I have a couple of quail questions!

[Silkiehen]

Thank y'all for all the great advice! Only 14 more days till they hatch!

 

[Silkiehen]

Your broody 'may' be ok to raise the chicks but it will take a lot of work on your part to keep her quiet and nesting for that first week after they hatch as they are so dependent, cuddly and needy at that age.  I've had one Old English Game Bantam raise two quail chicks but that was because one hatched a full week after the first and she kept sitting until the second hatched, so the first chick had time to grow enough to be more independent and not get stepped on by a busy mother hen.  The second chick I had to hold each time she got up to scratch about and it was a lot of work to ensure he wasn't injured or squashed.  Since then I've just used the broodies as incubators and raised the chicks myself. 

In the brooder use something with traction under their feet and sprinkle ground up game bird feed everywhere initially until they can recognise what food looks like and find it in a dish - usually after 3 days they can find it.  Water initially needs to be in a very shallow dish with marbles to prevent them getting too wet.  By 5 days old to a week old you can switch to a chick waterer.

Some people keep them on wire but you have to be scrupulous about keeping wire clean as hardened poop can cut the quail's feet and cause bumblefoot.  I prefer to have solid bottomed cages and use litter like straw which is quick and super easy to change.  They are happiest up off the ground and people give them half to one square foot of space per bird.  They do seem to prefer to live in close quarters, one male to a cage with at least 3-4 females.  Some males need more (and can be quite aggressive) so choose your sweetest, calmest boys to keep the girls company as calm, happy girls lay many yummy eggs.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do with the dirty straw?

 

[JaeG]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do with the dirty straw?

It turns into beautiful compost. I've made straw gardens with straw bales and I'd love my husband to make some big planter boxes I could fill with the straw from the chickens and quail to do something similar.

That is a huge brooder for little quail chicks. They do grow amazingly fast though so you'll probably move them into it after a couple of weeks, especially if the vast majority of your eggs hatch. By two weeks old they are pretty independent and the two I kept with my hen only slept under her at night for warmth. They were indoors though. But one heat source should do them at that age.

Do let us know how you get on and ask if you think of any more questions.

 

[Silkiehen]

I need to compost but I don't know where to start!

I have tons of questions about them and I'm sure I'll have more! As far as hatching everyone has told me it's the same as chickens. With chickens I have the best success dry hatching and only adding water during lock down. Is that ok for quail? My incubator is at 101°. It's a forced air and it turns automatically.

It turns into beautiful compost. I've made straw gardens with straw bales and I'd love my husband to make some big planter boxes I could fill with the straw from the chickens and quail to do something similar. 

That is a huge brooder for little quail chicks. They do grow amazingly fast though so you'll probably move them into it after a couple of weeks, especially if the vast majority of your eggs hatch. By two weeks old they are pretty independent and the two I kept with my hen only slept under her at night for warmth. They were indoors though. But one heat source should do them at that age. 

Do let us know how you get on and ask if you think of any more questions.

 

[Silkiehen]

And if you have any more advice or anything you think I'll need to know just throw it in there. I'm all for learning!

 

[Binki]

Here's some more advice/experience copied from the other post about coturnix housing I really need to make a page about this stuff to link people to instead of typing it all out because I'm sure I'm missing some things

I also provide them with a sand box (they adore it so much) and a food box where I put their feed with a bit of wood shavings so they get to scratch around for it wink.png

I put their grit and crushed oyster shell (for laying females) in their sand box and I strain it clean every few days.

I'm a big fan of using cardboard boxes (Pepsi, oatmeal, etc.) because when they get dirty, I recycle them instead of having to clean them big_smile.png

I also like that they're soft in case the quail hit them for some reason.

I used to use all hay but now mostly wood shavings for better absorbency and a corner of hay where they will sometimes build nests and lay in hehe.

 

[Binki]

Oh sorry, re: your incubation questions, I have heard of successful dry hatches - I *think* it may somehow be dependent on the native humidity, so if someone lived in a dry area they may not have much luck with dry hatching?

I think 101 is just a tad too high, most people do 100 but of course make sure your thermometer is calibrated correctly or else it could be actually 108 and only reading 101, for example.

 

[Silkiehen]

Thank you so much!

Oh sorry, re: your incubation questions, I have heard of successful dry hatches - I *think* it may somehow be dependent on the native humidity, so if someone lived in a dry area they may not have much luck with dry hatching?

I think 101 is just a tad too high, most people do 100 but of course make sure your thermometer is calibrated correctly or else it could be actually 108 and only reading 101, for example.

 

[LoveInNature]

Oh sorry, re: your incubation questions, I have heard of successful dry hatches - I *think* it may somehow be dependent on the native humidity, so if someone lived in a dry area they may not have much luck with dry hatching?

I think 101 is just a tad too high, most people do 100 but of course make sure your thermometer is calibrated correctly or else it could be actually 108 and only reading 101, for example.

When I was doing my first incubation recently I found this really interesting paper on humidity trials for Japanese quail. I got a lot out of this so give it a read.
http://redirect.viglink.com/?format...xt=http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd21/3/roma21038.htm

 

[Binki]

When I was doing my first incubation recently I found this really interesting paper on humidity trials for Japanese quail. I got a lot out of this so give it a read.
http://redirect.viglink.com/?format...xt=http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd21/3/roma21038.htm

One poster described their dry hatch as no water until lockdown and it was at a natural 20% humidity during incubation - I have no experience with it myself however

, I had read the same conclusion you posted and perhaps even the same article before my first incubation too!!

Twinsies - haha.

I never knew about egg weight loss before it, incubator walkthroughs rarely get that deep

Unfortunately for the coturnix, they are I think the most experimented on bird. That makes for a lot of studies online from toxins (aww

) to cold tolerance of embryos.