Incubating Quail eggs.

We got the bater up and running again with 60 Quail eggs installed (cheers Deryn). I have only ever kept Quail once before and they were the dwarf variety which was not worth the bother. Now these yokes are far more like it, and quick to mature for meat and egg production. I have not had a great success in the past with incubation so fingers crossed. I see that there are many commercial type cages available and are popular. There are many advantages in keeping Quail in these of course but, I hate the idea of things in cages. So my thoughts are more inclined towards a run which means more work in cleaning etc so I shall try to think of something inventive. Any thoughts?

Haven't posted on the new Forum yet so here goes!



Hi Wayland, I used to hatch a lot of Quail but stopped a few years ago. A good hatch is about 60% so if you get 35 out of your eggs I would consider that a success. They will try every trick in the book to kill themselves in the first week, falling into water etc.. Make sure drinkers are positioned away from the sides 'cause they will get in behind and.....I was brooding them in a black 10 gallon expansion tank with a 60w bulb hanging from a stick, covered with perspex. Kitchen towel on the floor. They were making full sized birds in 8 weeks. For 'Breeders' I kept 4 hens to a cock. I had mine indoors in cages.....

Good luck with them.
I have just emptied out our incubator and very disappointed. May just stick with the quail.
Out of 16 turkey eggs 6 hatched, 6 goose eggs none hatched and 5 duck eggs and none hatched.
Such is life

Such as life indeed. Have you any idea why you had problems? Were there no sign of chick development? The last time I tried to get a clutch hatched they were partially formed in the shell. Even after waiting 10 days past their due date. I have since found out that my bater had cold spots. I have modified the fan a bit so hoping me problems solved.

The duck eggs were young ducks and had nothing in them. The geese were also empty but the goose got had by the fox while sitting on them the first night before I could find her, so put them in see if there was any joy, guess they got cold for to long. The turkeys had 2 half formed but nothing in the others. The stag has since died, we think he had a heart attack but could have been more ill than we knew. Just hope one of the chicks is male to replace him.

We have just put 74 quail eggs in the incubator. Fingers crossed

Hi Deryn. Good luck with the quail eggs. I am wondering what the problem was with the partly formed Turkey chicks!. Next sunday we will take our Quail eggs off the turning rollers, up the humidity a bit and hope for the best. How is the Lamb? I am often asked to find out.

Good luck.

Hi Wayland. The lamb is doing fine, would be even better if I could convince it its a sheep and not a human. It will not stay behind the electric fence so is behind hurdles in the goat shed when not following me around. What she needs is another lamb but there are not any around now.
Hope you have a good hatch rate.

Hi Deryn. I know what you mean by "Thinking she is a human". We had this and I got a bit pissed off with them. A pain in the arse in fact. If ever I got kade lambs again I would try to get an old killer Yew and run the lambs with her. She would teach them to eat grass. Something of which my last lot would not do. They would eat the expensive "Lamb-lack" pellets though. Good luck with her. At least you do have other stock for her to run with.

Day 16 for the incubating Quail eggs. I should be getting excited but apprehensive would be a more accurate word.

Day 17. 40 and counting. Very pleased I am

Brilliant. Glad they are doing well. Ours are due next week.

It might be a silly question, Wayland, but what are you going to do with them all?

Just had a peek and there dont seem to be many unhatched eggs left. A phenomenal hatch.
I know I had to modify it a bit and it needs a bit more but this cheap and nasty Chinese incubator has finally done the business. Most of these Quail are going for meat to sell or our own consumption. I do have some interest from the mart for eggs. So I shall select some good breeding stock. We are on a bit of a learning curve here but I am luving it.

Well, just an update. After a great hatch we had a great disaster The chicks started dying. A few at first which was not unexpected but we lost twenty two in one day. We took drastic action and removed the remainder off the wood chip beading. I could not think of anything else that could be giving us the problem. The deaths subsided and we were left with just twelve healthy looking chicks. The wood chip beading was from our own Willow plantation and at the outset looked fine but, it was last winters chipping and while investigating the heap it was found to be still actively hot at the bottom. The dying chicks showed breathing difficulties and I am going with the assumption that our problem was probably fungal spores from the chips. A learning curve indeed. Now we have a further complication to our plans. I think we have only female`s. So I may be looking for a randy cock soon. Any takers?

We have just got back from the UK with 24 Texas A&M hatching eggs. So here we go again. Meanwhile the surviving chicks from the first batch continue to prosper. All female I think but that is no bad thing.

The first batch of Quail had four cockerels. They are just over five weeks old and I had a bit of a problem with the cocks. I did not expect a problem with them yet but they started fighting and one got seriously injured. Now having separated them things have quietened down again. Soon I will have an outside pen built for them so this new project is looking better. Fingers crossed for the next batch of A & M`s. Deryn. How did your latest hatch go?

Tiercel Dave. Hows your Quails doing?

Hi Wayland
We had 55 hatch out of 70. Same as you more hens than cocks but that's no bad thing. Sold 10 hens on Saturday so a few less to feed.