Shipping Live Button Quail

[Calebs Acre]

I've shipped ducks, chickens and geese and I've received the same. But, I was curious if there are any helpful guidelines about shipping live button quail since they seem so fragile?

I'm curious if babies can be safely shipped or if they need to be adults, and if there are any other differences between quail and the other birds?

 

[shelleyd2008]

I would wait until they are at least a month old, they are so tiny and fragile when they are young! Plus, buttons, same as other quail, need to eat and drink within 24 hours of hatch to be safe. Shipping takes too long, there would just be too many casualties. I know that citalk2much ships adult buttons, maybe she'll chime in tonight. I don't think I've seen her online at all today, which is odd. Though there hasn't been much of anyone online lately

Do you still need eggs? I have some available to ship tomorrow that I'd rather not set

 

[Calebs Acre]

I just hatched 20-some out of 30 with another 30, all from Calico in the bator and I have 50 in the bator from Ms AK, too. My husband gets such a kick out of them running all over the incubator when they hatch.

I was thinking about a month since they seem so much more "substantial", if that's even a word you can consider using with these guys!!

The problem with shipping those eggs is that most of the post offices are closing early tomorrow, are closed Saturday and Sunday and I probably wouldn't get them until they were at least 7 or 8 days old, right?

N

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well, these are gone already (phew!

) but yes they would have been 7 or 8 days old when you would have gotten them, but that would have been only the oldest ones (obviously), and I have read that quail eggs do better if they are 5 or more days old when they are set. I have always gotten good hatches on quail, whether they were shipped or not. The only 'bad' hatches I have gotten were when I first started hatching quail, but I've gotten much better at it!

But I would say for sure that it is safer to ship buttons at least 4 weeks of age. They are almost fully feathered by then, and they are still small (when are they NOT?) so the shipping wouldn't be all that much different I'm sure! Whatever type of fruit you would put in the box with them would probably weigh as much if not more than the buttons would! I've just read on here too many times about quail chicks dying in shipment, or shortly after they arrive, they are just too fragile to ship that young.

I should have more button eggs by the end of next week if you're interested. I have one hen that is acting like she wants to go broody, so I might just let her and see how she does. But that would still be 4 females that should be laying, so only a few days to get a dozen or so.

I've sent eggs to Chickiechick before that were at a week old when they left here, and she still had 14 of 19 hatch.

ETA: And I sent some to gabrielle1976, 17 eggs I believe. Considering I only have 5 girls (then I think there were 6), it would have taken 4 or 5 days to get that many, and I believe it was longer than that, seems like I was only getting 2-3 eggs a day then. She had 15 of the 17 eggs hatch, and now she's griping about having too many!

 

[Calebs Acre]

I'll have to take some photos of the three I have kept that have some feathers to see if anyone can determine their sex. I just hate to take photos of the birds. LOL. I have a great camera and still hate to take photos. I am so totally lazy.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I know what you mean, taking the pics isn't that bad for me, it's just all the time it takes to load them onto the computer, then upload them to photobucket, then put them in the proper folder, etc. etc.....

Any idea what color the ones are that you have? So long as they aren't silver, white, or pied, you should be able to tell by their vent feathers. Only males will get red/rust/pink colored feathers on their vents, females don't get these. Not all males do though, it depends on their color. Most button colors can be sexed by their color, except for whites. But the colored vent feathers are a sure tip that it's a male.

 

[Calebs Acre]

Just wait until they get older and I'll be knocking on your door again!!!

 

[citalk2much]

I would wait until they are 6 weeks old to ship them and I would not ship if it is over 80 outside.

 

[Calebs Acre]

Thanks so much! Very helpful information. I will tell the prospective buyer.

That sounds reasonable. I was actually more worried about cold than heat, so I would have screwed that part up.

 

[citalk2much]

In the winter if it is colder then 40 I don't ship