My journey plus maybe your advice - incubating my quail eggs

[Stevie]

Hi

When I looked into button quail keeping for the bottom of my finch aviary. I found that most people said if you want quails hand tame, as I do, you should raise the quail yourself.

I bought an incubator and some quail eggs and thought I would post my video blogs. So that people can learn from my mistakes if nothing else. Plus maybe chip in with advice.

So here goes, part one, setting up the incubator.

Link to a youtube film about setting up an incubator for button quail

[Stevie]

Put the quail eggs in the incubator now. Have no idea what I am doing, allegedly

Here is another video blog for those interested in my button quail.

Any tips or advice very welcome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0dCXZtCWao

[daniel_b]

Hi Stevie,

I assume when you use the term 'button quail"
you are referring to Chinese painted quail aka king quail.
Here is my recommendations for the eggs of this species.
- use eggs that are no older than 7 days old
- the incubator temp should be between 37.5 - 37.8 degrees Celsius for fan forced incubator
And between 101 - 103 degrees Fahrenheit for still air ( no fan ), for still air, measure temperature at the height of the eggs, fan forced measure the temp in 3 different locations to ensure even temp.
Sorry about the celcius and Fahrenheit status, have a quick look on the net and convert one to the other if need be.
- king quail eggs take 16 - 17 days to hatch. If your incubator is manual turn, roll the eggs 3 times a day so that the embryos get access to all nutrients within the egg.
( it helps if you pencil on an "X" on one side and and "O" on the other so you know what side to turn them to, use a grey lead for this or non toxic permanant marker. )
- 3 days before hatch due date stop turning the eggs to allow the chicks to get into position ready for hatching.
- humidity is a must throughout the incubation period,
If your incubator has water channels, make sure it is filled,
Never let it run completely dry, if no water channel, supply a small bowl of water in incubator and make sure the babies when hatched can't jump in and drown, my choice for cover would be a very small gauge aviary wire, press sides down so wire cover fits on bowl with a snuggish fit.
- take the baby quails out of the incubator after about 16 hours and transfer them to a brooder box.
- I feed my baby quails a mixture of finch seed and quail starter. ( you may have to grinder the quail starter up abit for first week as king quails are so small. )
If you can't get quail starter, use chicken crumbles ( baby chicken food, again crumble up to a sizeable feed. )

If you have any questions that I haven't immediately covered, feel free to contact me.

All the best.

[Colt]

If you use chick starter be sure it is not medicated. Often gamebirds and waterfowl are not able to tolerate it.

[daniel_b]

If you use chick starter be sure it is not medicated. Often gamebirds and waterfowl are not able to tolerate it.

To be honest the 'chick starter' I use if I do use is medicated with a coccidiostat and I have successfully reared a number of ground dwelling birds on it; quail, chickens, pheasants, ducks and I've had no Ill effects when I have used it.

[daniel_b]

I would recommend a game bird starter first off as it has higher levels of protein, chick starter as a second choice.