Should i let her brood?

[ButtonquailGirl14]

so... long story short my button quail hen went broody today and i am trying to decide weather to let her try, on one hand i would LOVE to see her accomplish her goal and i would LOVE some chicks. but on the other hen she has tried almost 10 times and every time for no apparent reason her eggs do not hatch there are always fully developed chicks they just never hatch, i monitor her very closely and from what i can tell she does everything right. i just am trying to decide if it is worth the exitement and then possible heartbreak. what do you think???

 

[lena_]

Is there any way for you to get her some eggs from a different source and then slip them under her? I followed one of your threads where she had gone broody but no peepers hatched. I have had a button go broody with no male so I gave her three coturnix eggs to hatch and It went quite well, so that might be an option? If not, I suggest asking around for some fertile button eggs and trying your luck with those.

 

[sawilliams]

wow tough one...

How many eggs have you tried? Do you have to break her after a failed hatch or does she give up? I don't know about quail but my thought would be to give her as few eggs as reasonable to make sure she can handle them, I'm seriously talking like 2-4 here so they have her full attention. And if you have access to an incubator incubate a free on the side as a backup but also as a test.... is it really her failing or is it something about the eggs sort of test

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

wow tough one...

How many eggs have you tried? Do you have to break her after a failed hatch or does she give up? I don't know about quail but my thought would be to give her as few eggs as reasonable to make sure she can handle them, I'm seriously talking like 2-4 here so they have her full attention. And if you have access to an incubator incubate a free on the side as a backup but also as a test.... is it really her failing or is it something about the eggs sort of test

i have to break her, she doesn't give up. she also usually only tries 4 eggs, this time she has 6. i almost feel like the more eggs the better since it give more chances of a viable egg. i would LOVE to incubate her some but i am young and at the moment i do not have money for a incubator, i am still trying to make sure i have money to build my chickens run/pen. i could see if my neighbors are using theirs but last i heard they just bought some hatching eggs.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Is there any way for you to get her some eggs from a different source and then slip them under her? I followed one of your threads where she had gone broody but no peepers hatched. I have had a button go broody with no male so I gave her three coturnix eggs to hatch and It went quite well, so that might be an option? If not, I suggest asking around for some fertile button eggs and trying your luck with those.

i can see, i gave a pair of buttons to my art teacher and she has hatched eggs before, but her buttons aren't laying right now.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Is there any way for you to get her some eggs from a different source and then slip them under her? I followed one of your threads where she had gone broody but no peepers hatched. I have had a button go broody with no male so I gave her three coturnix eggs to hatch and It went quite well, so that might be an option? If not, I suggest asking around for some fertile button eggs and trying your luck with those.

i introduced the ONLY buttons in our area, i am one of the only people here that owns them. the only others are ones i sold, and most that hatched were male. i had to ship buttonquail eggs from Florida!

 

[sawilliams]

Unfortunately I agree south trying to get new eggs from a different source. While I'm not sue on the breeding habits to many brother sister pairing can effect hatch rates but also age of the bird can effect hatch rates too

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Unfortunately I agree south trying to get new eggs from a different source. While I'm not sue on the breeding habits to many brother sister pairing can effect hatch rates but also age of the bird can effect hatch rates too

thanks, she is almost 1 year old, and the breeder said that she would get eggs from every pen so we wouldn't have bros and sis.