How to bond with a baby quail - Unique Situation

[Oob Child]

How do I bond with a baby quail? This is very important for this chick.

I lost my beloved female Coturnix quail, Hercules, two days ago due to bumblefoot. She was the first quail I ever hatched and she hatched in my hands. I'm very upset about it as she was only 6 months old.

The last egg she ever laid before it became too stressful and painful to lay is currently in the classroom incubator at my school, and is the only chance of continuing her line. I don't have any more of her eggs.
The egg is alone on day 14 in a staggered hatching project. It survived a horrible situation that killed all of the eggs except two currently on day 7 and one on day 6.
Hercules always laid small eggs, meaning her one is small for a quail egg. The other eggs in the incubator are from my other birds

I'm really hoping that Hercules' egg hatched, as it means alot to me. If the chick hatches, it will stay alone in it's cage for a week until the other eggs hatch, then they will stay together for about three days until the younger ones are taken home by a student whose parents breed quail, and I will take home mini Hercules. I will keep her no matter her sex, size or colour. She is currently growing healthily and has almost taken up the whole egg.

How can I bond with the Quail in the week it is at school alone, and then for the three days with the younger quail?
On the day the younger quail are taken home I will bring mini Hercules home. I will then spend the whole 6 weeks of Summer holidays bonding with her.

I want her to be a house quail or as friendly as. How do I do this?
Also, any name recommendations for if the chick hatches? I'm thinking a Greek god like Hercules, maybe Poseidon? Hercules was a Rosetta while the Dad (Sugar) is a pearl fee mix with some tan/peach hues and brown on his head. Not sure about their parents.

 

[The Moonshiner]

How do I do this?

Spend time with it

Also, any name recommendations for if the chick hatches?

Moony

 

[Insnesnakos]

I don't know anything about quail but make sure they like you

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If the chick hatches, it will stay alone in it's cage for a week until the other eggs hatch, then they will stay together for about three days until the younger ones are taken home by a student whose parents breed quail, and I will take home mini Hercules. I will keep her no matter her sex, size or colour. She is currently growing healthily and has almost taken up the whole egg.

How can I bond with the Quail in the week it is at school alone, and then for the three days with the younger quail?
On the day the younger quail are taken home I will bring mini Hercules home. I will then spend the whole 6 weeks of Summer holidays bonding with her.

I'm very sorry to hear about Hercules

Being at school all by herself if not going to help you bond with her.

Can you bring her home within 24hrs of hatch, brood her at home? THEN when the others hatch, let the other person take them home with them. When the younger ones are around 4wks old or so, bring home another Quail to keep yours company. At 4wks, they should be fairly compatible in size and get along o.k. She will be very happy to have a Quail friend too.

Here's the thing. If the others aren't due to hatch for at least a week later, she's going to be big compared to the tinies - she's likely to trample them or worse. Also is it quite fair for her to be alone that whole time, then have tinies put with her only to be taken away a couple of days later? Quail are social with one another.

As for bonding. You can try. suppose they may enjoy being handled if that's what they are used to right away at hatch. Even then, as she gets older, she may become more independent and not really like it so much as tolerate it.
For mine, they are not pets, I can say they seem to like being talked to and even being near a person, but not that keen on being petted/handled a lot.

 

[Oob Child]

I'm very sorry to hear about Hercules

Being at school all by herself if not going to help you bond with her.

Can you bring her home within 24hrs of hatch, brood her at home? THEN when the others hatch, let the other person take them home with them. When the younger ones are around 4wks old or so, bring home another Quail to keep yours company. At 4wks, they should be fairly compatible in size and get along o.k. She will be very happy to have a Quail friend too.

I can't, the school is very strict on it. The quail will belong to the other person who is taking them home! We didn't expect there to be a single older quail, and I don't have another brooder.

Here's the thing. If the others aren't due to hatch for at least a week later, she's going to be big compared to the tinies - she's likely to trample them or worse. Also is it quite fair for her to be alone that whole time, then have tinies put with her only to be taken away a couple of days later? Quail are social with one another.

I didn't plan this! We had people touch the incubator and then the other embryos died. We started with 8 fresh eggs, 7 of them started developing and then all but one died.

As for bonding. You can try. suppose they may enjoy being handled if that's what they are used to right away at hatch. Even then, as she gets older, she may become more independent and not really like it so much as tolerate it.
For mine, they are not pets, I can say they seem to like being talked to and even being near a person, but not that keen on being petted/handled a lot.

Then how do people have house quail? Don't they get used to it when they are handled from hatching?

I wish I could fix this, but I can't. The quail would definitely have friends when it's older, but for now it's just got people and a mirror. I'm trying really hard, but there's nowhere to buy newly hatched quail where I live.

 

[Patiocoturnix]

Sorry you lost her
My best guess to tame it would be to hold it as much as possible without scaring it.

If your hen died from bumblefoot it was really bad and I would check your other quail just to be safe that they don’t have it.

I hope all goes well and you can figure it out.

 

[Oob Child]

Sorry you lost her
My best guess to tame it would be to hold it as much as possible without scaring it.

Thanks, I'll try that.

If your hen died from bumblefoot it was really bad and I would check your other quail just to be safe that they don’t have it.

I hope all goes well and you can figure it out.

Yes, I did check. It's only my older birds that had bad feet because of the wierd beddings I tested them on. All the others have perfect feet.
It was only bad because after the bumblefoot surgery the foot got infected and the antibiotic ointment didn't work on time.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I can't, the school is very strict on it. The quail will belong to the other person who is taking them home! We didn't expect there to be a single older quail, and I don't have another brooder.

I understand the others belong to another Kid, but since their parent is a breeder, I was thinking when those get older, you could get your Quail a buddy or two from that hatch.

You're taking her home when she's a week old - why can't you take her home when she hatches? You're still going to have to brood her at home. She will still need a source of heat for a few weeks, even if she's inside the house. Do you have a lamp or heat plate that you're going to use?

I didn't plan this! We had people touch the incubator and then the other embryos died. We started with 8 fresh eggs, 7 of them started developing and then all but one died.

I know you didn't plan this and it's such a bummer this all happened too.

Then how do people have house quail? Don't they get used to it when they are handled from hatching?

I wish I could fix this, but I can't. The quail would definitely have friends when it's older, but for now it's just got people and a mirror. I'm trying really hard, but there's nowhere to buy newly hatched quail where I live.

Yes, I suppose Quail do get used to being handled, some more than others. All you can do is be gentle with her, talk to her and see how it goes.

Right, this time of year a lot of people are not hatching, but I wonder if the other Kid's hatch, once those get older if you can have/buy 1-2 of those so she has some buddies, but if you already have other Quail, she may get along with those o.k.