I have regular bowl for Mommy, crushed Kaytee and eggs and shells for baby. Rocks in water to keep it dry. I had no idea I was to remove eggs.

The Mommy is still sitting on the eggs and on the chick so it seems. I am going to go buy the more starter at feed store tell you the name when I buy it.

I have given eggs and removed I had no idea it would ignore the chick. I have seen the chick come out and drink water not eat yet. The Mommy and chick come out but seem to run back in when we go in the room.

Do I remove the whole box and eggs or just the eggs?

Do quails ever come out same time is this weird or normal that only 1 came out?

Should I give meal worms like normal?

 

[DK newbie]

I would remove the box as well, as mother quail might continue to sit in the empty box for a while otherwise. Provide them with some other place to hide, though.
In your case, I think only one chick has hatched because the other eggs might not have been laid yet when she became broody. They might have live chicks inside them, that are just not ready to hatch yet. You can try candling them to find out - if you have a smartphone, the flash is usually strong enough. If there are live chicks, you can try to get your hands on an incubator to give them a chance.
I don't give my buttons meal worms at all, because I read somewhere (possibly on this forum) that they might confuse each others toes for worms and damage each other by pecking at the toes. They might also be a little big for the chick. But they might provide some much needed protein, so perhaps you can chop them up so they no longer look like quail toes and mix them with the feed?