Some advice for a newbie?

[atinybrit]

Hi!

I've been considering getting quails for a fair while now - My boyfriend and I own a few birds of prey, so they're for my fun and for feeding I guess. I've been given a handmade incubator that by all accounts works fine, and I have fairly large rabbit hutch/run thing for them to live in. A local animal rescuer is giving us two females and a male - not sure on the breed, pretty sure they're just button quail. Anyway, I would like to breed my quails soon, and since my incubator is handmade I have to turn the eggs myself.
How many times a day should I be turning the eggs, and up until what point? what temperature should they be at?

Any other advice would really be appreciated!

Thankss!

 

[buttercup95]

I am just now incubating my first batch of quail eggs and I've got them in a still air incubator (no fan) I've been keeping them at a temperature between 101 103 degrees fahrenheit and turning them every 6-8 hours and I was reminded recently that you should turn them an odd number of times per day so that they don't stay on the same side each night. They're due to hatch in a few days. My quail are coturnix so the specifics might be different. I'll let you know how they turn out! Oh and they only take 17 days to incubate how amazing is that? There's another person on here that raises button quail and is much more experienced than I. their username is buttonquailtx. you can try messaging them.

 

[qlicer49]

Good luck fellow "Newbie" I can't wait to start my first batch in a incubator whether it be from
My corturnix, bobwhites, or buttons! I'm excited to see what happens!!

 

[smallbluejellybean]

I just found this thread. If you have a hutch for them, why don't you let them do the work and don't worry about an incubator? My king/button quails are great parents and I have had more success letting them do the job rather than me and an incubator doing the work.
Sort of quinged when she said she was going to feed them to birds of prey though. They are such sweet and cute little animals. Couldn't she just feed them rats, they are ugly and there are plenty of them around? Rats also breed like rats.

 

[qlicer49]

I just found this thread. If you have a hutch for them, why don't you let them do the work and don't worry about an incubator? My king/button quails are great parents and I have had more success letting them do the job rather than me and an incubator doing the work.
Sort of quinged when she said she was going to feed them to birds of prey though. They are such sweet and cute little animals. Couldn't she just feed them rats, they are ugly and there are plenty of them around? Rats also breed like rats.

I have rats and I can confirm they breed like nuts, I love quail too much to eat them or feed them to anyone.

 

[buttercup95]

So my white coturnix just started hatching (a few days late but we had a power outage and I wasn't sure they would hatch at all!) So far only three have come completely out of their shells and are running around mucking the other eggs all about and one has pipped so I guess it's a wait and see for the other dozen....

 

[samsr]

Good luck with the hatch. Mine hatched 3 weeks ago. I am shocked at how fast they grow. I am almost able to sex them at this age. Its amazing to watch them hatch and grow so fast.

 

[buttercup95]

Good luck with the hatch. Mine hatched 3 weeks ago. I am shocked at how fast they grow. I am almost able to sex them at this age. Its amazing to watch them hatch and grow so fast.

I only had six hatch the rest were infertile. I tried to candle during the incubation 3 or 4 times, but I just could NOT see anything. Is this just me being blind or doing something wrong? I've incubated chicken eggs but quail eggs seem thicker and it's harder to get light to penetrate it.

 

[samsr]

It is very hard to see in the quail eggs. A VERY strong light generally works. I use a LED flashlight and you have to watch for very subtle movements in the eggs. I had a couple of iffy ones, but decided to leave them in there. 9 out of nine hatched.
You may want to adjust you male to female ratio if you can to increase the fertility rate.

 

[beakmaster]

Button quails are kinda small and if you wanna get more bang for your buck you might try getting some larger quail. You can find many different species of quail on ebay and sometimes amazon in the states and most likey over there too. I dont know how big your incubator is but the more you attempt, the more you'll hatch. Feeding buttons to a bird of prey is like feeding one chicken nugget to a 400lb man..... it just enough to make him mad.