Howdy all, I’m just trying to brainstorm where I may have gone wrong with my last batch of eggs! I have hatched 3 batches successfully of my own and an order from Thieving Otter Farm and had fantastic hatch and survival rates. Never before have I had NO BIRDS hatch from any, but that seems to be what’s happened this time around…

I ordered eggs from My Shire Farm, and they arrived between 4-6pm on April 15th. I unpacked them and made sure they were all pointy side down, then I put them into the incubator around 6pm on April 16th.

I use a Nurture Right 360 incubator, and have 2 additional temperature and humidity gages on the interior to make sure everything is reading correctly.

My starting parameters were 99.5F since it’s a circulated air incubator and 45% humidity. On April 23rd I candled 5 eggs all from different positions in the incubator, and I could see that there was dove very promising development! I marked the eggs with a single black sharpie dot so I’d be able to tell which ones they were.

On April 28th, I candled 5 different eggs then before, and they were very dark with development as well. Then on April 30th, I took out the turner and raised my humidity to 65%.

On May 2nd, I raised my humidity to 70% and my heat up to 100F to encourage the little guys.

It is now May 3rd, and I have yet to see any signs of hatching… what did I do wrong? Or should I contact My Shire Farm for a refund for dud eggs?

I've got 3 chicks, 1 is fine and healthy but the other two have suddenly started limping for no fathamable reason. The feet look healthy but deformed if that makes sense. These chicks aren't from my own eggs so I'm wondering whether the breeder has messed the genetics up in some way, the whole batch I had from her is suspect! Any advice?

Hello!

I am looking for advice on how to get adult/ mature female button quails, rather than hatching eggs myself, and ideally avoiding getting males. I am from the New Jersey area and it feels like an impossible find. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated!

Planning to keep them in a large guinea pig cage, based off my research. I have a cockatiel, so she won't alone (not expecting the birds to interact together much, just the presence of other animals makes her less stressed when I am not around).

Don’t worry! They’re not here yet. I haven’t even started the process, I just want to be prepared. I know I’m all set with incubation information but I’m completely lost on some things after they’re hatched. Feel free to talk to me like I’m dumb and walk me through the whole process as soon as they’re out of the egg bc my ADHD is strong. They will be Button Quail.

1. I know they can eat right away. Should i just stick with starter and for how long? Can i give them oyster shells and mealworms right away? Can i give them live meal worms and dust them with calcium like i do for my reptiles or gut load them? Or should i get the prepackaged stuff? Will that all be too much calcium, or is that a good combination?

2. Any dust bath recommendations? Some seem to add things in and i want the babies to be safe and healthy.

3. Should i be adding electrolytes to their water or is that only for if one is struggling?

4. Anything you wish you knew when you started?

I will take any and all brand recommendations, tips, advice, etc. I’ll be starting them in a 50 gallon tank after the incubator (I’m not getting many to start so i hope that’s a good size, i just have it laying around), then I’ll be moving them to a larger enclosure with more air flow when they’re ready. I want to give them a good life and keep the family going for a long time. I will be using some of their eggs for my reptiles but, other than that, they’re going to live spoiled lives. So truly, ALL the recommendations and advice please! I like my animals to live well!

Hi all,

I’m getting to the point where my roosters are seriously fighting and hurting hens, so I need to think about culling soon.

So, I just wanted to get some ideas - how do you choose which roosters to cull?

I banded all of my roosters so I could observe their behaviors and keep track of who is who. I’ve identified two bullies so far, who are particularly hard on the hens and fight and chase the other roosters around. However today my #1 bully (or so I thought) was bloodied up pretty good, so I’m not sure if he’s really the bully I thought he was.

In addition, is there any way to tell between an actual bully and one who is just acting out because of a bad male to female ratio - or is there any real difference? I.e, will a rooster who seems to be a bully in with 5 roosters and 5 hens still be a bully when he’s the only rooster?

Thanks in advance!

So I have 40 quail in my garage from two different batches. I’ve set a date for May 11th to butcher the excess males with help from my cousin. Youngest batch will be almost 7 weeks and the oldest batch will be almost 8 weeks. Will I be able to vent sex the majority at that point? I know there will be some late bloomers and I’m fine doing some on my own but I’d like to get a large chunk done with my cousin’s help. He doesn’t have a lot of free time so I’d like to stick with the 11th if possible but most of my birds can’t be feather sexed and there’s no point of him coming out if I can’t separate the males from the females. Do you think I should see if he can reschedule or should it be fine? Thanks for any help!

So, I put some quail eggs in the incubator a while ago and now they are finally hatching! I have a blanket on my incubator to help the incubator keep its temp, should I take the blanket off the incubator or will the chicks be fine if I leave it on? The blanket is over the air holes in the incubator. And advice/help will be appreciated!

So I got my first quail ever in early March, they were born late February- about a week old when I got them. Which means they are about 9 weeks old by my estimation. Also if it matters I am in the upper Midwest, climate zone 5, and we are having sunrises around 6am and sunsets around 8pm.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago they started laying! I was super excited, it was kinda sporadic (not all hens laid, and the ones that didn’t weren’t regular daily). Then after about a week the laying shut off totally. It seems they are moulting? I started seeing a ton of feathers on the bottom of the pen, at first I thought the Roos were being rough on the hens but then the plumage on all of them started looking really ratty. During this moult not only did my hens quit laying but my roosters quit crowing :(

How long does the moult last? Are they comfortable? Why do they seem so unhappy? Is there anything I can do to ease this process or make them happier?

Hey reddit friends!

Ive begun my journey trying to incubate supermarket eggs,

1. My incubator is set to 38 degrees C now, is that good?

2. How much do I turn the eggs?/how many times a day

So I had 15 quail hatch 2 weeks ago. One was born with wry neck. I started a electrolyte/vitamin water treatment and a starter feed, both have increased levels of vitamin E and selenium. I am not seeing any change in the chick with wry neck.

How long should I continue treatment? I'm assuming there's a likelihood it won't get better and my only other option would be culling.

I’ve tried incubating Coturnix 3x now each time with only 3-4 hatching successfully. I’m thinking it may be because of the kind of heat created by the incubator itself and the fact that to increase humidity the whole thing has to be opened. Anyone have any recommendations? Some different price range options as well.

I have an outdoor coop/veggie garden that my quails live in, I currently have 4 males (I believe), and 7 females. I know I have too many males but they so far have been getting along fine, haven't seen any fighting and they haven't been too terrible to the females. But I have one mainly that won't shut up, crowing multiple times a minute all day starting from 5am. It's driving me crazy, but I would like to try and keep him, he's my prettiest one :).

Thanks!

I currently have 6 button quail (soon to be incubating more).

• Quailor Moon
• Queen Quailiffah
• ShaQuail O'Neil
• Quailliam Shakespeare
• Quailzilla
• Quinton Quailantino (actually a lady)

So I just abopted my first quail to keep as a pet. I opted for a pretty white male, not knowing enough about the precautions to take with egg laying and whatnot if any. I kinda just fell in love with this one and wanted to start simple. Now I know quails don't do great alone and I've heard his very loud complaints.... a lot of complaints. My issue is now doing more research while looking for a buddy for him, nothing seems like a good option... 2 males would potentially fight, a male kept with one or two females can be dangerous apparently.... What's the safest solution here? I never really intended to keep him alone, he loves his bid cage and climbing around the room, but I don't want him to be lonely... My initial plan was get 2 females for them to all live together, would that indeed be bad? Any advice? Thanks