Incubator and equipement questions

[StaticChaos]

I am having great success with the Hovbator Genesis 1588 with their automatic egg turner. I just "set it and forget it" Ok, not exactly, but it does regulate temp well thanks to the fan circulating the air around, it heats up fast, and shows the humidity, and is easily adjustable if needed, etc. I just fill up the tray every few days and that's it. FYI, if you are incubating Jumbo Brown or other large Coturnix, the quail racks are too small. I found this out the hard way by eggs getting stuck and falling out. I have to use the standard chicken racks with the jumbo eggs.

 

[tinkatwerp]

That is good to know about the jumbo eggs. I was planning on raising jumbo, so I just won't bother buying the quail rails for the egg turner if it's not going to work anyways.

I found a package on amazon that has the 1602 incubator, fan and egg turner for $150,so I'm probably going to go with that. The genesis is $150 just for the bator, and I don't want to spend more on top of that for the egg turner. Now I just have to wait for the game and fish to get back to me so I can buy it.

So I have a question concerning where to put the bator. As far as I understand you're supposed to put it in a warm room with a steady temperature. My house never has a steady temperature during the warmer months because we open all the windows all night and through the morning to cool the house down and close them when it starts to warm up. So anywhere I put them upstairs is going to be warm but have a drop in temperature once a day. I could put them in the basement which doesn't have temperature swings but is like 65 degrees. Which would be the best place to put them?

Also how many eggs should I buy when the time comes? When all things are said and done I'd like a flock of about 20 birds. I know some eggs aren't going to hatch, some will probably die in the brooder, and I will probably have to cull some males, so how many extra do I need to buy?

 

[Timba]

I would go with 45+ eggs. Being your first time incubating and all, your hatch rate may be low. The first time I tried hatching I had a 25% hatch.

 

[StaticChaos]

I had a 50% hatch rate on my first ever batch, and a 67% hatch rate on my second. It will just vary a lot due to many different factors. I would get enough eggs to fill up the incubator personally. You can always sell or give away any that you don't want if you get too many that hatch. I have my incubators in the basement but I am not worried too much about temp fluctuations. The Genesis seems to do a really good job of maintaining a consistent temp and recovers very quickly from opening and closing (when I fill with water) and it comes up to full temp very quickly when setting it up for another batch. I can't say that all makes and models will be like that, but this one with the electronic temp control and fan seems to work well for me.

 

[tinkatwerp]

Unfortunately I can't give any away because the permit I'm getting prohibits me giving away live birds or hatching eggs, but since the egg turners hold 41 I bet I'll end up with fewer birds than I want anyways.

The pen I am planning on keeping them in is going to be 3'x7' plus a henhouse attached, so that's pretty much a square foot of space per bird. I've read this is appropriate for quail, does that sound all right to you guys?

 

[Timba]

Sounds pretty awesome. I recently built mine. Here's a pic of it...

It is 2'x4' and I currently have 5 birds in it. A male and 4 females. They have tons of space.

Good luck and have fun!!!

 

[tinkatwerp]

Lol I hope it turns out well.

As far as birds and space, do I have enough room for multiple roosters? I was planning on 20 birds total, and I heard 1 male to 5 hens is a good ratio, so I was planning on having 3 roosters, but now I'm wondering about fighting. What should I do?

 

[dc3085]

1:7 is going to be better for avoiding aggression. 1 rooster can easily keep 6-7 hens fertile and the more hens to distract them the less the males will care about each other. I recommend 3-4 sq ft per bird if you are going with more than 2 roosters though. Even with two sometimes one goes batty. Make sure to raise the roosters together with the hens they will be covering, this will also help keep aggression to a minimum since they'll be used to seeing each other. somtimes you don't have any problems and sometimes it's nothing but problems.

 

[tinkatwerp]

So does 2 roosters and 18 hens sound appropriate? I really don't want fights but I do want to be able to hatch eggs. If I only had one rooster would enough eggs be fertile to hatch anyways?

 

[dc3085]

If you had two in there you would have sufficient fertility to hatch some eggs, but 3 would obviously be better. Once a hen is fertilized it lasts for appx a week, so they tend to have better fertility rates than people would think. There is no reason not to start with three and remove one if he's too aggressive, I'm just giving you a heads up on their tendencies. In a flight pen or other really large cage you can run as many roosters as is required because they have enough space to stay away from each other and enough girls to stay busy. Space is the key to having multiple roosters without having problems.