Incubation Day 12--Planning for Coturnix/Button mixed hatch

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Hello,

It's nearly day 12 now and I was hoping to get a bit more incubation advice. If the incubation period for Coturnix (Texas A & M white in this case) eggs is 16 to 18 days and I am supposed to stop turning at least four days before hatching, should I go ahead and stop turning now?

I started my Button Quail eggs at the same time and these normally hatch on day 16: Do I need to build a compartment inside the incubator to keep the Button eggs separate from the Coturnix eggs? Will the hatching/drying Button chicks disturb the Coturnix eggs and reduce the hatch rate or is it OK to have chicks scampering over and around the other eggs? (I always worry that hatching chicks might disturb the other eggs by rolling them around.)

The humidity has been at 40% to 50% throughout incubation. Is it correct that I need to increase the humidity to 60% now? It has been very difficult for me to get the humidity higher than 30%. (So far, the best I've been able to do is 50% by keeping the water reservoir full and filling every available bit of floor space with wet sponges.)

I'm hoping that it will be safe to combine the two varieties of chicks. The tiny button quail can perhaps make up for size difference by the fact that they will probably be 24 hours older than the coturnix chicks. Has anyone tried brooding different sizes of quail chicks together? Should I just set up two brooders?

Thanks so much!
Jennifer

 

[moon.walking.duck]

hi i have done this loads of times and it has been fine i have no problems and have kept them together even until they are adults. you do sometimes get a coturnix which is a bit problamatic with the smaller buttons but most are normally fine. i normally stop turning night 14/day 15 and leave the chicks until the coturnix have hatched as they do not need food the first few days however if you have a lot that are getting too problamatic for theincubator take them out day 16 and top up the humdity then leave it also if you have a depish amount of water it will take longer to raise humdity than a shallow amount of water sometimes they may all hatch together day 17

 

[NeoRoey]

Button quails actually also take about 16-18 days in an incubator. Mine hatched at 18. I would recommend that you stop turning and raise humidity on day 15. Works for me.

 

[Stellar]

Button quail should hatch within 16 days, take them off the turner at day 13... If you are getting hatches later than 16 days make sure your temperature isn't too low...99.5 degrees F is the temp for these guys...That's why it's always smart to have two thermometers in the incubator so the temperature is calibrated correctly. The thermometers that come with incubators tend to be a few degrees off which can affect your hatch rate.

Japanese Coturnix should hatch within 17 days, take them off the turner at day 14.

It is not necessary to raise humidity. A steady 50-60 percent throughout incubation is great...raising it can cause the embryo to drown as it breaks though the inner membrane into the air sack. Some
people still do it, but my personal belief is that it weakens the chicks.