Hi my name is Tom and this is my first post on the website. I am looking to hatch some Chinese quail eggs and was wondering how long after hatching they can go in the incubator. They were laid on Monday and Tuesday and have been left on their side in a room. I don't know if they are fertile so do I need to check that first from Tom
Quail eggs
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Hi Tom and welcome to the Forum, its good to have another quail enthusiast on here.
I wonder if you mean to ask what is the maximum time they will stay viable when stored before you start incubation? I don't think this is too critical with quail eggs, but if you have a clutch I think you could get them into the incubator and get going ASAP. If you want to wait or aren't ready yet, turn them every day for about a week.
When incubating quail eggs, remember that they will hatch best if you add no water at all to the incubator until they start to move and pip, at which time you can add enough to get the humidity up to 70% before the inci goes into lockdown before the hatch. If you have the incubator as humid as most instructions suggest, the eggs are likely to drown because of the moisture penetrating their tiny shells. About 40% humidity is ideal and this will be obtained by the moisture in the air passing through.
I'm afraid there's no way to check beforehand if they are fertile or not, you just have to incubate them and see what happens. But quail eggs are usually easy to hatch out, given the right conditions. Do let us know how you get on. What sort of incubator are you going to use?
I wonder if you mean to ask what is the maximum time they will stay viable when stored before you start incubation? I don't think this is too critical with quail eggs, but if you have a clutch I think you could get them into the incubator and get going ASAP. If you want to wait or aren't ready yet, turn them every day for about a week.
When incubating quail eggs, remember that they will hatch best if you add no water at all to the incubator until they start to move and pip, at which time you can add enough to get the humidity up to 70% before the inci goes into lockdown before the hatch. If you have the incubator as humid as most instructions suggest, the eggs are likely to drown because of the moisture penetrating their tiny shells. About 40% humidity is ideal and this will be obtained by the moisture in the air passing through.
I'm afraid there's no way to check beforehand if they are fertile or not, you just have to incubate them and see what happens. But quail eggs are usually easy to hatch out, given the right conditions. Do let us know how you get on. What sort of incubator are you going to use?
Yes that is what I meant and at the minute I only have 2 eggs so I was going to wait till sunday when there will be some more eggs. I don't have the incubator with me at the minute but could I use a lamp to heat them instead. What temperature do the eggs need to be at to hatch. Also after how many days do they start to move and pip and is that when I need to add water to get the humidity up to 70%. I am getting a turnx incubator and I will let you know how it goes from Tom
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Hi Tom, I would advise you to wait until you have the incubator before attempting to hatch the eggs. You won't get a constant and correct temperature throughout 24 hours if you try heating them under a lamp and the humidity will be wrong, even for quail eggs. They need to be incubated at a steady 37.5C. If it gets more than 1C. above this, the eggs may die, and if its too low, the hatch may be late and some of the birds may show abnormalities. They will pip from 12 days and hatch by 16 days. Humidity needs to be 45% as I said, until they actually pip.
Fresh eggs are more likely to hatch than any over a week old, although sometimes they can hatch if kept for longer than that. It would be best to collect and store them in the order that they are hatched, so you can use the most recent ones once you have your incubator, and have run it for 48 hours to warm and test it before adding the eggs. I can understand you want to use our own eggs, but you might consider buying in some extra from another breeder, to make up the numbers.
Store them with the pointed end downwards in a cool room, and 'rock' the eggs by supporting first one side, and then the other, of the egg box so they are sloped from side to side without you having to touch them. Only use eggs which are naturally clean, don't wash any dirty ones and don't use any with chips or irregularities. The chance of such eggs being contaminated with bacteria is high, and they may infect the others within the incubator. If you wash the eggs, the water may allow bacteria to penetrate the
porous shells. Keeping the eggs as clean as possible is one reason for not handling them. Also you will need to get some incubator disinfectant and throughly disinfect the inci before you use it, whether or not it has been used before. Conditions in any incubator are warm and damp, ideal for bacterial growth.
Fresh eggs are more likely to hatch than any over a week old, although sometimes they can hatch if kept for longer than that. It would be best to collect and store them in the order that they are hatched, so you can use the most recent ones once you have your incubator, and have run it for 48 hours to warm and test it before adding the eggs. I can understand you want to use our own eggs, but you might consider buying in some extra from another breeder, to make up the numbers.
Store them with the pointed end downwards in a cool room, and 'rock' the eggs by supporting first one side, and then the other, of the egg box so they are sloped from side to side without you having to touch them. Only use eggs which are naturally clean, don't wash any dirty ones and don't use any with chips or irregularities. The chance of such eggs being contaminated with bacteria is high, and they may infect the others within the incubator. If you wash the eggs, the water may allow bacteria to penetrate the
porous shells. Keeping the eggs as clean as possible is one reason for not handling them. Also you will need to get some incubator disinfectant and throughly disinfect the inci before you use it, whether or not it has been used before. Conditions in any incubator are warm and damp, ideal for bacterial growth.
Ok thank you very much I have also been looking at the brinsea advance mini. And let me see if I have got this right
Day 0-12 add no water and turn the eggs daily
Day 12 humidity up to 45%
Day 12-16 keep turning and humidity at 45%
Day 16 stop turning and raise humidity to 70%
Day 0-12 add no water and turn the eggs daily
Day 12 humidity up to 45%
Day 12-16 keep turning and humidity at 45%
Day 16 stop turning and raise humidity to 70%
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The Brinsea mini advance is an excellent incubator, I've used it myself for quail eggs and got very good hatches. Just add no water until you actually see them pipping. The humidity in the air will be sufficient to provide 45%. Have the turn rate adjusted for the minimum turn as the eggs are so small. Set it for 16 days and it will stop turning automatically at the right time. The first day counts as Day 0, and Day 1 is when they've been in there for 24 hours plus.
Ok thank you for that and when I see them pipping that's when I take the humidity up to 70% correct. Also what do I need to look out for when looking for the pipping. I was thinking of using my own eggs and ordering 4 from online can you recommended a good supplier. Also when setting the turning timer do I set it for 16 days and that includes day 0 or do I need to set it to 17 days to include day 0. Sorry for all the questions from Tom
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Yes that's right, high humidity once you see the eggs beginning to rock and pip. The inci will stop turning them probably at 14 days if its set to 16 days, and then if you watch you will think you're seeing things at first because one or two will seem to twitch a little bit. This is when they're getting themselves into the right orientation for the hatch, so don't disturb them, but half fill the water pots at this point and then don't open the incubator again until either they've all hatched, or 24 hours has passed since the last one viable has hatched. Whatever the temptation, if you open the inci the temperature and humidity will drop and take precious time to recover. Either they will hatch or they won't, at that point, there's nothing you can do to help. Then the twitching will become unmistakable, even on such tiny weeny eggs, and then little chips will appear and the hatch is imminent. The lovely thing about the Brinsea mini is that you can see everything, unless it happens in the middle of the night!
What sort of heat are you going to use in the brooder? For quails I found an overhead lamp was better than an electric hen. Because they are so tiny they have a greater surface area in relation to their size and so I found an overhead lamp helped to keep them active and feeding.
I forgot to say that when you open the inci on day 14, you should them remove the turning ring and plavpce the eggs on a soft grippy piece of fabric, because the plastic surface doesn't have the necessary friction for their feet and they may get splayed legs in the early hours when trying to stand up. I used a circle of that foam stuff you put under objects on tables to stop them scratching. Don't know what it's called but I took some videos of my first quail hatch and you can see them on YouTube under my Ginnychick channel if interested, and it shows the lining stuff. http://youtu.be/mk3xKjjSSoM
Are you using the quail ring in your Brinsea? I wonder if even that might have holes that are a bit big for CPQs. You may need to invent a cardboard insert to make the holes smaller, perhaps.
What sort of heat are you going to use in the brooder? For quails I found an overhead lamp was better than an electric hen. Because they are so tiny they have a greater surface area in relation to their size and so I found an overhead lamp helped to keep them active and feeding.
I forgot to say that when you open the inci on day 14, you should them remove the turning ring and plavpce the eggs on a soft grippy piece of fabric, because the plastic surface doesn't have the necessary friction for their feet and they may get splayed legs in the early hours when trying to stand up. I used a circle of that foam stuff you put under objects on tables to stop them scratching. Don't know what it's called but I took some videos of my first quail hatch and you can see them on YouTube under my Ginnychick channel if interested, and it shows the lining stuff. http://youtu.be/mk3xKjjSSoM
Are you using the quail ring in your Brinsea? I wonder if even that might have holes that are a bit big for CPQs. You may need to invent a cardboard insert to make the holes smaller, perhaps.
At the minute I'm just trying to get the incubator set up and I will see how my hens do over the weekend for a clutch but will also order some on Monday so that I can still have chicks in my hens eggs are infertile. I have also borrowed a incubator from a friend and I have attached a picture of it but it's come with no instructions or a thermometer so I'm using a thermometer from my fish tank to take the temperature in it. I was looking at a over head lamp rather than brinsea electric hen and I have see on eBay a guy sells ready made brooding boxes with a lamp and air vent in and stuff like that.
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The temperature in the incubator has ranged from 37 to 37.9 Celsius but it stays mainly around 37.6 to 37.8. Will the temperature be ok for the eggs and the chicks and the bad thing with this incubator there is nothing to tell you how humid it is in their so I was wondering what I could do about that from Tom
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That sounds fine, but if possible it would be a good idea to check the temp with a second good-quality thermometer if possible. As you don't need to make it more humid than the air passing though it will be anyway, I don't think humidity is likely to be a problem. Just add water in time for evaporation at the pipping stage. I have a friend who has hatched hundreds of quail and she says that sometimes she even forgets to add the water at the end and they still hatch OK. However, if you are worried about this you can buy a little hygrometer for about £15(?) on Amazon to indicate humidity. But personally I think you don't need to bother as the main danger to the eggs is too much humidity, which is easily avoided. Position the inci somewhere where it won't be subject to avoidable changes in temperature, eg not in sunlight or too near a radiator.
You can of course spend money on a brood box, but I found a cardboard box was fine. I lined the sides with the silver foam insulation sheet you use behind radiators, curving this into a shape with rounded corners so none of them got squashed into a square corner. This greatly improved the heat retention and distributed it evenly out to the sides. You can then recycle the box when they grow out of it with no need to try to disinfect it for the next brood.
I lined the base with plenty of newspaper sheets and then placed several layers of j-cloths or pieces of old sheeting on top. They are really messy little things and I found I could carefully roll up the top layer along win the mess for a quick and easy daily cleanout. Then I washed the cloths ready for re-use. The box doesn't need to be big, but there needs to be room for them to spread out away from the heat of the central lamp if they need. I found a thermometer on the floor, halfway between the centre and the edge, gave me a good idea of the median temperature, and of course their behaviour is the best guide. They should be neatly always running about and busy in the day, and sleeping in a heap at night, but you need to remember that the temp. Drops a lot at night so you may need to lower the lamp at bedtime and raise it when the day warms up. There are one or two bits of video of my coturnix chicks in their brood box on my YouTube channel. I spent several days fiddling with the temperature under the lamp, and getting every thing well warmed up in advance, to avoid them getting chilled when transferred from the inci.
You can of course spend money on a brood box, but I found a cardboard box was fine. I lined the sides with the silver foam insulation sheet you use behind radiators, curving this into a shape with rounded corners so none of them got squashed into a square corner. This greatly improved the heat retention and distributed it evenly out to the sides. You can then recycle the box when they grow out of it with no need to try to disinfect it for the next brood.
I lined the base with plenty of newspaper sheets and then placed several layers of j-cloths or pieces of old sheeting on top. They are really messy little things and I found I could carefully roll up the top layer along win the mess for a quick and easy daily cleanout. Then I washed the cloths ready for re-use. The box doesn't need to be big, but there needs to be room for them to spread out away from the heat of the central lamp if they need. I found a thermometer on the floor, halfway between the centre and the edge, gave me a good idea of the median temperature, and of course their behaviour is the best guide. They should be neatly always running about and busy in the day, and sleeping in a heap at night, but you need to remember that the temp. Drops a lot at night so you may need to lower the lamp at bedtime and raise it when the day warms up. There are one or two bits of video of my coturnix chicks in their brood box on my YouTube channel. I spent several days fiddling with the temperature under the lamp, and getting every thing well warmed up in advance, to avoid them getting chilled when transferred from the inci.
I have ordered a 2 in one humidity and temperature gauge. I will not worry to much about the humidity but their are 18 sections for water so I think I will set it so that 8 sections have water in it. This brooding box come with the lamp and everything for them so I think I will get it and it's only £20 and has enough room for 10 to 14 chicks. Here's the link to it http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320882743156?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT.
I have decided that I will hatch some eggs from the quail at my work and keep them their but I have decided that I want chickens at my house as you can let them out and the don't need to be kept caged up all day. So is there anything I need to do differently to raise and hatch chicken eggs from Tom
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Well, yes, if you haven't kept chickens before at your house, there will be a lot of planning to do first. They will need a secure, waterproof coop of a suitable design, and an enclosed run which is safe from predators, even if you intend to let them roam the garden when its safe for them to do so. Chickens do need a lot of space, the run has to be a minimum of 2 square metres of floor space per bird, as they may fight, peck each other's feathers, and cause bullying and stress if kept in too small a run. There will be times when they have to be in the run, especially in winter, when you are out, and after dark when foxes and other predators are around.
One of the advantages of quail is that you can keep them in a very small space. I keep three coturnix at a time in cages 3 ft by 2 ft in winter, and I could keep up to 4-5 in that space. In summer I give them a 4 ft square rabbit run on grass, which could hold up to 16 birds at 1 sq, ft each, though it don't keep that many in there. Quail are not so high maintenance as hens. With hens you have to clean out the coop every day, pick up poo from the floor of the run, and find space for a dustbin full of chicken pellets plus a lot of other equipment. Yes, keeping hens is a great hobby but setup costs are high and you need to think carefully about what sort of birds you want and whether they are mainly for laying eggs or else because you just enjoy the look of a particular breed. Lots of help on here though! However, if you do want hens it would probably be best to but them at point of lay, ie at about 16 - 18 weeks old, ready to lay in a few weeks. That way you can be sure of buying hens. If you hatch your own you will end up with 50% cockerels that nobody will want unless you are prepared to kill and eat them.
One of the advantages of quail is that you can keep them in a very small space. I keep three coturnix at a time in cages 3 ft by 2 ft in winter, and I could keep up to 4-5 in that space. In summer I give them a 4 ft square rabbit run on grass, which could hold up to 16 birds at 1 sq, ft each, though it don't keep that many in there. Quail are not so high maintenance as hens. With hens you have to clean out the coop every day, pick up poo from the floor of the run, and find space for a dustbin full of chicken pellets plus a lot of other equipment. Yes, keeping hens is a great hobby but setup costs are high and you need to think carefully about what sort of birds you want and whether they are mainly for laying eggs or else because you just enjoy the look of a particular breed. Lots of help on here though! However, if you do want hens it would probably be best to but them at point of lay, ie at about 16 - 18 weeks old, ready to lay in a few weeks. That way you can be sure of buying hens. If you hatch your own you will end up with 50% cockerels that nobody will want unless you are prepared to kill and eat them.
I have not kept chickens before but have wanted to for years and have 8 books on chicken keeping. I was going to buy all new coops for them and I ultimately chose chickens over quail because the chickens can be let out to roam free where as the quail always have to be in an enclosure. The enclosure that the quail are in at work is 18ft wide by 60 ft long and around 20 ft high. It's also heated and has a concrete floor in the middle and 2 flower beds running down the side of the enclosure, so even though they are in a enclosure all the time it's a very nice one for them and something I could not provide for them in my back garden. I'm sure I will still have lots of questions about hatching their eggs and I thought that the quail could winter with me as the enclosure they are In now gets shut down over winter. I was thinking of rescuing ex battery hens for my back garden but I do like the look of red jungle fowl, Rhode Island Red and Welsummer. I had decided on getting live chickens rather than getting eggs to hatch out. Is there anywhere you can suggest for me to look for chickens and the coops that they would spend the night and days with bad weather in from Tom
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That all sounds good, lucky little quail. It looks as if you can go ahead and have all the fun and interest of hatching some quail and then returning them to what sounds like a brilliant habitat, and also get some hens for your own garden.
The main choice to make about coops is between wood and plastic. Wood needs much more maintenance, is more likely to get redmite, and deteriorates with time. Modern plastic coops take to bits for easy cleaning, hold their value well, and don't need any chemical treatments such as creosote to maintain the fabric and repel mites. I'm a big fan of my Green Frog coop, as you will see if you use the Search box to find our many threads about starting out with new coops, but others prefer wood for various reasons.
I think if you would like to get some chickens you might start another thread in the General Chickens section, having read what is there from others like you who are just setting out with new birds.
The main choice to make about coops is between wood and plastic. Wood needs much more maintenance, is more likely to get redmite, and deteriorates with time. Modern plastic coops take to bits for easy cleaning, hold their value well, and don't need any chemical treatments such as creosote to maintain the fabric and repel mites. I'm a big fan of my Green Frog coop, as you will see if you use the Search box to find our many threads about starting out with new coops, but others prefer wood for various reasons.
I think if you would like to get some chickens you might start another thread in the General Chickens section, having read what is there from others like you who are just setting out with new birds.
I have now made my mind up and I'm having both chickens and quail at my house as well as at work. I like the wooden looking coops as the look more natural too me. I was thinking of getting a hutch like the one in the picture for the quails. I was wondering do they need an extra run or will the one with this coop be ok as I usually let my animals have free run of the garden but I know you can't do that with quails. So I was thinking I could get this coop and then build an extra run that can attach on to it. What do you think
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That looks very nice but the nestboxes are not necessary for quails and as you intend to keep them indoors in the winter something much simpler would be fine for the summer months. I think its possible they wouldn't bother going 'upstairs ' in this run. You really only need a rabbit run type of thing with some kind of shelter for them in bad weather. I have made a cover for my run with clear plastic tarp because apart from keeping them dry, they seem more secure with a roof over their heads and round the sides, I suppose its similar to living under hedges etc in the wild for cover. Mine also have an assortment of shelters on the floor, mainly those plastic dome things you can buy for Guinea pigs, and they do go in there to lay their eggs and shelter from either wind or sun. With CPQs you could make a floor with 1/2 in mesh as well as making the sides with small mesh so nobody escaped when you moved on the run to clean grass. My setup is picture in Practical Quail Keeping and as you see, it's very simple, cheap, light and easy to move, but perfectly satisfactory.
Also, this coop and run wouldn't be suitable for chickens -like all coops with a run attached, the run would be far too small for the number of hens the coop could hold. The market is flooded with cheap Chinese imported coops like this one, which look pretty bit are too small and tend to fall to bits and leak within the first 12 months.
Also, this coop and run wouldn't be suitable for chickens -like all coops with a run attached, the run would be far too small for the number of hens the coop could hold. The market is flooded with cheap Chinese imported coops like this one, which look pretty bit are too small and tend to fall to bits and leak within the first 12 months.
