Now let the fun and games begin... Below is a diary of Mek's Journey to have quails.. Please correct Mek if you see any issues to anything below so far or if there is anything I have missed. Preliminary stage: Find and sort feed protein issues Find and source fertile eggs and arrange best possible postage dates. Test incubator - Acclimatise chickies already in the fishtank to move outside - make a strawbale temporary house Current stage: Current quail expenditure: 48 eggs and postage $42.50 Feed failure: $32 (bought the wrong feed but its okay giving it to the chickens) Cage set up: TBA awaiting quote for feather touch quail water nipples and feeding trays Current problems: Been told that we will have a couple of cold days coming up to the weekend and after; will eggs be okay if temperatures reach around 3-11 degrees? (38 to 54 Fs) Fish tank has been contaminated by chickies what is the best disinfectant ratio using bleach? And is Clove oil poisonous to birds in general? (Clove oil kills mould so that should pretty much kill any baddies). To do list: Need to write a plan to prevent chicken germies going on to quail Need to get materials to make a more permanent cage buy the correct feed Reconfirm temperature settings and humidity of incubator for japanese quail and when to stop turning eggs - To be marked in calendar.
you have coturnix quail? Do you already have the eggs? I'm not sure on this by your post...If you already have eggs, you need to turn them 2-3 times a day even if you haven't put them in bator yet - the sooner you get them in the bator the better. Your hatch rate will decrease probably the longer you wait. why are you worried about the eggs being okay with 38-54 degrees?? are they outside? if they are in a bator indoors, theres no issue. Bator temp should be 99.5-101 like chickens. humidity (everyone has their own ideas of whats right, but I just hatched 22 bobwhites - my first time listening to a friend of mine ) I kept mine around 30% then pop up to 65-70% on lock down. which for coturnix would be end of day 14 beginning of day 15 (15,16,17 being lockdown)
Vinegar kills mold and is a great cleaner all around hat wouldn't be poisonous but I'm not familiar with the one you mentioned. I Use one gallon water to one cup bleach for cleanser on the incubators.
So much for writing a diary... Here is some pics 48 eggs in total received: 1 cracked cos I have fat fingers pulling it out of the egg carton 2 cracked cos I dropped the incubator lid on them 1 high high floater 18 eggs not hatched 2 hatched but died due to poor leg development and if I have my maths done right I have 24 quail chickies
