Incubating Chinese Painted Quail.......

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Well,I decided what I wanted for Xmas,and treated myself to an incubator(small) and six fertile Chinese Painted Quail Coturnix coturnix chinensis eggs.
Well,my incubator arrived by special delivery this mon,as did the eggs.First,I opened the box containing the eggs,and put them safely in my bedroom to rest.
I then read the instructions for my incubator,no problem,even I could understand.So set that up and checked it every few hours to confirm it is running correctly.
Pleased as punch,I came downstairs to cook tea,tidy up,whilst floating on cloud nine :D .
A bit later I went back upstairs,my teenage son and his friend were in my bedroom,where my eggs were 'resting' so I had a bit of a moan,and the4y decided to clear out.
What I hadn't realised,my son had carefully moved my eggs........a lot later,I was going to bed,and one of my 5 whippets Crystal Tips raced into my bedroom,leapt to check out my quail eggs and sent them rolling accross my bedroom floor :o .
I picked them up,told them I was sorry,and put them back into their 'resting' box.So went to bed,very upset that my fertile quail eggs might be scrambled......
The next day,when 24hrs was over,popped them into my incubator,hoping for the best.
Everything was fine until I did the egg turn this evening,'cos I'm a cheapskate,I bought a manual turn incubator,not an automatic one.........
Well,I carefully turned the eggs,and,putting the cover back on,somehow knocked the incubator so all the eggs rolled all over the place(inside the incubator) :( .
Then disaster no.2,in carefully placing them back where they should be,I dropped one :cry: .It chipped slightly :cry: :cry: .

So,I'm not expecting any to hatch now,if any do hatch in 14 days time,you will all hear me cheer.
 
Un update on my quail eggs,I candled them today.Which is early,but,out of 6 eggs,5 are definitely fertile and 1 I'm not sure,it could be :D .
 
So pleased Lydia :D I would imagine that eggs get manhandled a bit at times if hatched naturally - so fingers crossed xx
 
Well these have certainly been manhandled.I should have bought an automatic turning incubator......hopefully at least some of them will hatch.
 
wow good luck with them. About a week before my last hatch was due the plug on my incubator somehow got pulled out of the wall and I didn't notice till the next morning and they were stone cold. I turned it back on but was sure they would all be dead but most of them still managed to hatch. we think they are so fragile but they are tougher than we think. good luck with your eggs and please let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks for all your encouragement,what a relief that you spotted the plug when you did Stepyone.I've got my incubator tucked into a corner in my bedroom.My dogs often un-plug things by getting electrical wire caught in their legs.Once,I didn't get any phone calls for a while,didn't think anything of it,then realised the phone was unplugged :lol: .
I also think you're right Anne and Stepyone,they are a lot tougher than we imagine,these certainly are,I drop at least 1 or 2 daily...... :o .
If any hatch with body parts in the wrong place I'll know why :lol: .
 
Well,I bought a magnasexer from a poultry supplier and sexed my quail eggs before they've hatched.All 5 are fertile,and,according to the magnasexer are 1 cock and 4 hens.
 
I'll be interested to hear the results!

When I kept quail, the little ones hatched and were about the size of a bumble bee - incredible to see... and so sweet.
 
I didn't think how small they'd be until after I'd bought them.Then I did read that they would be bumble bee sized,I'm just hoping I don't drop or lose them.
So far,the magnasexer acted exactly how the supplier said,swinging round in a very large circle(f/male)on four of the eggs,and vertically(m)for the one egg.Once they are hatched and mature at 6 weeks I will know if it's accurate.
I also tried it out on my eggs in my kitchen which are not even fertile,it didn't move at all,stayed stationary.
So far it has correctly sexed me,my son,my dogs and rabbits.
Apparently it will work on eggs from a day old,so would also weed out infertile eggs.What I don't understand is,if they do work how come more people don't use them.Would save a lot of hobbyists hatching out un-needed cockerels.
 
Some people swear by them, others say they don't work... must say it's something I'd really like to try, I just haven't got around to it.
 
Well I will let you know their sexes once they've hatched,and are 3 weeks old so I can sex them.i'm hoping it does work accurately,it would help me a lot in not hatching un-wanted cockerels.Also,it only cost £2.99,so not a lot of money.
 
There would always be that shadow of a doubt in my mind that it was telling me to kill off the females!! :?
 
I can understand that,I will see what results I get with these CPQ before deciding what I do in future with other eggs.With my sablepoots it is easier, because cockerels will live happily in a mixed group,I believe Sue with some of hers has 3 cocks to 6 hens.Obviously it helps to keep them together all the time,and not separate them.
With my pekins though,if I'm happy with the results I will not incubate many(if any) cockerel eggs unless I want or need a cockerel.I would then probably incubate 2,as if I incubated 1 it probably wouldn't hatch or maybe not survive long after hatching.By incubating sod's law dictates that both would hatch healthy and strong :) .i'm a firm believer in sod's law........
 
Not long now Anne,it's day 14 tomorrow,so I stop turning them and they should start pipping,then start hatching weds/thurs.Hopefully they will all be out by Xmas.I'm supposed to lower the temp slightly tomorrow, not sure how to,so I did think of putting them straight into brooder to hatch there....only I haven't got a clue how hot the brooder is,was just going to adjust the light thingy so they were happy once they were hatched.
The only way I've thought of to lower temp slightly for hatching was to turn incubator off for brief periods when they started to hatch.
Am hoping to take lots of pics of them making their break for freedom from their eggs :D .If they are bumble bee sized though shall need to put camera on macro/micro setting whatever it's called.
 
Ooh! How exciting - and nerve racking :o This incubating thing is certainly a rollercoaster of emotions isn't it? :shock: Still got everything crossed - but I'm getting cramp now! :lol:
 
LOL,tell me about it,my finger's have sort of jammed,or frozen shut.........hasn't been stressfull yet,well not for me.Stressfull for the eggs when I drop them though :( ,it will be a miracle if they hatch out ok.
 
I have just ordered a magna sexer from e bay - thanks for the tip :)

I would love to keep and breed quails. I bought some fertile eggs from ebay and incubated them but my incubator home made for reptile eggs couldn't quite get up to the right temperature.

Good luck.

Mark
 
hi Mark,
yes i've got an incubator for royal python eggs,decided it wasn't suitable.i'm really pleased with the magna sexer so far.It shows which sex they are before you put them in the incubator,so if you don't want cockerels you don't need to incubate those eggs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top