Quail questions (coturnix)

[lehouseofdog]

I'm new to quail and have a few questions. Probably answered somewhere else in here but I google searched and didn't get an answer.

I went to a friend's farm a few weeks ago, just to hang out and learn about chickens. She also has quail and we collected from her quail pen. When we went in the house we started talking about incubating eggs. I asked if the eggs we had collected were fertile she said they were. Then gave me a bucket of throw away eggs and asked if I wanted to give it a try. They were eggs that had been laid over the past couple of weeks and we had terrible rains and they weren't collected timely. So they weren't fit for eating and were going to be thrown away. I set about 60+ eggs. A couple went sour within a day or so and I threw out 4, two rotten and two suspected. I had 35 hatch (one died during the hatch, never got out, a little blonde). Three had leg deformities (also little blondes) and one just suddenly died today while I was out. One of the bigger ones a bluish gray striped one.

My question: There are still about 20 eggs in the incubator and none of them smell. How long do I wait? It's day 20
Also, I put in some of the fresh eggs we collected the same day I got the throw away eggs. None of them hatched. Is that because they went right in? Did they need time to set? Or more time to cook?

Also, she said they were cinnamon variety of coturnix. I have a real mixed bag of colors and was wondering how to identify colors in chicks. I have quite a lot of blonde, some blond with red spots, one blonde with red stripes, a couple of reddish ones with darker red stripes. Some that are dark brown with red mixed in with blonde accents, some look like what I think of as traditional quail looking, one really cool dark brown one with blonde racing stripes down her sides and heavy mascara. One blond that is grayish/silver colored. Then some I am not sure what to call them, if they were puppies I'd call them blue brindle. I've seen some sites that show you adult colors but I'm not sure how that matches up with chicks.

How hard will it be to find homes for these? I'm not planning on keeping them and right now have 29. What is the survival rate until they are old enough to find homes? I know that they can go to new homes once they off the heat lamp right? Which is about 4 weeks?

Amy

 

[DK newbie]

I'd give them till day 22, as people on here sometimes say they get chicks on day 21. Don't know why the fresh eggs didn't hatch. In general, I think it's relatively easy to sell quail, but not for much money. You might be able to sell yours for a bit more, as it sounds like you have some interesting color varieties - can't tell you which though.
I think the survival rate is pretty high if you do it right (marbles in the water, grinded feed so they can eat it, enough protein, correct temp under the heat lamp but room to get away from it and such), but I don't actually incubate eggs myself. I just read what other people write on here

 

[lehouseofdog]

Thanks! I did have another blonde hatch last night and it's doing well. My next question is about sudden death. I've had two chicks just die for no apparent reason. The second died this morning and I was there for it's last breath. It was on it's side, neck thrown back gasping for breath. I picked it up and massaged it but it passed. Did it choke on some food? Am I not grinding the food small enough? I'm using game bird crumbles and was using a mortar and pestle to grind it up, I can't get all the chunks to powder but they still seem pretty small. I used a small blender this morning since these little guys are ravenous, I can't seem to keep food down long at all. It seems to be gone in an instant.

Leaving the incubator on until Monday. The one that hatched last night was from one of the fresh eggs. So I went up to 30 and then dropped back to 29. Some of my colors below. The prettiest little chipmunk color is who passed this morning. My favorite is the first photo.I think that's Tuxedo?

 

[DK newbie]

I think you are right about the tuxedo. The feed in the pic looks like a good size to me. The chick that died.. Was it under the heat source or away from it? If they get too cold, they quickly become too weak to move and die. But if the temp under the heat lamp is good, they should figure out to go there before they become too cold.. Maybe he didn't get enough to eat or drink? Not sure there is anything you could've done to prevent it.

 

[MessyLove]

How many can you have in an apt. Meat and eggs and still be very clean and orferly

 

[lehouseofdog]

It actually was in the middle of the pen, I have had some problems getting the temp right and they've moved to one corner not directly under it. The two that died were pretty close to the middle. One right close to the feed pan just on the edge of center and the other was right under the heat. I've moved the light up a couple of inches and they are all over the place. Some of them seem to have to sleep together, some feel comfortable sleeping alone.

As for the apartment question, I'm not sure. I think if you were going to keep as pets in an apartment you would keep two or three, two hens and one rooster in a large enough cage.

I'm happy to say that I've got a couple of friends that are interested in taking some of the quail so I might have homes for them provided I can keep the little suckers alive.

 

[MessyLove]

What are the temp.s needes for quials??

 

[lehouseofdog]

98-99 I think and that's what I tried for and for these guys it seemed a bit warm, they did not cluster under the light but more at the edges of the tub. I raised the light a few inches and I think it's about 95 in there right now. They seem more evenly distributed now. They are a few days old.

 

[Robert C R]

I keep my brooder at 95 degrees. It seems te best viable option and all my chicks are active.

 

[MessyLove]

Robert did you see my PM??