Incubating, candling, hatching quail eggs... Help, please!

[wornoutmomto3]

My father-in-law gave us 17 coturnix quail eggs to hatch. We drove three hours one way to pick them up. I let them rest for a day before putting in the incubator around midnight Saturday. They should hatch in about 18 days according to my f-i-l. I haves hatched chickens and ducks before, but this is my first hatch with quail. This will even be a first for raising quail. Any and all advice is welcome. From when/if to candle, what to feed all the way to proper housing is completely new to us. Please help! I know quail fly so I have been constructing a covered run for them out of an old trampoline frame. It is currently in use as a movable chicken tractor for some juvenile chickens until they are old enough to join the main flock. There are still a great number of improvement I want to do with it, but I will try to post a picture of the progress tomorrow. It is night right now and the picture would be too dark.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

Please, help!

 

[wornoutmomto3]

 

[jbuzbee]

I'm a newb or I'd help I just set 36 quail eggs last night 24 courtnix and 12 a&m from what I have read 45-50 humidity till the 14th day then stop turning and boost it up to 65-70 for the last 3 days and try ur best not to open it up and loose humidity or heat and keep temp around 99.5-99.9

 

[jbuzbee]

O also after they have hatched feed a 28% game bird feed that you will need to grind up to almost a powder with blender or ect keep a heat lamp on them and keep a close eye making sure they aren't too hot or to cold

 

[dc3085]

Incubate at 99.75* F for 14 days, stop turning raise humidity to 60-70% until hatch.

Candling is a waste of time honestly, it will not change the outcome for the positive but every time you handle the eggs it can affect it negatively. Especially don't float test or water candle, people are doing that way too much these days, it's an advanced technique to be used only as an indicator of freshness not of hatchability/signs of life in the eggs.

Once chicks hatch do not remove them from the bator for 24 hours. Do not open the bator if eggs are pipped, they'll get stuck in the shell and die. Feed 30% protein game bird or turkey starter to chicks (I feed it to my breeders as well). You don't have to grind the food. If you do, stop well short of powder, they won't eat it and it's bad for their respiratory systems. Brood chicks at 95* F for the first week lowering the temp by 5* each week until the 4-5 week.

Practice biosecurity between your chickens and quail. Chickens can carry many diseases that they are resistant to but will cause mortality in game birds. Chickens can carry these diseases their entire lives and never show a symptom. There are no tests, vaccines, or cures for any of the serious poultry diseases so it's best to just be safe and wash your hands between handling them and don't let them interact. People will tell you they do it all the time and it's fine. Those people are ignoring truck loads of good science in the name of "my cousin's in-law's neighbor said it's ok so it must be ok" or "I'm doing it and my quail are fine" yep and people don't always lose at russian roulette but there is a bullet in the gun the whole time they're playing.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

Incubate at 99.75* F for 14 days, stop turning raise humidity to 60-70% until hatch.

Candling is a waste of time honestly, it will not change the outcome for the positive but every time you handle the eggs it can affect it negatively. Especially don't float test or water candle, people are doing that way too much these days, it's an advanced technique to be used only as an indicator of freshness not of hatchability/signs of life in the eggs.

Once chicks hatch do not remove them from the bator for 24 hours. Do not open the bator if eggs are pipped, they'll get stuck in the shell and die. Feed 30% protein game bird or turkey starter to chicks (I feed it to my breeders as well). You don't have to grind the food. If you do, stop well short of powder, they won't eat it and it's bad for their respiratory systems. Brood chicks at 95* F for the first week lowering the temp by 5* each week until the 4-5 week. 

Practice biosecurity between your chickens and quail. Chickens can carry many diseases that they are resistant to but will cause mortality in game birds. Chickens can carry these diseases their entire lives and never show a symptom. There are no tests, vaccines, or cures for any of the serious poultry diseases so it's best to just be safe and wash your hands between handling them and don't let them interact. People will tell you they do it all the time and it's fine. Those people are ignoring truck loads of good science in the name of "my cousin's in-law's neighbor said it's ok so it must be ok" or "I'm doing it and my quail are fine" yep and people don't always lose at russian roulette but there is a bullet in the gun the whole time they're playing. 

I didn't realize that about chicken and quail. I have a broody bantam hen and was thinking about letting her brood the quail chicks after hatch. (I have seen it done with ducks and chickens.) I will definitely NOT be doing that now, with quail. Thank you for the extremely valuable information.