Incubation period generally takes between 16-21 days. You turn the eggs (rotate them 180 degrees) each day until the end of day 13. Then, you go into "lock-down," which is when you stop turning the eggs so that the chicks can position themselves for hatching. I only hatch in small batches between 6-12 eggs, so my experience may be quite different from others who hatch in larger batches with larger and more sophisticated incubators. In my case, I've found that the incubation method is still a learning process by trial and error, since every incubator is different. You will find a lot of links to this, and several will recommend temps between 99.4F-100F degrees. When I first started out, I used the cheapest (and lousiest) little plastic
Brinsea incubator -- this is the little one with the folded screen that often drops and makes the eggs fall right into the water below. I turned the eggs 4 times a day (three times a day when I could only rush home for lunch). I used this one for two hatches before upgrading to the
Brinsea Mini Advance with the auto-turner. On my first two hatches with the first incubator, my temps were at 100F degrees with humidity near 65% throughout the first time and increased to nearly 90% the second time, with poor hatching rates both times (actually, even worse the second time). Kept the same temp the first time with the newer incubator and had a poor hatch (several chicks hatching two days early, others died in the shell nearly fully developed and others probably died somewhere between days 12-14.) On my last two hatches, I've kept temps at 99.4F-99.6F degrees with much better success (I also held humidity levels between 70-75%). Yet, this is just my experience with my own incubator. Your experience may be entirely different with a different incubator, even at the same temp. It takes a few hatches to learn the best temp/humidity settings with your particular incubator. It also depends on whether your incubator is a still-air or forced-air incubator. I looked at several sites regarding incubation prior to starting out, and mainly went by
this link as a reference guide (note the different temp settings for still-air versus forced-air.)
Once the chicks hatch, I can at least offer you more specific information. The following are tips and lessons learned both from personal experience and from following the guidance of breeders and folks here in this forum. Once the chicks hatch .....
1. Add a vitamin/mineral supplement to water dish. If your quail eggs were shipped, you may not know the conditions under which the breeding pair were kept. If there is a vitamin/mineral deficiency in the mating pair, any eggs produced will also lack these nutrients to hatch and develop normally. For example, a lack of Riboflavin in a breeding pair can result in chicks with leg/foot deformities. Therefore, supplementing newborn chicks with these nutrients gives them a better chance of surviving if they are lacking a particular vitamin or mineral.
2. Add probiotics to feed or water. I use PB-8, but there are many other probiotics available out there made and marketed specifically for chicks to help rid any overgrowth of bacteria that can cause them illness. Also, watch for droppings that adhere to a chick's backside and collect there into a large mass. This condition is fairly common, and it can cause constipation and illness if left untreated. You can help to eliminate it by giving a chick probiotics (orally) and gently cleaning its bottom with a Q-tip soaked in warm water (this will also help the chick to produce a bowl movement and further rid of any constipation that may be causing it weakness and/or lack of interest in feeding normally.)
3. Watch new chicks closely for signs of overheating. If they appear to be panting, laying flat or on their sides with legs stretched out away from their body for long periods, or scooting off into corners in your brooder, then the heat from your brooder lamp is too intense. On the other hand, if they are piling up on top of one another directly under the lamp, or standing high as though they are lifting their body upwards towards the heat source, then the temperature in your brooder needs to be increased. I really don't go explicitly by temp readings as much as I do how the chicks are behaving.
4. As you may have already noted from other posters, make sure that your starter feed is ground to almost a powder-like consistency. If the pellets are too large, they are unable to eat enough, even if it appears that they are pecking at it. Spread this feed freely all over the brooder so that they can find the food easily by simply pecking at the ground around them, rather than having them search for the food dish. They will eventually be able to recognize the food dish, but it will take them 2-3 days after hatching to do this.
5. More on feeding....you have to show them how to eat. Use your finger to poke around at the bottom of the brooder. In this manner, you are replicating the behavior of a mother hen and teaching the chicks to peck at the ground for their food. Some chicks instinctively know how to forage for feed and peck at the ground right after hatching, but others will literally starve unless you show them how to do this.
6. Observe them to see that they are finding and drinking water while in the brooder. Add bright red marbles or stones to attract them to both the feed and water dishes. If you observe them not drinking enough water - or no water at all - in the brooder, you may need to use a small dropper and dab water on the side of their beak for them to swallow. Again, like the feeding mentioned above, some chicks need to be shown how to eat and drink. It's important to dip a chick's beak into the water dish when you place them into the brooder for the first time -- this insures that the chick gets hydrated, but also teaches them where the water is located.
7. Emergency Fix: Just a warning about this, as some may find this controversial due to the fact that this remedy won't be found in website or book sources. This is information gained from a local friend who has raised pheasants for over 20 years, and I can only offer my experience with this remedy by way of stating that I believe it literally saved two of my own button quail chicks. The following is a remedy for chicks who are weak, star-gazing, walking backwards, and/or near apparent death with convulsions (seizure-like behavior) when all else has been tried....
Mix the following:
- 2 Tablespoons of filtered or distilled room-temperature water
- 2 drops of "Trace Minerals" (labeled as "Concentrace") drops (available from Whole Foods or similar health foods store, sold in a blue bottle)
- A full pinch of granulated sugar
- 2 drops of avian vitamins (or Poly Vi Sol without iron)
Use a dropper to apply to side of bird's beak, and repeat once every 30-45 minutes. I found that my two button quail began to show quick improvement within 45-60 minutes, with this solution providing them with the energy they needed to begin pecking at food and to stand more upright, eventually regaining function to feed on their own with no more visible symptoms within a time period of 2-4 hours..
Sorry so long, but these birds teach you a lot - you will learn quickly in a short period of time - and each hatch teaches you something new.
