Dang! 2 days out from butchering?! That's wack! I really appreciate your videos because you answer a lot of little in between questions filling in the gaps. Thanks a lot.
I would of thought keeping the newly hatched chicks without food and water for 3 days would be too long. I'd have my birds in the broader within a day of them fluffed up and walking well. It clearly works for you. Thanks for the videos.
If all your eggs have hatched you don't have to wait a full 3 days. It is mostly to give the birds that pipped time to hatch before opening the incubator. Thanks for watching and glad you like the videos.
So then if hardware cloth is not strong enough to deter a predator, what would you recommend instead? I like the small weave in the hardware cloth to keep out snakes and rodents, but we have coyote and bobcats here too.
can you do a video on how to set up your watering cups with the canisters on the cages. my quail figured out that that's where water could be but never figured out how to get more water out of it.
Hey Chris! First off, I love your videos. Tons of great info. I have a question about hatching quail in the incubator. Why do I never have any more eggs to hatch after opening my incubator to take the first hatchlings out? I got 40 out of 100 and now no more. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!! And as always, God Bless!
That is a little strange. I am not sure I can tell you exactly what happened. I usually find that I need to add a little more water to the incubator to get humidity back up after the first batch has hatched. That might help a little if your humidity has dropped below 60%. That is really about the only thing I can think of right off hand.
From what I’ve read, your not supposed to open your incubator to take babies out until all the eggs have hatched, the cool air can cause the unhatched eggs to “shrink wrap” in the inside of the egg and they won’t hatch.
Nice video hope the best man im just starting to hatch quail aswell i put their temperature on 36 cuz i was getting some misformed birds and now it works perfectly
That would translate to 96.8 degrees. Let me ask you, have you calibrated your incubator? It is quite possible that your thermostat is off. Good thinking though on adjusting the temperature. Thanks for watching and commenting.
+Slightly Rednecked it might have even been a genetic defect maybe one of my quails was a carrier im thinking but i still feel much safer with lower temperature
I am using a little Giant incubator with a turner. I have heard very good things about the Hovabator 1602 though. I will say to make sure that you calibrate the thermometer of what ever you choose. If you need help with that let me know. I am going to be doing a new incubation series of videos soon so I can easily add that in to the upcoming videos.
hay im always watching ur videos and congrats on getting married ! i have a question idk if u can help me with or maybe u can point me in the right direction. i incubated 12 quial eggs only 4 hatched. one of the ones that hatched legs were like doing a split. so that being said my question is all 4 died within 18hrs of hatching they were still in the incubator. should i have moved them in to the box befor that ? i normally wait 18-24hr to move my chicken peeps. but this was my first set of Quail. did i get bad eggs ? i have know clue plz help thank you
Thanks for watching and the congrats. It could be any number of issues but you didn't do anything wrong by leaving them in the incubator for 18 hours. I often go 72 hours and have no issues. It could be a bacterial issue or "bad eggs" like you said but most problems are related to temperature. Do you have an external calibrated thermometer that you are using to verify the temp? I also did a video on troubleshooting a bad hatch that might help. ua-cam.com/users/edit?o=U&video_id=n2uqcshJLMg
Awesome hatch. Question for you. mock incubation humidity was great. 50-55%. Just did mock shutdown, and I cannot get the humidity above 65% with 3 additional water cups under the chick floor. The dome has lots of condensed water on it. Should I be worried?
probably not. But if you are you need to increase surface area of the water not volume. So a wide dish is better than a tall thin cup. You can also add a soaked sponge and that should help.
thank you. I have read a lot of blogs that said water droplets indicate 70-75%, so based on that it may be an inaccurate humidity reading. Just switching from bobwhite to coturnix after you turned me onto them, and a little nervous because I paid for these. Going with the jumbo wild brown/pharoah quail.
To get a completely accurate humidity reading you really need to get relative humidity. I personally don't stress that much about it though. I generally go with the "as long as the windows are fogged" method of thinking. That usually will read about 75 to 80% on my incubator though.
I just had another batch of quail hatch, I have some that are 6 days old. After I gather my quail from incubator in 3 days would I be able to add them with the ones that will then be 9days old or will the older ones pick on the smaller ones? Thanks
Do you change up your food type prior to processing your quail to eat? I have been feeding all my quail game bird starter. Even the 1 year olds. I am getting ready to process my first batch and read somewhere you need to change out the feed 1 week prior to processing for food. Thoughts?
Do you candle your quail eggs? I'm incubating my first batch of quail eggs and today is day nine. I've watched videos on candling quail eggs and it seems its more difficult to do that with chickens. I've never candled any eggs so I'm for sure a beginner. I was just wondering if it is something I should be concerned with especially with this being my first go at incubating.
I the little giant incubator suggests increasing the temperature after you stop turning. Do you increase yours? I've been using the Janoel12 for about 3 years but was looking to increase how many eggs I can hatch. I never changed the temperature before just left it set at 99.5. What are your thoughts? Thanks for your time and thought! I have learned many things from you! God bless you brother!
I do use an egg turner. I use the standard little giant egg turner with quail rails (have used the chicken rails before and they work fine too but can't fit as many eggs in).
how did you train your quail to use the cups for water or did they just figure out on there own i own many chickens and they can't seem to get it and im about to get quail and i love the cup system any tips or tricks to get them using it? cause ive spent much time trying to get chicks/chickens to use but nothing has worked..
They pretty much just figured it out. I pushed the button down and filled the cups with water a few times but that is all I had to do. Hope that helps.
Hi, i've been looking into hatching some chicken and quail eggs, and wanted to know how you like your incubator...Reviews about it state that the temp. fluctuates and it kills the eggs..does yours do this?
My incubator has worked pretty well. I did have the thermostat go out in it but the company sent me a new one free so it wasn't a big deal. works pretty well for the price really. I hope that helps.
Quick question about incubation. I noticed in a previous video that you were pulling the chicks out as they hatched when they got "dry and fluffy" and that in this video you pulled them all out at the same time. Is it best to leave them in until the 21st day to avoid fluctuating the temperature and humidity for the remaining eggs? Or is it ok to move them to you brooder as the hatch and dry up?
It is best to leave them all in the incubator until the hatch is completely finished. I am getting ready to do an updated incubation video and will make sure that is updated in that video. Hope that helps and let me know if you have more questions.
They need to be kept in the brooder until they are fully feathered out. That is usually about 2 weeks but with temps getting down that low you might want to wait until 3 weeks. Just start weaning them off of the heat ahead of time. The first week they need to be at about 100 F. After that you can start reducing it by about 10 degrees every 2 or 3 days. I hope that helps.
Thanks for watching and I am glad you like the videos. I feed all my birds game bird starter crumble. It is a 28% protein crumble that I get from the local farm supply store. I don't grind it up or do anything special for the babies so there isn't any "weaning" period. I hope that helps.
First of all, how much water are you putting in it? I suggest you empty it out and fill it with water and measure how much it takes (like how many turkey basters full) so you get a feel for it. I had the same issue and then figured out I wasn't putting enough water in it with each filling. Also keep in mind that I am in Missouri and it is starting to get very humid here. I sometimes find that I have problems in the winter time keeping humidity up. There are modifications that you can make to your incubator to help with this issue. If you still have a problem after doing what I suggested let me know and I can show you how to modify it if you need help. Its not hard to do. I would try taking everything out though and running the incubator empty so you can really see how much water your putting in it each time.before doing anything else. Should only need to do it for a few days to see if that is the issue or not.
how much is "a lot"? Not meant to be a smart Alec question but i generally fill the trays at the bottom as full as i can when it goes into lockdown. If you are doing that and still not getting the humidity up you can try adding some pieces of sponge soaked in water to the grate next to the eggs (not on them) and that should help. Let me know if you still have problems.
sounds like it could be wry neck. It can be caused by genetics or can be caused by malnutrition. starting up after a few weeks makes me think malnutrition. What kind of food are you feeding them?
Oh dear, I guess I am lucky - I only have to protect the quail feed from my dog - he loves it lol. I did get a little worried when he lifted the cage lid once and put his head inside - until he retrieved one of his teddies my nephew must have put in there. He does not share his toys - not even with quail :D
Well it could be worse for sure. My new dog (the older one passed away sadly) doesn't kill the quail but sure likes to play with them. And if left with them long enough, he would kill them, but not intentionally.
I just throw all of the birds in a big hutch at a 1 to 5 ratio (1 rooster to 5 hens). I don't bother keeping small groups in separate cages. I hope that makes sense.
see sir do you ever sell eggs? i think you live in the same state i live in shawnee ok am getting my incubator tommrow witch would be August the 9th this weekend i plan on building some quail cages and we can use are chicken brooder for the baby quail i guess you call them. i have chickens and never really thought about having quail till i started watching your videos. know am ready to try it out. i really like the small space that quail need compared to chickens. may God bless you in all that you do
I have a question about sexing my quail. I bought 130 quail eggs and 90 of them hatched but for some reason they started dying off one by one any way to make a long story short I ended up with 43 live quail that are now 3 weeks old but all of them seem to have a spotted chest and I was just wondering if I did something wrong to cause all of my males to dye after hatching or if that is possible? and if anyone can tell me why I would only have females left?
It is possible. There is some correlation between the incubation temperature and whether it is more favorable for hens to hatch or roosters to hatch. I don't think there is anything that would cause the roosters to die after hatching though. I am sorry to hear that you had some problems. 3 weeks is a little early to sex them with absolute certainty. Give them a little longer and you might find that there are some roosters in there after all.
Don't stress too much about it. It will probably level out on its own but the only way to get it to come down is to remove some water. Remember that humidity is determined by surface area not the volume of water so you would need to remove all of the water from a channel or two. Hope that makes sense.
I raise my quails with 18% medicated chick starter feed. All my quails eat just those medicated chick starter feed. Is it safe to eat the quails and the eggs from it? First time doing this so just asking.
It really isn't good to eat the eggs or the meat if you are using medicated feed. I would give them at least a few weeks off of that feed before doing so.
+Slightly Rednecked nice hatch looks like you got some interesting colored ones and you got more of the A&M chicks this time,and sucks that all your grow out quail died hopefully these chicks should make up for the loss.
Do you feed them chick starter? Have you found where you ordered the waterer cups from and can you show how to make the waterers please? Since you don't open them for a few days, do you keep food and water in the incubator?
I feed them game bird starter. It is a 28% protein feed and it is fed to all of my birds. I ordered the water cups from ebay. here is a link for you, I don't remember which seller I ordered from exactly but as long as the seller has good feedback you should be fine. www.ebay.com/itm/like/281130742329?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true I need to build another one so I will try to remember to get the how to in my next quail update video. Either this week or next week. I hope that helps.
it is a little giant. It has worked well for me. Had the thermostat go out once but called the company and they sent me a brand new thermostat. Works pretty well so far. I also use the auto turner and quail rails. I have done it with the chicken rails in and it works fine that way too.
all my quail eggs are white now instead of speckled is something wrong with them it's the same batch of quail from last year and all I got was speckled eggs not anymore.i haven't seen a speckled one this year.
I am trying to get set to raise some catournix quail. I have a few cages that are 30" by 18" do you think they are big enough for a male and 3 females each cage? I have incubator and brooder. i havent ever had quail before so I am new to this and havent even got my quail yet just in the planning stages.
oh, sorry I was slow to respond. Glad you found the information you needed. Just in case, you want to figure one square foot per bird (or close to it). A 30 inch square cage is a little over 6 square feet so you could easily house of up 8 birds in there if they were all well established together (came out of the brooder box together). thanks for watching and for the kind comments.
I could do a rabbit update. I have some grow outs about ready to butcher and a new littler still in the nest box. I will work on that and get it up in the next day or two.
Hi I need an answer as I'm worried my African quail won't hatch it's day 16 and my eggs been on lock down since yesterday morning when will I start to see the eggs moving and pipping as I've not seen anything as of yet many thanks for reading
sometimes you don't see any movement or anything until they actually hatch. The best thing to do is walk away and don't mess with it. Generally quail start hatching on day 17 so you should be getting birds anytime now. Good luck and hope it goes well.
I am guessing that should be "how did you get your humidity so high". if that is the question then i just filled the bottom of the incubator with water right before lockdown. Let me know if you have another question though.
wow, lots of ways. I like to roast them myself just about any way you would roast chicken. The trick is really hotter and faster cooking. Hope that helps.
Any suggestions on determining how many quail for eggs & slaughter? I know this is somewhat individual. I have 8 female and 2 male A&M's that I am using for eggs. There are 4 of us and obviously that's not enough. I also want them for meat. Is there a general rule of thumb I could follow? Thanks! Love your videos.
wow, that is very difficult to answer. Start with the number of eggs you can incubate. right now you should be getting about 8 eggs a day. You can save eggs up for about 7 days before you have to incubate so you should be able to get somewhere close to 60 eggs. Assuming that you can get a 50% hatch rate (you might due better but if you are not experienced with incubating I would assume a low hatch rate at first) you will end up with about 30 quail in that would be ready to eat or start laying eggs in about 2 months. Assume that you want two quail per person per meal so those 30 quail (if you chose to eat them and not keep them for laying eggs) would be about 15 servings. You can ramp this up in many ways like running two incubators two weeks behind each other and using one for a lockdown thermometer only (pretty complicated and not worth discussing in a comment but if you want a video on it let me know). You can add the new birds as egg layers and increase the amount of birds you hatch out in each run....you get the idea. I know that is a long answer but hopefully that helps.
Thank you! I really appreciate your help. I would love to see the video you mentioned. I saw how you save your eggs in the small fridge. Any other thoughts on how to keep them between 55 & 60 degrees without a fridge?
Ok. Understand that it will be more of a just talking video because I don't currently do that but I understand it well enough to explain it. It might make a good blog post and I haven't posted there in a long time. Would you rather it be a blog post or a video?
Sounds good. I might just do a video on it. Give me a few days or so and if you don't hear anything by the end of the week feel free to reach out to me about it. :)
That depends. I can't really tell you what to do with your situation but I personally think quail are great. Especially if you have a small space. They don't take up much room at all. The real question is what are your goals?
Not really. I have before but I don't raise enough to warrant going through the effort of selling them. I can find some good birds for you if you are looking for some though. Do you want eggs or live birds? if live birds let me know roughly where you are located and i can help.
yeah, you should expect to see more hatch. Wait until tomorrow evening to remove the one that hatched. If you have eggs that haven't hatched yet move the hatched birds to the brooder box pretty quickly and avoid keeping the incubator open longer than necessary. add more water if you need to and close it back up. Give it until day 23 or so before you consider the eggs that haven't hatched "dead". I hope that helps.
Hi me again sorry to be a pest but my quail has hatched but it's not on its feet and seems as though it can't hold its head up its been a good 3 and half hours since it hatched it's not even calling should I be worried
when they first come out of the egg they are pretty week and it takes a while for them to perk up. It is best to just walk away and not watch and chances are they will be just fine. Even if they aren't, there really isn't anything you can do about it. They can easily go up to 36 hours without being removed from the incubator so don't stress out about getting them out before they are dried out and fully fluffed up. Hope that helps.
Yeah I've left it and it's still not doing anything was born early hours of this morning now another baby just hatched and is just laying there atm so as u said I'll let them be and see what happens
Well I've been doing a bit of training with it to walk and now it's up and about doing great now trying to eat and drink 2 out of 3 eggs hatched one egg had passed during lock down but 2 out of 3 ain't bad
Oops. sorry, I was talking about my current dog in the last comment. That was my old dog that has passed away since this video. She was a pitbull mix of some kind but not sure what she was mixed with.
Unfortunately that is too far away for me to help. Have you checked Craigslist? don't be afraid to get babies either. it only takes about 6 weeks for them to start producing eggs.
You can’t just give someone ducks?1?/chicks This could be a 5 year old for all you know. You have to give them to people who have the right stuff a farm , you shouldn’t even keep ducks in cages if you are.
I have hunted wild quail before. They are a different bird than what I am raising. I don't hunt quail anymore because they almost disappeared in my part of the state. They are starting to make a come back but I haven't seen one in years.
I know, but they dont actually care for the animals... they just stuff them into cages, then stuff them with food, and some of them break their own legs because they cant support their own weight! Sorry, I dont want tothrow hate, Im not trying to... But its gonna be hard to see the birds... Dead... Because you actually care for them... And factories dont, they just slice em up, while you give them a good life... But you gotta kill them later.... Its just sad, dont you have a touch time killing them? encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDaA0FTaqnGY3tEbOpwE_xgvH9OCFPlEGmim5wVaABPg6eim19aMlIm7wJ2A didnt make this... just something really cute I keep on looking at..
I am not offended at all by your comments and I am not thinking of them as being hateful so don't worry. I think it is clear that we look at things differently. One of the main reasons I grow my own food is because I want them to have a good life. I think it is much more ethical that they have a happy good life and only a moment of pain rather than being factory farmed and miserable their entire life. It is not easy to kill them but it is something that has to be done. I hope that makes sense.
Oh, she liked to eat just about everything if you would let her. Sadly, she is no longer with us. But we have a new dog now and he isn't nearly as driven to eat the animals.
Ive literally been binge watching this playlist for weeks on end during this unfortunate time!
Stay safe Chris!
Good Job, I have watched some of your videos and I couldn't stay without giving you biggest BRAVO. Thank you.
thank you so much. So glad you like the videos.
I know it's an old video, love to see that I'm not the only 1 who has the hobbies of reloading and raising quail.... 😉
New subscriber here! We came based on the recommendation of living traditions homestead and we are glad we came by. Great Videos!!!
Awesome. I love Kevin and Sarah. Thanks for watching my videos. I am glad you like them.
Dang! 2 days out from butchering?! That's wack! I really appreciate your videos because you answer a lot of little in between questions filling in the gaps. Thanks a lot.
Thank you for the kind comments. I am glad you liked them and thanks for watching.
this is one of my favorite videos on the internet
Ahh, well thanks so much. Glad you liked it.
:-)
Cool Thanks, Just the video I needed to see.Got about 55 Q-eggs in the incubator now.
Awesome. I am glad that you found this video helpful. Thanks for watching.
hey! not a quail comment but thanks for helping everyone out and always replying to our comments, even the ones you may not be able to answer :)
I do my best. I miss some from time to time but try to stay up on it.
thank you sir yes that is the problem I leave in the area in which 2 months continually raining
No problem. I am glad to help. I can't imagine constant rain for 2 months. That is a lot of water to deal with.
Nice hatch rate! :) congrats! Thanks for the update. Would love to see some baby rabbits!
I had another viewer request that too. I will work on it and get it up in the next day or two. Thanks for watching.
I would of thought keeping the newly hatched chicks without food and water for 3 days would be too long. I'd have my birds in the broader within a day of them fluffed up and walking well. It clearly works for you. Thanks for the videos.
If all your eggs have hatched you don't have to wait a full 3 days. It is mostly to give the birds that pipped time to hatch before opening the incubator. Thanks for watching and glad you like the videos.
So then if hardware cloth is not strong enough to deter a predator, what would you recommend instead? I like the small weave in the hardware cloth to keep out snakes and rodents, but we have coyote and bobcats here too.
Thank you
Thank you for watching. :)
can you do a video on how to set up your watering cups with the canisters on the cages. my quail figured out that that's where water could be but never figured out how to get more water out of it.
sure. I can address that in a video. I will try to get that up tomorrow night. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hey Chris! First off, I love your videos. Tons of great info. I have a question about hatching quail in the incubator. Why do I never have any more eggs to hatch after opening my incubator to take the first hatchlings out? I got 40 out of 100 and now no more. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!! And as always, God Bless!
That is a little strange. I am not sure I can tell you exactly what happened. I usually find that I need to add a little more water to the incubator to get humidity back up after the first batch has hatched. That might help a little if your humidity has dropped below 60%. That is really about the only thing I can think of right off hand.
From what I’ve read, your not supposed to open your incubator to take babies out until all the eggs have hatched, the cool air can cause the unhatched eggs to “shrink wrap” in the inside of the egg and they won’t hatch.
Nice video hope the best man im just starting to hatch quail aswell i put their temperature on 36 cuz i was getting some misformed birds and now it works perfectly
I also noticed that it takes about 20 days for the first quail to pop out before it was like 15-18 days
That would translate to 96.8 degrees. Let me ask you, have you calibrated your incubator? It is quite possible that your thermostat is off. Good thinking though on adjusting the temperature. Thanks for watching and commenting.
+Slightly Rednecked it might have even been a genetic defect maybe one of my quails was a carrier im thinking but i still feel much safer with lower temperature
Could be. I would still try to calibrate your incubator thermometer though just to be sure.
In regards to breeding, do the hens and rooster require to be genetically diverse or can half siblings mate and result in healthy eggs and chicks?
What type of incubator did you use?! Look's like it was a success. Planning on buying another incubator that isn't too much.
I am using a little Giant incubator with a turner. I have heard very good things about the Hovabator 1602 though. I will say to make sure that you calibrate the thermometer of what ever you choose. If you need help with that let me know. I am going to be doing a new incubation series of videos soon so I can easily add that in to the upcoming videos.
hay im always watching ur videos and congrats on getting married !
i have a question idk if u can help me with or maybe u can point me in the right direction. i incubated 12 quial eggs only 4 hatched. one of the ones that hatched legs were like doing a split. so that being said my question is all 4 died within 18hrs of hatching they were still in the incubator. should i have moved them in to the box befor that ? i normally wait 18-24hr to move my chicken peeps. but this was my first set of Quail. did i get bad eggs ? i have know clue plz help thank you
Thanks for watching and the congrats.
It could be any number of issues but you didn't do anything wrong by leaving them in the incubator for 18 hours. I often go 72 hours and have no issues. It could be a bacterial issue or "bad eggs" like you said but most problems are related to temperature. Do you have an external calibrated thermometer that you are using to verify the temp?
I also did a video on troubleshooting a bad hatch that might help. ua-cam.com/users/edit?o=U&video_id=n2uqcshJLMg
Awesome hatch. Question for you. mock incubation humidity was great. 50-55%. Just did mock shutdown, and I cannot get the humidity above 65% with 3 additional water cups under the chick floor. The dome has lots of condensed water on it. Should I be worried?
probably not. But if you are you need to increase surface area of the water not volume. So a wide dish is better than a tall thin cup. You can also add a soaked sponge and that should help.
thank you. I have read a lot of blogs that said water droplets indicate 70-75%, so based on that it may be an inaccurate humidity reading. Just switching from bobwhite to coturnix after you turned me onto them, and a little nervous because I paid for these. Going with the jumbo wild brown/pharoah quail.
To get a completely accurate humidity reading you really need to get relative humidity. I personally don't stress that much about it though. I generally go with the "as long as the windows are fogged" method of thinking. That usually will read about 75 to 80% on my incubator though.
I just had another batch of quail hatch, I have some that are 6 days old. After I gather my quail from incubator in 3 days would I be able to add them with the ones that will then be 9days old or will the older ones pick on the smaller ones? Thanks
I would wait until the younger ones get a bit bigger first. Once they are about 2 weeks old you should be able to mingle all of them with no problems.
Do you change up your food type prior to processing your quail to eat? I have been feeding all my quail game bird starter. Even the 1 year olds. I am getting ready to process my first batch and read somewhere you need to change out the feed 1 week prior to processing for food. Thoughts?
I don't change the food. They all eat a high protein game bird starter.
Do you candle your quail eggs? I'm incubating my first batch of quail eggs and today is day nine. I've watched videos on candling quail eggs and it seems its more difficult to do that with chickens. I've never candled any eggs so I'm for sure a beginner. I was just wondering if it is something I should be concerned with especially with this being my first go at incubating.
I don't candle my eggs. Like you said, it is pretty difficult and I don't find that it is worth it in my case.
I the little giant incubator suggests increasing the temperature after you stop turning. Do you increase yours? I've been using the Janoel12 for about 3 years but was looking to increase how many eggs I can hatch. I never changed the temperature before just left it set at 99.5. What are your thoughts? Thanks for your time and thought! I have learned many things from you! God bless you brother!
I don't do that. I leave it set at 99.5 the entire time.
Slightly Rednecked Ok thanks, God bless you!
do you have a still air incubator? if so what temp you set yours? I just put in a pc fan on mine so it would move the air. I have mine set to 100.5
I have a forced air incubator. I set it at 100 degrees. I hope that helps.
I also just started raising quail I put 40 in my incubator and 34 out of 40 hatched
Nice. That is a very good hatch rate. Congratulations
Thank you
that was my first time incubating I am going to put 30 more in to incubate on the 16th
Sounds like a good plan to me. :)
Do you use an egg turner in your incubator? If not do you turn them yourself?
I do use an egg turner. I use the standard little giant egg turner with quail rails (have used the chicken rails before and they work fine too but can't fit as many eggs in).
how did you train your quail to use the cups for water or did they just figure out on there own i own many chickens and they can't seem to get it and im about to get quail and i love the cup system any tips or tricks to get them using it? cause ive spent much time trying to get chicks/chickens to use but nothing has worked..
They pretty much just figured it out. I pushed the button down and filled the cups with water a few times but that is all I had to do. Hope that helps.
Hi, i've been looking into hatching some chicken and quail eggs, and wanted to know how you like your incubator...Reviews about it state that the temp. fluctuates and it kills the eggs..does yours do this?
My incubator has worked pretty well. I did have the thermostat go out in it but the company sent me a new one free so it wasn't a big deal. works pretty well for the price really. I hope that helps.
Quick question about incubation.
I noticed in a previous video that you were pulling the chicks out as they hatched when they got "dry and fluffy" and that in this video you pulled them all out at the same time. Is it best to leave them in until the 21st day to avoid fluctuating the temperature and humidity for the remaining eggs? Or is it ok to move them to you brooder as the hatch and dry up?
It is best to leave them all in the incubator until the hatch is completely finished. I am getting ready to do an updated incubation video and will make sure that is updated in that video. Hope that helps and let me know if you have more questions.
Hi what temp do they need on heat and how long before they can keep themselves warm in a garage temp down about to 45 degrees overnight? Thanks
They need to be kept in the brooder until they are fully feathered out. That is usually about 2 weeks but with temps getting down that low you might want to wait until 3 weeks. Just start weaning them off of the heat ahead of time. The first week they need to be at about 100 F. After that you can start reducing it by about 10 degrees every 2 or 3 days. I hope that helps.
hi great videos at what age do you wean chicks on to seed and what do you feed them
regards
Chris
Thanks for watching and I am glad you like the videos.
I feed all my birds game bird starter crumble. It is a 28% protein crumble that I get from the local farm supply store. I don't grind it up or do anything special for the babies so there isn't any "weaning" period. I hope that helps.
And thanks for responding
You don't have to thank me for that. it would be rude for me not to respond. :)
So your water lasted all through lockdown?
The reason why I'm asking is i have to add water daily but i have the older lil giant incubator
First of all, how much water are you putting in it? I suggest you empty it out and fill it with water and measure how much it takes (like how many turkey basters full) so you get a feel for it. I had the same issue and then figured out I wasn't putting enough water in it with each filling. Also keep in mind that I am in Missouri and it is starting to get very humid here. I sometimes find that I have problems in the winter time keeping humidity up. There are modifications that you can make to your incubator to help with this issue. If you still have a problem after doing what I suggested let me know and I can show you how to modify it if you need help. Its not hard to do. I would try taking everything out though and running the incubator empty so you can really see how much water your putting in it each time.before doing anything else. Should only need to do it for a few days to see if that is the issue or not.
Will you do a video on increasing humidity? I am 4 days out (quail eggs) and seem like I have added a lot of water but I am still in the 40's
how much is "a lot"? Not meant to be a smart Alec question but i generally fill the trays at the bottom as full as i can when it goes into lockdown. If you are doing that and still not getting the humidity up you can try adding some pieces of sponge soaked in water to the grate next to the eggs (not on them) and that should help. Let me know if you still have problems.
I have a baby quail that is a few weeks old now and all of the sudden it just can't walk! It's like it's head is too heavy....what happened?!
sounds like it could be wry neck. It can be caused by genetics or can be caused by malnutrition. starting up after a few weeks makes me think malnutrition. What kind of food are you feeding them?
Oh dear, I guess I am lucky - I only have to protect the quail feed from my dog - he loves it lol. I did get a little worried when he lifted the cage lid once and put his head inside - until he retrieved one of his teddies my nephew must have put in there. He does not share his toys - not even with quail :D
Well it could be worse for sure. My new dog (the older one passed away sadly) doesn't kill the quail but sure likes to play with them. And if left with them long enough, he would kill them, but not intentionally.
How do you manage your quail breeding, do you have separate cages, like 6 hens and 1 male. Can you make a video on it.
I just throw all of the birds in a big hutch at a 1 to 5 ratio (1 rooster to 5 hens). I don't bother keeping small groups in separate cages. I hope that makes sense.
see sir do you ever sell eggs? i think you live in the same state i live in shawnee ok am getting my incubator tommrow witch would be August the 9th this weekend i plan on building some quail cages and we can use are chicken brooder for the baby quail i guess you call them. i have chickens and never really thought about having quail till i started watching your videos. know am ready to try it out. i really like the small space that quail need compared to chickens. may God bless you in all that you do
I know where shawnee is. if you are willing to drive I can sell some to you. let me know and we can work something out.
I have a question about sexing my quail. I bought 130 quail eggs and 90 of them hatched but for some reason they started dying off one by one any way to make a long story short I ended up with 43 live quail that are now 3 weeks old but all of them seem to have a spotted chest and I was just wondering if I did something wrong to cause all of my males to dye after hatching or if that is possible? and if anyone can tell me why I would only have females left?
It is possible. There is some correlation between the incubation temperature and whether it is more favorable for hens to hatch or roosters to hatch. I don't think there is anything that would cause the roosters to die after hatching though. I am sorry to hear that you had some problems. 3 weeks is a little early to sex them with absolute certainty. Give them a little longer and you might find that there are some roosters in there after all.
My humidity on day one got up to 86 is that okay ? How do I get it down ? This is my first time
Don't stress too much about it. It will probably level out on its own but the only way to get it to come down is to remove some water. Remember that humidity is determined by surface area not the volume of water so you would need to remove all of the water from a channel or two. Hope that makes sense.
Hi, Do you think it is a problem when chicks step on the unhatched eggs during lockdown? Would you recommend hatching them in cartons? Thanks.
it has never been a problem for me. They roll the eggs all over the place and they still hatch.
Can I use rice husk or straw which is better sir as flooring for chicks
I think either one of those would work. I have not tried them myself but I don't see why they wouldn't work. I use paper towels for my brooder box.
I raise my quails with 18% medicated chick starter feed. All my quails eat just those medicated chick starter feed. Is it safe to eat the quails and the eggs from it? First time doing this so just asking.
It really isn't good to eat the eggs or the meat if you are using medicated feed. I would give them at least a few weeks off of that feed before doing so.
very cool. Thank you
thanks for watching. Glad you liked it.
+Slightly Rednecked nice hatch looks like you got some interesting colored ones and you got more of the A&M chicks this time,and sucks that all your grow out quail died hopefully these chicks should make up for the loss.
no kidding. I know my dog has to eat to but that was my meal. :)
Not sure yet. I have plenty of breeders now so this is primarily a meat bird run but I might hang on to one or two of them.
+Slightly Rednecked yea I just thought because some are really cool looking.
Do you feed them chick starter? Have you found where you ordered the waterer cups from and can you show how to make the waterers please? Since you don't open them for a few days, do you keep food and water in the incubator?
I feed them game bird starter. It is a 28% protein feed and it is fed to all of my birds.
I ordered the water cups from ebay. here is a link for you, I don't remember which seller I ordered from exactly but as long as the seller has good feedback you should be fine. www.ebay.com/itm/like/281130742329?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true
I need to build another one so I will try to remember to get the how to in my next quail update video. Either this week or next week. I hope that helps.
Thank you very much
no problem
is that the little giant incubator i have heard they are not good but seems to work well for you do you use the auto turner and quail rails? thanks
it is a little giant. It has worked well for me. Had the thermostat go out once but called the company and they sent me a brand new thermostat. Works pretty well so far. I also use the auto turner and quail rails. I have done it with the chicken rails in and it works fine that way too.
Slightly Rednecked thanks for the response do you run a fan inside or just the unit as delivered
it is a forced air incubator so it does have a fan already installed.
all my quail eggs are white now instead of speckled is something wrong with them it's the same batch of quail from last year and all I got was speckled eggs not anymore.i haven't seen a speckled one this year.
that is a little strange that it is all of your eggs but it doesn't indicate any kind of problem and is nothing to worry about.
Slightly Rednecked I ordered an incubator finally so I will see what comes out.i thought it was strange too same birds different color eggs.
good luck. I am sure you will do great.
I am trying to get set to raise some catournix quail. I have a few cages that are 30" by 18" do you think they are big enough for a male and 3 females each cage? I have incubator and brooder. i havent ever had quail before so I am new to this and havent even got my quail yet just in the planning stages.
its okay I got my answer from watching other videos of yours and other peoples, thanks. I am quite excited to get started raising my own quail.
oh, sorry I was slow to respond. Glad you found the information you needed. Just in case, you want to figure one square foot per bird (or close to it). A 30 inch square cage is a little over 6 square feet so you could easily house of up 8 birds in there if they were all well established together (came out of the brooder box together). thanks for watching and for the kind comments.
So what is the ratio of females and males in a cage in order to get fertile eggs?
Generally 1 rooster to 3 or 4 birds.
They are so nice and I won't to buy one of your incubator what is the price .
I think that it runs about $100. You can pick them up on Amazon or at most farm supply stores.
@@Slightlyrednecked Am in Ghana go I won't you to give me an access to buys some .
.. look at those tuxies!!!!!
Great video! Update on the rabbits?
I could do a rabbit update. I have some grow outs about ready to butcher and a new littler still in the nest box. I will work on that and get it up in the next day or two.
+Slightly Rednecked sounds great, thanks! I just got started with my rabbits about a month ago. Can't wait till I can start breeding and having kits!
Awesome. I hope you connect with me on facebook and share your first litter pics. :)
Hi I need an answer as I'm worried my African quail won't hatch it's day 16 and my eggs been on lock down since yesterday morning when will I start to see the eggs moving and pipping as I've not seen anything as of yet many thanks for reading
sometimes you don't see any movement or anything until they actually hatch. The best thing to do is walk away and don't mess with it. Generally quail start hatching on day 17 so you should be getting birds anytime now. Good luck and hope it goes well.
Thank you for replying but I'm worried now because I've gone out and my son has messed with them will they be okay
He told me he put the light by them for few seconds and seen the chicks I'm really upset with him as he knew not to touch them but he only 11 lol
as long as none of the birds had pipped already they will probably be fine. Not much you can do but wait and see what happens now.
How did you get your humidity so here
I am guessing that should be "how did you get your humidity so high". if that is the question then i just filled the bottom of the incubator with water right before lockdown. Let me know if you have another question though.
What's your preferred way of cooking quail?
wow, lots of ways. I like to roast them myself just about any way you would roast chicken. The trick is really hotter and faster cooking. Hope that helps.
if you dont already have one do a quail cook video. I want to see you cook up 4 - 6 of them bad boys in one big roaster!
How do u know the age of qails ? i got some but i dont knoe the age
I don't think there is any way to know. Once they reach adult hood they pretty much all look the same.
Any suggestions on determining how many quail for eggs & slaughter? I know this is somewhat individual. I have 8 female and 2 male A&M's that I am using for eggs. There are 4 of us and obviously that's not enough. I also want them for meat. Is there a general rule of thumb I could follow? Thanks! Love your videos.
wow, that is very difficult to answer. Start with the number of eggs you can incubate. right now you should be getting about 8 eggs a day. You can save eggs up for about 7 days before you have to incubate so you should be able to get somewhere close to 60 eggs. Assuming that you can get a 50% hatch rate (you might due better but if you are not experienced with incubating I would assume a low hatch rate at first) you will end up with about 30 quail in that would be ready to eat or start laying eggs in about 2 months. Assume that you want two quail per person per meal so those 30 quail (if you chose to eat them and not keep them for laying eggs) would be about 15 servings. You can ramp this up in many ways like running two incubators two weeks behind each other and using one for a lockdown thermometer only (pretty complicated and not worth discussing in a comment but if you want a video on it let me know). You can add the new birds as egg layers and increase the amount of birds you hatch out in each run....you get the idea. I know that is a long answer but hopefully that helps.
Thank you! I really appreciate your help. I would love to see the video you mentioned. I saw how you save your eggs in the small fridge. Any other thoughts on how to keep them between 55 & 60 degrees without a fridge?
Ok. Understand that it will be more of a just talking video because I don't currently do that but I understand it well enough to explain it. It might make a good blog post and I haven't posted there in a long time. Would you rather it be a blog post or a video?
It doesn't matter to me but I enjoy your videos a lot! Thanks again!
Sounds good. I might just do a video on it. Give me a few days or so and if you don't hear anything by the end of the week feel free to reach out to me about it. :)
Yeah in my quail hatch days I'm getting 150-200. They are very cute but the first week they try everything to kill themselves. I keep my dog out also.
I know what you mean. I don't lose very many in the first week but a few for sure.
I love quail
Thank you fo rwatching.
I'm thinking about getting quail should I
That depends. I can't really tell you what to do with your situation but I personally think quail are great. Especially if you have a small space. They don't take up much room at all. The real question is what are your goals?
Dogs need to eat too! Best way to look at that.
Very true.
I'm pretty sure I'm from your neck of the woods. Are you selling quail chicks on Craigslist?
Not really. I have before but I don't raise enough to warrant going through the effort of selling them. I can find some good birds for you if you are looking for some though. Do you want eggs or live birds? if live birds let me know roughly where you are located and i can help.
Yesterday 1 out of seven quail eggs hatched and it was 16 th day, so do u think more will hatch, what should I do
yeah, you should expect to see more hatch. Wait until tomorrow evening to remove the one that hatched. If you have eggs that haven't hatched yet move the hatched birds to the brooder box pretty quickly and avoid keeping the incubator open longer than necessary. add more water if you need to and close it back up. Give it until day 23 or so before you consider the eggs that haven't hatched "dead". I hope that helps.
Thanks
no problem. Glad to help.
Today is day 19 of quail egg incubation, no hatches takes place so should I open the eggs tonight
eat um!
Hi me again sorry to be a pest but my quail has hatched but it's not on its feet and seems as though it can't hold its head up its been a good 3 and half hours since it hatched it's not even calling should I be worried
when they first come out of the egg they are pretty week and it takes a while for them to perk up. It is best to just walk away and not watch and chances are they will be just fine. Even if they aren't, there really isn't anything you can do about it. They can easily go up to 36 hours without being removed from the incubator so don't stress out about getting them out before they are dried out and fully fluffed up. Hope that helps.
Yeah I've left it and it's still not doing anything was born early hours of this morning now another baby just hatched and is just laying there atm so as u said I'll let them be and see what happens
I am sorry to hear that. Sometimes birds just aren't strong enough to make it. Hope the rest of them do fine.
Well I've been doing a bit of training with it to walk and now it's up and about doing great now trying to eat and drink 2 out of 3 eggs hatched one egg had passed during lock down but 2 out of 3 ain't bad
What kind of dog did that?
Oops. sorry, I was talking about my current dog in the last comment. That was my old dog that has passed away since this video. She was a pitbull mix of some kind but not sure what she was mixed with.
Do you know if there's any places where I could get adult quail?
It depends a little on where you live. What part of the country are you in?
Unfortunately that is too far away for me to help. Have you checked Craigslist? don't be afraid to get babies either. it only takes about 6 weeks for them to start producing eggs.
walmart
Are quail eggs fertilized in the supermarket??
it really depends on where they come from. I would have no way of knowing unfortunately.
Lorenzo Tabada most of the time
how do you get the eggs
I get them from the quail I keep in the back yard. Hope that helps answer the question.
do the blonde quail grow up and look like the normal quail or do they stay blonde
As chicks they are yellow and grow up white. I don't keep mine because you can't visually sex them.
Looks like slidog24 got the answer for you. Thanks for watching and let me know if you have any other questions.
Why can;t you visually sex them? This is just the white ones you mean?
the eggs taste good too
Yes they do.
What do you feed them?
A commercial game bird starter. It is a high protein (above 25%) crumble I get from a local feed store.
Thank you!! Our batch or quail will hatch next week!
Hi
I have 3 month old quails but did not lay eggs yet .what would be the problem?
Probably a lack of light. They need 14 hours a day of light to keep laying eggs.
Baby quails what did you feed them 3 days
I feed all of my birds game bird starter. it is a crumble feed and the new babies eat it just fine.
i like to buy them how much will cost for 10 of baby
around here 1 week old babies generally sell for about $1 each. I am not sure what they would be in your area or even where you are located.
im from West Virgian
You can’t just give someone ducks?1?/chicks This could be a 5 year old for all you know. You have to give them to people who have the right stuff a farm , you shouldn’t even keep ducks in cages if you are.
Do you ever sell the Quails?
I have sold a few here and there but I don't do it on a regular basis.
Note: a bear can also get through hardware cloth. 😞
I am sure that they would have no problem with hardware cloth. Luckily I don't have to worry much about that here.
I just hatched 48 out of 52!!!!!!!
Wow. Good job and congrats on your new hatch.
What was the average humidity you kept your incubator and temp. We had a low hatch rate
@@Slightlyrednecked what average temp and humidity do you do. Our hatch rate was pretty low
karen matson 45-55
Do you sell eggs?
sometimes. But I am not really set up to sell on a large scale or to ship eggs.
Do you hunt wild quail? If not why don't you hunt them?
I have hunted wild quail before. They are a different bird than what I am raising. I don't hunt quail anymore because they almost disappeared in my part of the state. They are starting to make a come back but I haven't seen one in years.
can you please send me 4 quails eggs please reply me
sorry but I am not set up to ship eggs.
you sure thats not a raccoon that did that?
That is a good thought. But I am positive it was the dog. No raccoon was going to get past the dog. :)
NO! YOU CANT DO THAT! YOU CANT KILL THE QUAILS!
I am sorry...but I have to eat.
Cant you keep 5???.... Cant you go to the stores? or give them away? or just kill10 and leave the rest?!?!??!L? AHHHH NOOOO :(
I hate to break it to you but where do you think the meat in the store comes from?
I know, but they dont actually care for the animals... they just stuff them into cages, then stuff them with food, and some of them break their own legs because they cant support their own weight! Sorry, I dont want tothrow hate, Im not trying to... But its gonna be hard to see the birds... Dead... Because you actually care for them... And factories dont, they just slice em up, while you give them a good life... But you gotta kill them later.... Its just sad, dont you have a touch time killing them?
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didnt make this... just something really cute I keep on looking at..
I am not offended at all by your comments and I am not thinking of them as being hateful so don't worry.
I think it is clear that we look at things differently. One of the main reasons I grow my own food is because I want them to have a good life. I think it is much more ethical that they have a happy good life and only a moment of pain rather than being factory farmed and miserable their entire life. It is not easy to kill them but it is something that has to be done. I hope that makes sense.
WHAT KIND OF DOG YOU HAVE
A WOLF OR A COYOTE..?
Lmao 😂
lol. She was a pitbull mix with a big appetite. She was a good dog but sadly she is no longer with us.
You're dog like to eat quails. It looks like.
Oh, she liked to eat just about everything if you would let her. Sadly, she is no longer with us. But we have a new dog now and he isn't nearly as driven to eat the animals.
dogs gotta eat too :)
lol. I guess so. But she had plenty of food and didn't have to eat my birds. :)