If you decide to incubate your own Quail eggs from your broody chicken, you must remove them from your chicken’s nest box as soon as they hatch and are dry.
Quail eggs take between 21-24 days to hatch. This is a duration similar to that of a chicken. However, quail eggs are usually smaller and more fragile than chicken eggs. So they are more prone to breakage and suffer damage from extreme temperatures more easily. Therefore, they should be placed in safer storage.
When you are hatching quail eggs, remember if you do not add any water in the brooder until they begin moving around and feeling wet, they will hatch best. Before you run out to get a couple of fertilized quail eggs at home and drop them into an incubator, there are some steps you can take to make sure that you are having the most successful hatch.
Either method is easy and effective, but you will want to know how to procure the quail eggs, place your eggs in an incubator or underneath a broody chicken, and what to do with your newborn quail once they hatch. Once you set up your quail brooder, you may produce your own fertilized eggs if you have kept some males, and hatch them to breed quails later. If this is your first time raising quails, you may want to buy a clutch of fertilized eggs from another quail farmer. If you are starting out with quails, you can buy chicks for the quail, or buy fertilized eggs to incubate.
Buying Eggs Is More Economical than Raising Quail
While you can buy live chicks, when raising quails, it is much more cost effective to buy viable fertilized eggs and hatch. Many people purchase eggs from a breeder, or they sell off all their eggs stockpiles and purchase the fertilized eggs whenever they wish to breed more qualia.
You can even build your own incubators, if you are handy, but all incubators have to do is do a few things for the eggs to hatch. If you do not have a rotating auto-incubator, you will want to rotate your eggs approximately 3-5 times a day starting on the second day. Turning eggs manually takes much longer, especially if you are handling several dozen eggs, as many as five times a day. If you do not have an Egg Turner (which is a very recommended investment if you are planning on incubating chicken eggs on a regular basis), eggs will have to be turned by hand at least three times a day, although five times is better.
Eggs probably will not be viable beyond seven or 10 days, and the longer you wait, the lower your rate of hatching. After reaching Day 18, chances of remaining eggs hatching drop off drastically, but they are still a possibility. Most eggs will go from pipping to hatching within twenty-four hours, though it may occasionally take a bit longer with no problems. Quail eggs hatch at eighteen days, I have had them hatch at sixteen through to twenty, but more often than not, you can count on eighteen being when it is going to happen.
Expectations for Baby Quail
Once baby quail start to hatch, you can usually keep them in their brooders for between twenty-four and thirty hours. Once a quail has hatched, they should be left in the incubator for at least twenty-four hours, but no longer than 36 hours, so that they are fully dry and become slightly stronger. The incubation period of the quail is 17-18 days, depending on strain and the incubation procedures.
Quails typically require 18 days of incubation, but they may hatch as early as day 16 or as late as day 20. There can be a big size difference between the quails that hatch only a day or two after, but the young quails will soon make up for it, and in a matter of days, they will be evenly sized. In just a few days, your Baby Quails will grow big enough for you to move on to the normal Game Bird Crusts at the Quail Feeder. With some practice and patience, you will soon master the process of raising chicks and can raise your own backyard quail for meat and eggs.
Just like with chickens, that egg does not have a calendar, so your chicken quail can start arriving as early as Day 16, or as late as Day 20. For that reason, recording hen numbers on eggs, incubating in groups, and marking the chicks definitively when they hatch is advisable.
Dangerous Temperatures for Fragile Quail Eggs
Extreme temperatures, rough handling, or other transportation problems may cause obvious, unrepeatable damage to the hatched fertilized eggs, resulting in an increased likelihood of low hatch rates. Allowing your eggs to rest peacefully at room temperature for several hours can improve the rate of hatching.
Letting eggs sit will allow eggs to rise in temperature slowly, instead of shocking them at the 37.5″C (99.5F) in an incubator. Set your incubator up at least 4 hours before placing the shipped eggs inside; however, it is best to let the incubator run a day or two without eggs inside it to ensure that the proper temperature and humidity are present.
When you get your shipped eggs in the mail, they will need a little time to get settled in and get comfortable before you can put them into your incubator. Start with good conditions at least two days before the eggs arrive, so that you are confident that they are getting settled into a suitable stable temperature (100 degrees) and humidity (44%). If you are running a Still Air Model Incubator, aim for 102oF, rotating your eggs about in the incubator as you rotate. When hatching button quill eggs, you may leave them in the incubator for up to 24 hours, then you will have to move them into the brooder (box or purchased brooder).
Keep it safe Allow chicks to hatch from supermarket eggs, particularly if they are from non-traditional laying systems, or are intentionally sold and labelled as fertilized eggs.
