Quail eggs

[JMMC]

We have 5 hens and 3 cockerels (unusual ratio I know but it seems to be working for us!).
We're thinking about trying our hand with quails - if I buy fertilised eggs how likely is it that a hen will sit on them? And if she does will I need to take the chicks away and keep them under a heat lamp once they hatch? I'm worried they'll be so tiny they'll get hurt if I leave them out.
Thanks very much

 

[Halloweengirl13]

If you mean coturnix Quail they don't generally hatch their own eggs, it has happened but I wouldn't bet anything on it tho Lol.

 

[gpop1]

I've had both coturnix and buttons go brood and hatch there own chicks but its not something you plan to do. After hatching you need to remove them quickly or it gets ugly. When the market is poor we don't bother incubating so we may leave a hen on the eggs to stop her from laying. Normally after a few days they will abandon the nest and we will dispose of the eggs but some don't. Its odd sometimes as different hens may sit on the same nest like there job sharing.

A major problem with buttons is when a hen goes broody every other hen will lay eggs in her nest so you end up with a tiny hen sitting on 20 eggs. Now if the hen has a male to guard her then a broody hen (maybe more than one) can incubate them to term.

Once born quail especially buttons tend to spend all day trying to kill themselves so if you plan on incubating or you end up with some by accident you will need to do your research on brooding them. Things like non slip mats, marbles in the water dish, soft netting over head, etc, etc.

I would plan on incubating if you really want to hatch some chicks


I just re-read the original post

You are asking if you can put quail eggs under a chicken?

well errrr hmmmm ...... no idea. I wouldn't have thought so.

 

[BigRedRoo]

I've had both coturnix and buttons go brood and hatch there own chicks but its not something you plan to do. After hatching you need to remove them quickly or it gets ugly. When the market is poor we don't bother incubating so we may leave a hen on the eggs to stop her from laying. Normally after a few days they will abandon the nest and we will dispose of the eggs but some don't. Its odd sometimes as different hens may sit on the same nest like there job sharing.

A major problem with buttons is when a hen goes broody every other hen will lay eggs in her nest so you end up with a tiny hen sitting on 20 eggs. Now if the hen has a male to guard her then a broody hen (maybe more than one) can incubate them to term.

Once born quail especially buttons tend to spend all day trying to kill themselves so if you plan on incubating or you end up with some by accident you will need to do your research on brooding them. Things like non slip mats, marbles in the water dish, soft netting over head, etc, etc.

I would plan on incubating if you really want to hatch some chicks


I just re-read the original post

You are asking if you can put quail eggs under a chicken?

well errrr hmmmm ...... no idea. I wouldn't have thought so.

I've had a broody hen hatch multiple eggs and I don't see why you could put quail under a he that was already brooding. With the time frame being less than chickens you could put the eggs under the chicken a week after then chicken starts to brood.

 

[BigRedRoo]

We have 5 hens and 3 cockerels (unusual ratio I know but it seems to be working for us!).
We're thinking about trying our hand with quails - if I buy fertilised eggs how likely is it that a hen will sit on them? And if she does will I need to take the chicks away and keep them under a heat lamp once they hatch? I'm worried they'll be so tiny they'll get hurt if I leave them out.
Thanks very much

You wont be able to get this to come to full light with great success. This would be very tricky and not worth the effort. For what it take to build or buy an incubator, I would just hatch and them myself