My king quail sitting on her eggs:)

[lisameow]

Here's a photo of my girl sitting on her nest!

 

[DK newbie]

Oww, they look so cute when they do that. You might want to remove some eggs - I can see there are at least 3 she's not covering. If she can't cover all of them, they are likely to go cold and die one after another and you might get just a few or no chicks at all.

 

[cshma11]

Are king quail different from button quail?

 

[lisameow]

Thanks I'll remove them but what should I do with them?

 

[lisameow]

Nope they are both the same type of quail but they are called different things in different countries. In Australia, they are usually called King quails.

 

[DK newbie]

Thanks I'll remove them but what should I do with them?

I'd just toss them. You can try candling all of her eggs and toss the 3 you find least likely to have live chicks, if you think she'll tolerate it and not become so stressed that she stops being broody.

 

[lisameow]

Hey I checked them all and only one was bad but it died when it was tiny. Like about the size of a of an index finger nail. All the others look healthy. I guess I'll pick some randomly to take out but I still feel really bad and I don't want to just throw them in the rubbish so whats the fastest and best way to kill them do you think?

 

[DK newbie]

Well.. If you must kill them, the fastest way is probably to open the egg and cut their necks. If she hasn't been broody for more than 10 days or so, I doubt they're sufficiently developed to feel anything if you just toss them though. If she's been broody for more than that, I'd expect you to be able to find more than one egg that didn't develop properly. When you couldn't, maybe the surrounding temp is so high they somehow survive until the next time she covers them? Or maybe some of them are dead, but have grown so much you can't tell..

 

[Binki]

I think maybe freezing them would work with little trauma to you and the eggs? Or you could try incubating them yourself

 

[cshma11]

I agree - freezing seems like the least traumatic method to kill them before tossing, but if you have an incubator, you could put them in there!