First time raising quails

[Deetle]

Hi, new here and ive recently acquired some (i believe) Jap quails. 4 girls and a boy. They are sexible so id say 8 + weeks old. They are in the chook shed which has good ventilation and have rabbit hutch and dolls house as smaller areas. Ive been feeding them with a high protein wild game finisher pellet, budgie seed and some native grass that is in seed atm.
Ive also been throwing in broad bean and brassica foliage as we transition from a winter to summer in the vege patch. They seem to like pecking at any bugs on there as well as using it as cover. They really seem to love snuggling down into the fresh grass clippings from when I've mowed the lawn.
We get 3 to 4 eggs per day some weve eaten but many are snapped up by the kids. Kids love eggs.
My 3 yo Joe has co-ersed me into buying an incubator. (Thats him out there at 6:30 am in his pyjamas, such is his enthusiasm). I bought a Brinsea mini eco which seems to hold a good temp as long as i manage the ambient temps well i dont need to make many adjustments. We are at day 4 at present. Im not convinced our male 'Beak Reynolds' is the greatest lover he seems to get shaken off too easy but time will tell.
The temps in Tassie can get to -3c in winter but we have lovely spring weather at present. I have a low wattage heat bar i might pop in for those chilly, frosty nights.
Im a total novice at this so any advice, however novice or rudimentary, is greatly appreciated.

 

[Deetle]

View attachment 2

 

[Deetle]

 

[Marigold]

Ahh, what a lovely setup for them. Great for Joe as well. I'm glad you're not getting too aggressive mating from the male. I had a lot of trouble with the males I hatched from several batches, they just hung on and damaged the females so badly I dreaded finding blood all over the cage and a bleeding bird every morning. In the end i just culled the males and the females lived happily and peacefully and laid well for several years.
Good luck with the hatch, and do let us know how it goes. I bet you'll get a majority of boys. I used a little Brinsea mini and found it was excellent with the quail ring. There are several threads on here with more details on hatching quail that you may find helpful - the main thing is to keep the humidity very low until they start to pip at 16 days.

 

[Deetle]

Hi Marigold, sorry for the slow reply. I somehow deleted my last reply. I think I have King quail as the eggs are certainly of an eating size.


I have maintained the incubator reservoir filling half up. With 2 days to go i intend to run it with both sides full. Is this what I should be doing? I'd gleaned that from the units instruction booklet. Have I had the humidity too high?

I purchased a ecoglow in case of any success. Would i run it with flouro lights or just ambient lighting and temps?. I planned to keep the brooder inside, at present temps range from 17c - 23c. Is that sufficient with the ecoglow alone?

 

[Deetle]

Some more pics

 

[Marigold]

Hi Deetle, they look like coturnix to me, glad they're laying well. Good luck with the hatch - I would have had the humidity much lower than that but let's hope it will be OK. It depends partly on the ambient humidity where you live. In the UK it's normally at least 45% humidity in the air, and this is enough for quail incubation without any water added until they begin to chip, but in Tasmania in summer time it may well be different if it's dry heat. I got an eco glow for mine but found it wasn't warm enough for them in the first couple of weeks, they became more active and able to feed better under a ceramic lamp, which gives out heat only, no light, so can be left on all the time with an extra light during the day. But again, if it's hot where you are, they may well need less heat and an ecoglow may work much better than in England in February! Fix it on the lowest height setting and just observe to see if they're running around freely. I found that the advantage of the ceramic lamp was that they got heat wherever they were in the brooder and so didn't need to waste feeding time by huddling for warmth under an ecoglow - especially when adapting to lower temperatures outside the incubator when not feathered up. Adults loved the ecoglow at night in their winter cages when it was freezing outside, though. Let us know how you get on. Watching them hatch is amazing.
You may have deleted your last reply by clicking on Post Reply at the bottom of the text box. You need to click Submit to send your message. Post Reply is what you click on to get a text box to start a reply, and it deletes what you write if you click it again. Maddening, - but we've all done it!

 

[Deetle]

Hi again, i fear the humidity may be too high after all. Tomorrow is day 17 so we should find out soon. I swear i see some eggs wobbling about?
Your right Marigold about the ecoglow being not warm enough. Ive put it in a propagation tent with a heater on a thermostat. At about 24c in the tent it is about 35c under the ecoglow. Is this what i should be doing? Ie aiming for 35c with lower temps outside the ecoglow area. Once the temps are right i will furnish it with news papers ect.
Thanks for any advice

 

[Marigold]

They should hatch on Day 16-17, and be chipping by now. The advice about dry incubation came from a friend who raised hundreds of quails commercially. She said she always incubated dry and sometimes even forgot to add any water on Day 16 and they still seemed to hatch OK. So if yours don’t make it, I expect that might be why. Quail eggs have very thin shells, and being small the ratio of shell area to contents is much higher than on a bigger egg, and also they’ve evolved to hatch on bare ground in a hot, dry environment, so probably that accounts for the adaptation to dry incubation. I hope you get some, nevertheless.
I think they’ll do better in an open- topped brooder which will give them more air. Being so very tiny, and also such messy chicks, they need full ventilation and as dry conditions as possible, to prevent coccidiosis which is a big risk in humid environments. They do best with the sort of drinker for cage birds that fixes to the side of the brooder with a drinking lip, so they can’t fall in and get wet, or poo in it. Brooder does need a mesh top as they’re airborne from hatch!

 

[Deetle]

We have 2 little fluff balls and unfortunately 1 other was unable to make it out of the shell. The 2 surviving recieved some help, the membrane is very tough. (Noticed that when cooking with them too.) Is that common?
Should I be waiting 24hrs before transferring? I'm not sure if they've eaten. Is this normal to not eat or drink? Should i be worried about dehydration or are they still running on yolk?
Ive also lowered the temp to 36c to ready them for 35c in the brooder.
Signed Concerned parent

 

[Marigold]

hi Concerned Parent, glad you got a couple. yes, leave them 24 hours, like all baby chicks they have reserves of food from the yolk sac and its more important to let them dry off thoroughly and stay warm than to eat at this stage. Sorry they didn't all hatch - I never found the membrane was tough in fact mine seemed to cut off the top of the shell and get out very much faster than chickens. Aren't they beautiful?

Here's a link to some bits of video of my first hatch. http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=5755
A bit further on in the archive, there are some more threads about my hatches, if you're interested.

 

[Deetle]

Hi, sadly 1 of the little chaps didnt make it. Wasnt right from the start and was never able to stand erect, straighten at the knees if you like. So after 3 days he/she died. The other hatchling is full of beans and going well but alas is alone. We've tried bringing a mature quail into the brooder for short periods, they didn't really bond but nothing bad happened either.
Ive been reducing the temp a little as feathers are coming through. When would I be thinking about putting it outside, thinking weeks not days? Outdoor temperatures are about 10c - 28c atm.

 

[Deetle]

Love the vids Marigold

 

[Marigold]

hi Deetle, sorry to hear one of them died. The chick could go out during the day in a sheltered run, covered against the rain if any, once he's off heat and the temperature in the run is equal to what he would have experienced in the brooder, but he might feel very exposed on his own. He should be fully feathered by 6 weeks but as he's on his own with nobody to snuggle up to at night, he may need to come back in for more warmth overnight. Depends on the climate ATM where you are. I think 10C is too low, just observe and seer how he gets on. Maybe 'he' will turn out to be a girl, with luck. Intergrating him/her might be problematic, it's always tricky with just one.

 

[Deetle]

Hi again, after a slow introduction to the outside world the new addition 'Tiddalik' has settled into her/his new home. Im guessing she is a girl by the accepting behaviour of the male. At first i would introduce in the afternoon as the mating behaviour seemed less vigorous than the morning. A few weeks on its a permanent thing.
Thanks so much for your advice Marigold, its wonderful that i can get helpful advice all the way from the UK.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Deetle, I'm very glad you've managed to integrate her, well done, that could have been problematic. I'm not sure exactly where you live, or what the climate is like, especially how much sun you get at this time of year. If she's a girl, you could expect her to come into lay at 6-8 weeks, and if he's a boy, to become sexually mature (starting to crow, and producing foam balls when his abdomen is squeezed, (see Youtube videos on sexing quails.) But if s/he's getting less than 14 hours a day of sunlight or electric equivalent, s/he will probably delay puberty until Spring is more advanced. This would apply now in the UK, but if your days are longer things will be different.
When puberty does happen, watch out for territorial disputes with any older males you may have if he's a boy, and for rough mating behaviour from your males if she's a girl. Boy Coturnix quails get rampant teenage hormones overnight and will try to mate anything in sight, whilst females are vulnerable at this stage. But i had males living together happily all winter, who started to fight when the daylight told them Spring was coming.

 

[Deetle]

That fascinating about delayed puberty Marigold. Atm (some 20 odd days after summer solstice) we are getting 15 hrs of light. At this time of year the further south the longer the day, im about 70kms south of Hobart, Tasmania. Today is going to be 31c, tonight will drop to 16c. Doesn't get much warmer than that here. The weather will be great until about Apr/ May.
There's no evidence of friction between them yet (fingers crossed) and feathers remain intact behind the head. Its been 6 weeks since hatching by my calcs.

 

[Marigold]

How interesting, about your climate and daylight. Yes, of course i remember now that you live in Tazzy, but I wasn't sure about the climate. No problems with lack of light, then, and at 6 weeks you should soon be able to sex the chick.