Washingtonians

[Rainwolf]

So Rain is there anything I should know about incubating Quail? I ended up with 2 dozen quail eggs from the auction last Saturday. I have them in the bator, as of Saturday night. It occurs to me that I really don't know how long it takes to incubate quails. 

Coturnix?
They hatch at 18-19 days and are very touchy with humidity. you will want to watch them well for that. they need a little extra humidity to hatch as they dry out faster and get stuck easier so keep a warm spray bottle around to mist the bator if they start drying out. so 1-15 turning 16-19 lockdown and a draft free brooder that has no chicken germs/dust at all. Quails have no immunity at all they get exposed to anything they just start falling over. Brooder needs a warm side and a cool side and watch the sleep pile as it moves away from the light/heat when it gets half way from the heat to cool then shift down the heat like you would for chickens just much much faster. They will start to lay eggs at 8 weeks old.

They are awesome little layers but beware of any bio contamination from chickens/wild birds
Once they are fully feathered at about 6 weeks they can take all temps from 0F to 100F as long as they have a draft free, shaded, covered area to nest/sleep. They do not roost nor do they home like chickens. Once they are loose they will fly away and you most likely will never catch them. ohh and extreme temp changes are not good... if it is 50F at night normally but sudden drop to 30F then they will need a little heat to adjust but once adjusted then they don't need the heat.

The lack of immunity is due to being domesticated for thousands of years..... so they have issues there but are big bonuses every way else.

Oh and they need 25-30% protein foods, non-medicated tho I have heard of medicated being used successfully they tend not to do well on it.
Turkey starter if you can find it unmediated or game bird feed
and they eat A LOT! they grow so fast that you just want to buy the 50lb bag of feed.... you will go through it while they grow very fast! once they reach adult sized they will stabilize and can eat 23%-28% protein but I kept them on the 25%-30% all the time.

edited cuz i forgot stuff and can't spell

 

[justbugged]

Quote: Great info! Thank you so much. I am going to have to set timers in order to remember to check the humidity in the bator. I haven't been very good at it in the past. But this time the bator is in the same room as I am during most of the day. I find it's harder to remember things that I don't walk past regularly. So they may have a chance. I think that I am going to take most if not all of the quail back to the auction. Right now I am slightly overwhelmed with all the bunnies. I miss counted, and there are 17 bunnies at my house. I am not really supposed to have any. The nasty little dogs are more than willing to kill them. I also haven't confessed my erroneous, ill thought out , acquisitions to my DH. So the quail maybe one of those things to tell him about on a different day. It might just be the day they hopefully hatch. I think that my poor DH will for sure notice them, when I set up a brooder in his office. lol

The other part that I am slightly worried about in all this is that as soon as DH gets home, the kitchen remold gets under way. I am not looking forward to not having a kitchen sink for a day or two. I will be delighted to get the new cabinets out of my living room. I have a feeling that DH will notice the giant rabbit that now lives in our living room about the time he starts moving cabinets around. At least the giant rabbit uses a litter box without any problems.

Okay it's time for me to feed the eel, and put the nasty little dogs and their intrepid partner in the dog boxes for the night.
Once again I really appreciate the info on the quail.

PS I don't have a clue about what kind of quail these are.

 

[Rainwolf]

PS I don't have a clue about what kind of quail these are. 

What do the eggs look like?
Coturnix

Valley Quail

http://www.brackenridgeranch.com/crafted_eggs_10.html

IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!!
They all have different incubation times!

 

[justbugged]

They look more like the top picture.

I saved your instructions in a word document so that I won't loose the information that you gave me.

 

[Rainwolf]

Incubation:
Bobwhite Colinus virginianus 21-23 days White eggs Circulated Air incubators: 99 3/4 degrees F; 84 to 86 degrees F wet bulb, reduce during last week of incubation.

California Valley Quail Callipepla californica 22-23 days Buff/cream with brown spots Incubation as in Bobwhite.

Gambel's Quail Callipepla gambelii 21-23 days Pale buff to white with moderate pink/brown spots Lower humidity than two above species, wet bulb of 83 F; hens will lay several clutches in captivity, reports of 50 eggs per hen are not uncommon.

Scaled Quail Callipepla squamata 22-23 days Pale Buff to cream, light spotting. Humidity: 82 to 84 degrees F wet bulb.

Elegant Quail Callipepla douglasii 22-23 days White Humidity as in Scaled; chicks may not start eating on their own. Also known as Benson or Douglas Quail.

Montezuma Quail Cyrtonyx montezuma 24-25 days White Keep wet bulb at 82 degrees F; chicks will need help to learn to eat.

Mountain Quail Oreortyx pictus 24-25 days Pale buff to cream, no spotting Wet Bulb of 82 to 84 degrees F.

Chinese Painted Quail Coturnix chinensis 16 days Brown, mottled with black Very tiny chicks, can slip through 1/2 inch hardware cloth; better known as the Button Quail.

Coturnix Quail Coturnix coturnix 16-17 days As in above species.
Also known as the Pharaoh Quail and Migratory Quail; commercially raised for meat and eggs.
(I find that they tend to hatch at 17-19 days but that was in a foam incubator so in a real bator they might be 16-17 days)

 

[Rainwolf]

They look more like the top picture.

I saved your instructions in a word document so that I won't loose the information that you gave me. 

Ok coturnix are the most common so I guessed that... but auction.... I got worried!
They all have different requirements of time or humidity........ But coturnix is the easy quick one

Good luck!!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote: You want to get roofing screws not tacks. the plastic will crack and split if tacks are used. pilot a hole with the drill and screw in the roofing screws. this also makes it easy to unscrew and move/exchange/replace panels if needed.
Also over time "tacks" (nails) will work loose. Screws rarely work loose and wood can't reject screws.

 

[KMHunter]

GOOD MORNING!

Just stopping in before I head to work! Night crew looked pretty busy! Good job guys!

Lol!

 

[itsren]

All but one of my coop windows are Tempered, Tinted PRIVACY (yeah the one way mirror stuff) Glass. Nothing but the best for my fine mutts. Speaking of I gotta go out and move some birds around real quick.

and DANG it is getting cold out!!!! lol yes it's an inside outside that I don't dare to tell or get in REAL BIG trouble!!!!

So, do they see themselves when they look out?

 

[itsren]

I managed to build myself a cage for a bunch of little bunnies yesterday evening. I got to looking at things that are just laying around the house, and I found an old mini greenhouse. I was able to use the 4 shelves to create the 4 walls of the pen. Then I used some hardware wire, that I bought to line the bird cages with, and created a raised floor to keep them out of their own poo poo.

My new cage seems to working rather well if I don't say so myself.

WOW! You built this cage? Awesome!!! When I first saw the picture I thought it was a store-bought cage. You did a great job!