try to remedy a disaster season with Cali quails

[chrisarvor]

I have 2 bad seasons with my Californian quail
The hatch no problem but they die after a few days the come our perfect run around like hell
and then i find them one at a time dead
they all eat an drink
i hatch loads of other birds,partridges,pheasant,japs but my Cali's are doing my head in
I have put them in a brooder on paper from the feed sacks an spread the chick crumbs
tissues an chick crumb ,even tried wire
but i am at a loss
I use a large Russian incubator ,i also have 2 Rcom suros ,which i think are crap
so any help
I always hatch with water but i have seen on the net people use no water for 20 days?????
anyone HELP ME ?????????????????????
the eggs are from my stock and what i buy in

 

[TwoCrows]

California's are very sensitive to drafts and die easily as babies if they chill. Use a red or infra-red bulb only. You need to start them around 97 or 98 degrees after hatch, thermometer directly beneath the heat source on the floor, lowing the heat by 5 degrees each week for 6 weeks. Keep the heat off to one side, and the food and water on the other so they have cool spots to go to and have to leave the heat to get the goods. This toughens them up. Don't cover your brooder with anything but a screen or wire for good oxygen exchange. And ALWAYS crush all food for these little birds for the first week and sprinkle it around the floor of the brooder near the feeder. They are too small to eat anything that is not nearly powder. And ALWAYS dip their beaks in the water when you first put them in the brooder and even throughout that first day. The new world quail are sort of dumb at hatch and need to be shown where and how to drink and eat for a few days. Tap with your finger at the food as well for that first 2 days.

Generally deaths of chicks the first week is due to a few things....drafts and chilling, over heating, food too big to eat or can't find it, or can't find the water. Your brooder can't be too large to cause drafts, but not so small that they over heat

If you are doing all of these things and are sure you are doing it right, then incubator bacterial infections are a possibility. In which case, you need to thoroughly disinfect and fumigate the incubators and brooders between hatches. If you don't do this every time, things can and do breed in the bators and will kill off the new hatchlings.

 

[chrisarvor]

Hi
many thanks for the reply
I do use chick crumbs ,but i will now crush this up somehow
I do disinfect the incs after several hatches
But good ideas i will make them a larger brooder as you could be right about the heat
So strange even when they start fledging they die
so great stuff 2 crows
Cheers

 

[enola]

You need to sterilize the incubator after EVERY hatch......

 

[sniper338]

How do yal sterilze a incubator? I just washed mine out with water after I was done last time.... should I use soap with it too? Bleach? Or what??

 

[enola]

I use dish soap and then rinse with bleach water. In the summer I put it out in the sunshine for a couple of hours.