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

[HoneyNutmeg]

That's great news!

10! Golly gosh, you'll have alot on your hands, I can't even handle 2! lol!

 

[SeptemberQuail]

The eldest chick is now a week and a day old! I can see his feathers developing! His wings are so big now! I do miss those small flappy things they had when they were day olds... He will truly look like his mother, except probably darker. But what really surprises me is that, when my other hen's (she's a roux dilute/fawn) eggs hatched, they appeared just pure yellow, one or two with very faint stripes. But looking at them, with their plummage developing, their feathers are pure white!

And none of my quail are white. They're just a tad lighter than the wild coloured quail, or fawn/roux dilute.
Must be a recessive gene... but somehow appeared in 5 of the chicks.
^.^

And your little cuties, around 2 -3 weeks now? How are they?!
Do they still have their fluffy down feathers anymore?

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

Aw, they sound adorable, post pictures please!
They grow to quickly, my brown one (which I think is going to be a girl) is already dustbathing, which is quite funny to watch!
The white one (Snowflake) has 2 black feathers on it's head and is very quick at running, plus they are now very stinky! Haha!
3 Weeks in 3 days, and then I get to sex them... yay?
I hope to buy a cage soon, because I don't plan on getting rid of them!
Plus, the white one has a much bigger beak (head?) than the brown one.
Here are some pictures, I try taking some everyday, but it's been turning out to be every 3 days.. woops!

 

[SeptemberQuail]

I'd imagine they'd be the size of button quail by now! ^-^
Their feathers are so pretty!

My quail... they're on newspaper (where the food is, so we won't waste any) and wood shavings.
They randomly dust bathe on the newspaper then fall backwards (well slide, because of the little friction in the newspaper) whilst doing it!

This is Snow (named after a friend xD), she has a leg problem... but we're working on it.
And she's lighter than the rest.
She has white feathers somehow (and so does her other 4 siblings, except their more yellow, she's a pale yellow...)
We thought she was just a really faint roux dilute, but with her developing feathers...
She has trouble scratching herself because of her legs - so I have to rub where she normally scratches for her.



We put them in a box in the brooder so they're closer to the light source.
We (well I) named one yellow one Joey, because she kept jumping in and out of it in the middle of the night and stuff.
We used old rags/shirts for the first week... But we had to change it daily.
As seen by the mess.













Problem is that it's going to be hard to sex them.
The stripey ones are fine but the white ones.

:l
I tried vent sexing my older quail to see what I'm supposed to find p) but it all looked the same!

... I'm so sad now! Before, I put a toilet roll cut in half so they could run through it - they loved it!
I put a new one in, and when one tried to run through, well, he/she lifted it up.

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

Oh my goodness they are so adorable!
I love the stripey ones, they are gorgeous!

Yay for me having to sex them soon, oh what joy..
I'm guessing the white one will be a male and brown one will be a female, just by their temperaments.

I hope that little one's foot get's better,

 

[MrNappy]

Can you post a pic of your incubator, and also show how to set humidity and how to turn on yours? ( Turn eggs i mean)

 

[MobyQuail]

 

[SeptemberQuail]

I've already packed up the incubator and put it in the garage but...










This cost us around $19. Mainly for the temperature/humidity monitor ($14, we found a cheaper one, exact same model except different colour for $7 in another store

) and the litter box cost around $5. Everything else was recycled. The wire we, we cut off the extra bits of our adult quails cage and yeah...

6 vent holes, one tube to pull water through, a dimmer to control temperature and a cat litter tray to put water on. We used avian bird wire on top of the litter box to put the eggs in. It steadied at around 40% - 45% humidity the whole time.




A few days before lockdown, we changed the set up (easily done, took around 5 - 10 minutes)




This was the only picture I took of the new set up. I forgot. We added a few more containers, some sponges, and placed the eggs inside the litter tray on a rag so they can't escape, nor can they be at risk of drowning and such. I had a few problems raising humidity, but it eventually worked out fine.




After spending a few hours of drying off (the chicks, not me), we quickly added a styrofoam foam divider (covered with sticky tape to prevent pecking at), making sure no other chicks were pipping or anything to prevent shrink wrapping, and then we move them to the other side, as you can see. The chick who just hatched was shrink wrapped. Poor thing was stuck in it's egg for more than 4 hours (it's much longer compared to the other chicks). I had to break off the shell gently, as soon as I did so, her feathers were already dry (not poofed up, but not wet like most are), her foot was stuck to her head, so she had trouble standing up. Took her a day to finally be able to walk! I don't even know which one she is now because all the chicks have fully feathered, but are yet to grow feathers on their head, haha.

We turned the eggs by hand. We're thinking of doing something different the next time we incubate eggs.

@HoneyNutmeg,

We did an 'eggtopsy' the other day for the 23 eggs that didn't hatch. Well, more like cracking the eggs open like a boiled egg for breakfast... We found out that 19 never developed (my bet is due to viability), 3 died along development (near the very early stages) and 1 seemed fully developed but never made it. Probably either died during the process or shrink wrapped. (It's membrane was dry).
It was sad that I spent 3 weeks turning over 30 eggs but most were just duds.
Even the float test... It didn't work that well as all of them had developed air cells.

Sadness... But my chicks alive today are so big now! GAH!
They love alfalfa sprouts. As soon as they see my hand, they run up and start rising up trying to see if I have any. I should post a video... xD

 

[MrNappy]

You made it nice.

Thought you had like a Hova Bator with nothing else, so i could see how to manually turn.

Also, making one is not an option for me.

 

[HoneyNutmeg]

How are the little ones going?

I have a girl and a boy (white one male, tuxedo female)
Tia and Snow (Boy).
Tia laid her first egg today, but my parents won't allow me to hatch anymore quail, quite saddening, but let's hope they change their mind!