Lotsa dying quail.

[Hidstead09]

I am having a super big problen woth my newly hatched quail, they are dropping like flies. One after another. Alot of splayed legs, but what about the rest? They look fine one minute, and the next, they are laying half dead on thr other side of the brooder? What am I doing wrong? My man thinks its because there arnt electrolites in the water, but i wonder if it had something to do with the incubator letting itself bump up to 104 several times throught incubation. I recoded the temp 3 times daily, every day of their incubation, and it went high a good number more times, but not as high. Please help. =(, culling all these chicks makes me so sad for them.

 

[steve e]

How old are they? i have started leaving them in the incubator for a couple days before i put them in the brooder.. they never seem to do good if i move them over earlyer... sorry to hear of your troubles.. steve e Madison co iowa

 

[Hidstead09]

Really? I had read not to leave them in anymore than 24 hours. Ill have to try that next time! They hatched out Sunday. Had a couple hatch later ( early monday morning). I had originally started pulling them out of the incubator because they were bouncing all over my other eggs. Maybe iits not really a problem if they get rolled a bit by the other quail? Thank you so much, i appreciate the advice. Just hate so much life goin to waste, but as my old man says, they will either taste like quail, or catfish. =/.

 

[Quailsong]

There could be quite a few reasons why you're having issues with new chicks dying. Here's a few I could think of at the top of my head...

Splayed legs: Comes from putting them on slippery surfaces (like newspaper). Get them off that & on to something with grip (old towels, puppy pads, towel paper, etc). Splayed legs can be sometimes fixed with little 'booties' & strings made with kids bandages and/or cotton string.

Heat: Baby chicks need heat in a brooder, 95F the first week or so. Then lowered 5 degrees every week so they can feather out. Give them an area to go away from the heat, if they get too hot. If they're piling on top of eachother, or huddled then they're too cold.

Vitamin B/Selenium: Wry-neck goes hand in hand with vitamin B deficiency. Give them some hard boiled egg yolk.

Electrolytes: Are helpful for already exhausted chicks, but prevention is more important! You can buy electrolytes at health stores, don't just feed them gatorade.

Drink/Food: Make sure you introduce them to their food & water the moment you put them in the brooder. If you've a lot of chicks you got to keep a very watchful eye to make sure they're all eating/drinking. Also watch for over-crowding. Don't put the heater next to the food/water dish. Let them run back/forth, helps strengthen their legs.

Genetics: Sometimes you get bad batches, or the vitamin deficiency in the parents was passed to the eggs. *shrug*

Incubator issues: A lot of variation in the incubator can cause problems with hatching. If many of your chicks hatched & looked fine coming out then I wouldn't point to this directly.

I'm sure others can chip in some ideas why you're having troubles.

 

[Hidstead09]

I have egg yolks in there for them. Been exchanging them for fresh ones daily, but there were definatly alot of probleMs throughout incubation. Just alot of temp fluctuation (going to try a diffrent location next time). I double checked the temp under my heat bulb, and was reading a little low, so i dropped it down a bit and they seem to be doing better. Just so many deformed babies. I did have them on paper towels during incubation, unscented puppy pads in the brooder. Hopefully between all that and the electrolites ill have a bit better luck from here on out.

 

[Hidstead09]

It seems like my last hatch of babies was much less sensitive. Only lost a couple of them. Used diffrent breeders for each, so maybe just a more sensitive line of quail. The ones that are healthy, seem very very healthy, should i seperate the qeustionable ones out?

 

[buttonquailtx]

Always separate any chicks that seem sick or deformed. Even if they don't have a contagious disease, any less than healthy chicks will probably be pecked on and bullied by the stronger and healthier ones.

+1 to Quailsong's advice. These are all things to look for when losing chicks.

To add to this advice, I have noticed that when many chicks are dying, it is usually because the parents are having difficulties that would be unnoticed otherwise. What feed do you give to the parents? And maybe try adding a poultry vitamin additive to their water.

One other possibility is very young or very old hens.

 

[Hidstead09]

I don't own the parents. We orderd them off ebay, so we really dont have any idea of the parents conditions. We alrrady had a small mic flock of coturnix, but did not have any Texas A&M. This was yet another attempt to hatch some. Diffrent breeder than our original birds.

 

[Hidstead09]

All my chicks died but one. None seemed interested in the electrolytes, even after dipping their beaks several time per quail. So frustrating, should i buy from a diffrent person? I forgot to mention, after cracking open remaining eggs, i had alot of mostly grown quail, and several eggs that appeared completly fresh...unfertalized?

 

[chrishw]

Quail are tolerant of wild temperature fluctuations, I think up to an hour at 120+ has over a 50% survival rate. I doubt even if the entire incubation was at 104 there would be much of a problem (if they develop/hatch).

I just leave them in the incubator til they dry, I want them to eat/drink as soon as possible. I've started setting them into the food in the brooder as I take them out of the incubator, the quicker they eat the better off they seem to be.