2018 Jumbo Coturnix Quail Hatch-A-Long and Grow-A-Long

Saturday February 17th, 2018

I’ve been wanting to raise quail for a while, especially for quail eggs for my bento. I am on the fence about raising them for meat, but will probably have to process the males when the time comes. In any case, I finally set my mind to it and picked up 50 Jumbo Coturnix (Japanese) Quail eggs from a local seller. I managed to stick 24 into the incubator before I ran out of space. 100 degrees F (37.77 degrees C–which I rounded to 37.8) for 17 days (give or take) means I should have teeny tiny quail chicks (the size of a quarter, maybe less!) March 5th or so.

I was on the fence about them because I’d like to be able to organically pasture my poultry rather than have them live in cages feeding on artificial feed–but literally everything wants to eat quail and predators come from far and wide to have a nab at them. So not only can they not be free-ranged the way my ducks can be but I have to be extra vigilant since all that flies in the sky and prowls on the ground will take a crack at them. I’m not entirely concrete in what I plan to do in regards to their coop, but after they grow out, I might use a movable pen during the day, and lock them in at night to give them as much free range access as possible.

I’m obviously not going to be keeping all 24 if they hatch, and would likely just keep three breeding sets to replace the ones that will inevitably pass every year. Coturnix quail have an average lifespan of about three years or so, the females laying up until the day they pass.

I’m very excited as they grow very fast and will begin laying at 7 – 8 weeks of age, so by the time spring rolls around and they can go outside, I’ll have a steady supply of adorably tiny eggs. I also hear the eggs have a compound in them that can help alleviate allergies, so I’m looking forward to what they can do during hay fever season.

March 2nd, 2018: T-Minus 3 Days (give or take)
Today is day 14 and I’m locking down now. I took the eggs out of the turner, moved them to the bottom tray (I don’t know if this was fully necessary as they have enough space to stand even on the top level of the tray.) I have to admit that I unfortunately forgot to give the medicine cup holder water–but it seems that dry hatching is okay too. I candled today as well and it looks like 6 out of the 24 never developed (because they were infertile or quit very early on.) I will still incubate them until all the chicks have come out as a precaution and then possibly open them just for the curiosity’s sake.

I decided to lock down today because my incubation temperatures were slightly higher due to having to round up so there may be a possibility that a few will hatch early.

March 3rd, 2018: T-Minus 2 Days (give or take)

Day 15 and I re-candled them because the previous flashlight wasn’t good enough to tell me whether or not there was anything alive in the eggs–but today, using my husband’s phone’s flashlight (say that three times fast) which has a smaller light outlet, turns out that there were actually 7 duds, so there are currently 17 viable (moving) ones. Three of them are beginning to draw down their air cells so hatching will be imminent. Once the first begins zipping, I will live stream the hatching on my Instagram (@grow_mama_grow)

This is so exciting! I have all the stuff for their brooder set up, and bought a bale of wood shavings. However, I do have a pack of doggy wee wee pads (from dog sitting) that I could use as well… Not sure which would be better but I’ll decide when hatching day gets here.

March 4th, 2018: T-Minus 1 Day (give or take)
Some of the eggs are a-rockin’ which means they’re gonna be hatching any time now. I set up the brooder on my counter (since they’re so itty bitty, they’re fine with staying in there for a little.)

March 5th, 2018: Hatch Date!

We woke up this morning to a little quail ambling around the incubator. I immediately set up the brooder with the heat lamp and ended up going with burning a hole through the side of a plastic lunchmeat tub for their water station, and used my husband’s coffee grinder to grind up the gamebird starter. Soon another one popped out and after that, I managed to catch one in the process of zipping, and recorded its actual hatching process!

The actual process from zip to hatch is pretty fast. It took all of 10 minutes for it to pop out. Sadly, our internet went down two days ago so I couldn’t live stream the process (I’m currently typing from a McDonald’s while the kids are playing in the playground.) However, I did manage to catch one of the hatches on video, so feel free to hop over to my Instagram account and watch it.

Sophie, of course, is super excited about the baby quails hatching and has been flitting back and forth from the incubator to the brooder, giving me updates. To mitigate the risk that my child turns neurotic (and to allow me to post), we took a break by getting breakfast at Micky D’s.

Anyway, hopefully by the time we get home, a few more will be out and the ones still in the incubator will be fluffed up enough to move to the brooder.

March 12, 2018 (7 days old)

It’s been one week since the quails hatched–out of the 17 viable eggs, 14 made it out, 3 quit during various stages of development. 2 of the 17 passed–1 was a failure to thrive (it was also the last one out and required assistance hatching because it couldn’t zip so there was possibly something congenitally wrong with it), another one somehow made it past the barrier for their water and drowned. I ended up with 12 peeping, squeaking quail chicks. They’re on turkey and gamebird starter, but because of their tiny size, I have to grind up their food into a fine powder with my husband’s coffee grinder (pray he doesn’t read this sentence.)

I moved them into a finch flight cage yesterday, and gave them a hamster bottle for water–it’s really great because it reduces any of the mess, and they catch on quick. The flight cage will likely be their permanent home. I was pleasantly surprised to find that in comparison to ducks and chickens, quail droppings have virtually no smell. I don’t know if it’s because it dries very quickly or what, but I can keep them in the living room without even realizing they’re there (you know, if I couldn’t hear them.)

They grow really fast and are triple their hatch size. They supposedly begin laying at 8 weeks old so I’m looking forward to that! When they have reached adult size and I’ve had them for a while, I’ll be doing a pros and cons (as well as care) page just like I did with my muscovies. Given how little space they take up (and how little smell they give off), they may become a permanent fixture here.

March 14, 2018
One of the quail chicks seemed to be weakening and was much smaller than the rest (half the size). I had feared it might be another failure to thrive, so I separated it but had to place the next smallest one with it so it stopped its lonesome call. I wasn’t expecting it to make it through the night but it did! And now its eating and drinking normally. Perhaps the competition was too great, and being the runt, it got pushed around a lot. It seems to have gained weight and size overnight as well. I’ll probably keep it separated until it catches up in size.