When to candle/float test quail eggs? Also when is lockdown for coturnix eggs?

[HoneyNutmeg]

In my brooder we used paper towel, to prevent splayed legs, but today we have purchased 'gravel paper' for cage birds. It absorbs the moisture and it really good for chicks with leg problems, something to grip onto. I had to redo my lil yellow ones brace today, it had become lose, so I made it a bit tighter so her legs are together more (because I stuffed up with the first brace, just a bit to loose), She has learned to turn herself over if she falls, and that is good, building more strength in her back muscles. I've taken off her shoe and her foot is all perfect again!! So happy

They learn quite quickly what to do and where the 'food' source is. One of them loves the rabbit water bottle, it jumps for it when it sees it, quite funny actually.
Sounds like you've got most of it sorted! Yay

Woot, I hope the little guys hatch!

What day are you on now? You should be close! They aren't too bad, I have them in my room, and I can't really smell anything, the starter food over powers the smell of it I think.

Sounds a bit odd, maybe your boy is slowing down with the mating!
I hope they turn out fertile for you, some can be slow developers.

Ah thank you, he had breathing problems and I tried my best to help. I was investigating it's egg and found that the air socket was not gone, there was still some there, so this could of contributed to the breathing problems, because it was so influenced to get out of it's shell to talk to the others about their master plan to escape from their surrogate mother. Hahaha!

I have some pictures of the little ones; when they first hatched and now.


If you can see her foot it's curled, as I stated above, I've now fixed it and 'she' can walk like a normal quail again (just with a hobble brace). It was very noisy when 'she' (I don't know whether it's a girl or boy, it just looks like a little girly) first hatched.


Little 'Gremlin' having a rest (just a nickname for it until they get a bit bigger)

If you can see 'her' foot now, it's uncurled and she can walk on it, so happy ^.^
As you can see the other one likes to photobomb.

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Ahhhh that's so precious! You're so lucky to be able to have a tuxedo and a golden quail! (IMHO) ... What colour was your third quail?
I wanted to have a tux quail, and the guy who I bought my quails off sold a tuxedo pair, but I wanted to have two hens to produce more eggs and different bloodlines of babies - but I got the cinnamon/fawn coloured range, and I've managed to tame them (taming, I mean that they don't mind eating out of my hand or me handling them, but they don't call or follow me or anything. At least when I give them 'free time' to free range around my backyard with supervision [magpies and crows creep them out] they don't run away when I stand next to their feet). Hehe.

Also, my male quail slowing down? Oh ho ho ho, no! He's mated his mate so much that today when he tried to mate with her, he failed to grab onto any feathers on her head (she's turning bald), leading to him falling onto his back a couple times!

He managed to do so by pulling on the feathers near her eyes.

Eh, I saw her poop and all this white foamy stuff was covering her regular poop (definitely from him).

But he still has my other female to mate -- which he does.
The little rascal is my current avatar.

And another thing, I've read on the internet about those braces and leg-straddles, but I don't know how to make them... Can you please explain how you made them?

- Day 12! Two more days till lockdown.

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

Ooh, now I know what their colour combination is called, thank you!
The last one was also a tuxedo, but had a bit more cream colour on it's body.

I'm planning on making a cage for them, because my chicken, Honey, was at the local show with the quail and she picked them up by the scruff of the neck and threw them a small distance.. omg, died when I saw her do it.

She's so cruel! So I wouldn't even trust her with the quail!

Sure go ahead with the sponges! I also used old rags (washcloths) they seem to keep the humidity stable if you refill them using tubing through the ventilation holes (I did this during lockdown to keep the humidity in) when you see them go a bit dry.

HAHA, sounds like he's doing his job. Very nice!
I love your avatar, he's so pretty, I just wanna cuddle him ^.^

Lots of the websites are for baby chickens, and as we know, their feet are much bigger than quails, and easier..
'3M Transpore' tape is what I used for the brace and 'shoe'/sandal. (I removed her brace today and she's walking perfect again.)
For the 'Shoe'
I use a square bit of the tape about the size of the foot, and I flip the chick on it's back (it might be a 2 person job, since they wiggle so much)
I hold the chick under a reflective light globe and try to calm it down by talking to it (sounds weird hey?)
I place the bit of tape on the sole of the foot, then place another piece (the same as the bottom) on the top, pressing very gently to get them to stick together, and I try to cut around the foot so it's a bit less of a weight for the foot.
I left this on for 2 days, and if you keep it on for more than 2 days (depending how curled the foot is) you will have to change it daily (they are messy little dudes)
I recommend using the hobble brace with the shoe, because with my experience it can cause a splayed foot

My method is probably not ideal, but it did work.

Hobble Brace
People recommend bandaids, but I find these a pain in the butt, you have to make it so teeny tiny and it's just not worth the effort!
I cut a piece of tape about 1/3 bigger than the size apart between the 2 legs. I cut the piece of tape down to 1/4 of length (so you have a tiny strip)
I lay the chick on it's back (again). This is probably the hardest thing to do with quail, they are so tiny and they wiggle so much!
I place the strip on the legs (just before the fluffy bit starts on the legs) and try to make the excess on the outer sides of the legs equal. Then I wrap it around and make it tight enough (so it doesn't slip) around the leg. I don't know the measurement between the legs so you'll just have to have a guess (maybe look at the other quail with normal legs and kinda estimate)
This does get dirty quickly, because the amount of time they spend on their bums.. (sleeping) and sitting down when eating. So you might have to change this daily if you are leaving it on for more than a day.

I hope I helped a bit (and made sense..

), I wish I could of taken pictures when I did it

I am not sure where I got 3M Transpore tape from.. chemist?
You just have to kinda hold them up the first time they try the shoe and brace (hold their body and have their feet on the floor). They do fall over a bit when they try getting used to it, but they do eventually! If they do get a bit stuck when they have rolled over, just help them up a bit.
Plus, the other ones do like pecking at feet

. "ooh what are these things that you are standing on, are they worms?" just pick the dude up and then put it down away from the one with the leg problems... Maybe with many chicks you might find this doesn't happen to you.

Other than that, I hope you don't get any leg problems, but if you do, catch it early!
Hope they hatch ^.^

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Aw... Poor babies!

During agriculture class, my friend and I took our baby chickens to see the big mama chickens into the animal paddock (no animals anymore, and the weeds have grown tall, giving a paradise for the chooks),
I picked up my 'chosen chook' (I just chose a random chicken and suddenly claimed her as mine.) Whilst my friend held our two chicks (Mine is named P.W. Niffler (Poopy Wing Niffler), poopy wing due to the poop on her wing/random speck of dirt when I first got her), my chook randomly poked my friends chick on the neck -- luckily there were no injuries.
Yeah, I wouldn't mix quail with chickens, disease can spread apparently.

Hehe, my little roo doesn't mind being handled (he was 6 months when I got him in September), but if you hold him to long he'll randomly start to slide off your hand, plus his nails are long. >.<

Also, thanks for the instructions! Seems easier then I thought.
Coturnix chicks are so small, so thanks for the instructions on getting a better fit for leg spraddles!
Woah, it'd be hard putting those on button quail chicks!

And thank you again!

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

I'm glad I could help. Just ask if you are having trouble with either the brace or 'shoe', I'd be more than happy to help

I'm guessing you're on day 13 now? How is the humidity and temp doing?

 

[SeptemberQuail]

^-^
Humidity dropped a to 35% because we had to change stuff in the incubator a bit, we moved the eggs quickly into a cat litter tray (never been used since we don't have any other pets besides quail, bought for this purpose).
Before it was used to store the water, but we wanted to change it. Now when the quails hatch they'll be on a soft piece of cloth and they won't be able to come in contact with water or the light.
We added more containers and some sponges, now humidity is back at 40%, we're hoping to get it by 50% tonight so then tomorrow (lockdown day!) we'll rise it to about 60% - 70%.

I'm happy, I counted the eggs today to see which egg belongs to which hen (I marked them), and by my estimate I believe 12 belong to one hen and 13 belong to the other!
Agh, I hope I have more females than males!

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

Ooh sounds like you're very ready!
One of my babies managed to get under the wire, but luckily I found him before he disappeared!

Yay! You've got alot of eggs there! Hope you have a really good hatch rate

 

[SeptemberQuail]

I really hope so too!

Because I'm being a worry wort, I'm not starting lockdown till 5:28pm (precisely xD) because that's when I started incubating. So I still got an hour to prepare everything, (get humidity right, make sure the eggs have enough room, etc.)
Humidity's sadly staying at 47% (it was like that last night as well), but we closed all the vent holes, leaving one open. We have three containers full of water, with one with a sponge. Hopefully it works, but we have two back-up sponges and several old cloths just in case, but now it's at 48% and hopefully slowly rising! (Eh, with all the containers theres barely any room to put anything else in, but the humidity better rise soon!)

If that doesn't work we'll probably mist the eggs with warm water.

Haha, your little chick must be very adventurous and daring to be able to get under the wire!
At least he's okay.

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

Sounds like you've got it all under control!
Do you have a fan in the incubator at all? (Like one of those portable USB or battery fans).
The fan helps the humidity rise like a sunrise (LOL)

He got stuck underneath the water container when my mum was placing it down, but he's all good now, eating, drinking, sleeping, pooping, so hopefully he'll be fine :s

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Yeah, we got a small computer fan at 12V, except that it's near the top of the incubator, but next to one light source ( we have another one on the other side just in case, but we leave it on. it helps maintain the temps )
It's been running 24/7 for the past 13 days!

Hehehe. :]
Silly little fellow! xD
He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Gahhh, humidity is at 50%. Thinking of misting it...

It's at 51% now... but it's been literally an hour. Humidity is so slow.....
I saw your incubator it said 70%, right?
Is it okay for it to be 60% ?