Incubating Button Quail Eggs

[Pyxis]

I'm currently incubating button quail eggs for the first time and I'm looking for a little advice. What does everyone use as the temperature when they incubate buttons? And the humidity? I have found that 30% humidity works best for me for chicken eggs - do you typically use the same humidity you use for chicken eggs, or do you need to go higher?

Currently I have my temperature set to 99.5 and have been keeping the humidity at around 30%. I'm about a week in. I haven't candled since the eggs are so tiny I'm afraid I'd break one if I tried.

 

[JaeG]

I second the higher humidity as they are so much smaller than chicken eggs with thinner shells. I use 45% humidity for all my quail eggs, bumping it up to 80% for lock down. The high lock down humidity is so that I can open the incubator to remove hatched chicks (who shouldn't be left in the incubator for more than 24 hours at the absolute most) once they've dried off. Quail chicks need to start eating quite quickly after hatch, unlike chicken chicks who can go for a few days without food.

I've just converted the temperature I use to incubate (I work in Celsius) and it's exactly what yours is so you're good there. If you want to candle them you need a good, strong, small light. I find my cellphone flash light is perfect.

Use a heat lamp with quail chicks - Mama heatpads or Electric Hens don't seem to work for them for some reason. And make sure there's lots of food scattered around your brooder for the first few days until they know where the food dish is. Also you need something with good grip in the brooder. They are prone to leg problems and anti slip matting is fantastic for them. Paper towels aren't grippy enough. And marbles or a special waterer is essential - I've had a button chick drown in 3mm of water!

Start out with a small brooder - the chicks chill very easily so if they are too far from the heat lamp they won't be able to make it back to get warm. I put a fuzzy cloth under the heat lamp and some choose to climb up on it to get closer to the heat and others like to snuggle under it as if it were their mother which is really good for strengthening their little legs. Quail chicks really push up into their mothers feathers (under their wings really) to get warm so the cloth needs to be folded so they have space to do that.

Good luck with your hatch - they are so teeny and cute!

 

[007Sean]

I'll have to stick a quarter in there later and try to get a better picture of them.

Here's a couple of pics of mine. Just hatched, about 10 hours old. Theres a dime, penny, and a hobo nickel for scale. The waterer is 3" in height.

Now you know where the saying, "cute as a button" came from!

 

[007Sean]

Quail eggs typically need a tad bit more humidity than chicken eggs. I run my humidity at 40-45% but you need to run your humidity at whatever works best for your incubation practices. I don't candle button quail eggs....too small, about all you can tell is if they are fertile, if their dark.

 

[BantyChooks]

I run 50% for quail until lockdown. They lose weight easy.

 

[Pyxis]

But cute as button, eh?

Just following along here after reading jseg's excellent post.
Are y'all raising quail for eggs and meat....I should read more in this forum .

Just eggs for me - eggs to feed a very specific kind of snake that only eats eggs, actually. And I'll probably sell some, too.

I don't know as I've never watched the whole process. I just know every time I walked in to check the bator there were new babies!

One had pipped the wrong end of the egg and I didn't think it could hatch on its own, so that's why I asked. I ended up carefully helping it out, and I was right, it couldn't hatch on its own. It's doing great now though so I'm up to five

 

[007Sean]

I don't recommend feeding the chicks in the bator. They should be moved to a brooder after they have dried. The temp of the brooder should be 95-97 deg.
You can sprinkle the feed all over the floor of the brooder, that way where ever they peck, theres food. You can also use your finger to peck at the food to encourage them to do the same. A drown proof waterer should also be in the brooder. HTH

 

[Pyxis]

Here's a not-great picture of them since they don't want to cooperate, lol.

 

[dpenning]

By the way, I love your avatar! But that's actually a goose

LOL! Who knew. It made me giggle so I snagged it off the net. I can't keep ducks or geese as I have wild pair of Canada geese that come to our pond every year and chase away any other water fowl. Last year they had a clutch of 7 babies and all survived. It will be interesting to see how many come back.

 

[Pyxis]

Yep, another 5 weeks and they'll be grown teenagers.
They should do fine on the pine shavings. I use aspen shavings. Their a little finer grade than pine shavings. Have an earthy smell to them. They seem to work better for deep litter type setups.

Thanks!

Man, they're really eating now. I was awoken today by them crying because they totally emptied the little food dish overnight. Time for a bigger dish, apparently!