Newbie Needs Advice

[alecat28]

Hi Quail Fans!

I have 50 Coturnix eggs and an incubator that will hold all of them. However, I am new at raising quail and want to keep them as pets not use the for meat so I really don't want THAT many birds. I know it is not likley that they would all be fertile and/or hatch but what if? Should I put them all in the incubator and candle them at day 3-4 to see if I can tell which are fertile and maybe pull some out then or only incubate say 30 of them and hope for a hatch of 15-30 birds? If you got started with eggs and not birds, I'd love to hear how you did it and if you would change anything. Thank you in advance!

 

[TwoCrows]

Where these eggs shipped to you? Many times the hatch rate of shipped eggs can be 50% or lower. If these eggs were hand delivered to you by a reliable source, then you might get an 75% or more hatch rate.

If I were you, I would candle these eggs at the half way point or earlier and start pitching some of these eggs if you are getting too many developing birds. It is a lot easier to cull in the egg stage than the live chick stage. Good luck!

 

[the outdoorsman44]

I do not know what to tell you but my cousin had bobwhite eggs shipped to him and none of them hatched, but it was only 5 eggs

 

[UndergroundQuailRoad]

Given they are eggs, you may want to hatch them all and keep an appropriate ratios of hens to roosters. The remainder of the chicks you can probably sell off locally on Craigslist or in the paper if you decide not to keep them for food.