| Incubation & Brooding QUAIL INCUBATION AND BROODING.
There are 3 ways are,
The natural parent
The quail parent may sit and raise the chicks themselves, but this may only be possible if the parent is from the wild or few generations in captivities.
Foster mother
The quail can be foster in other chicken or other games.
Electrical Equipment
The best method and the most reliable are by using the electrical incubator. With modern technology the incubator is perfect to perfection in hatching eggs of all birds.
Other electrical way are also possible are making use of heat produce equipments to provide the heat require to incubate the eggs.
Once the chicks hatch, a bulb or heating element is then requiring providing heat to brood the chicks.
Do I Incubate the Eggs Or Not?
This decision is require for incubating the wrong eggs will be a waste of time and money.
The most important egg to choose is to determine whether the egg is fertilized and the second the types of species of the eggs.
Fertilized and unfertilized eggs are all physically similar which therefore require determining, which is which. Only fertilized eggs are possible to hatch out the chicks.
Fertilized eggs are only eggs from a flock of male and female quails.
Effect of mating ratio on fertility and hatchability of Quail,
Male to Female ratio % of Fertility % of Hatching
1:1 91 78
1:2 94 82
1:3 89 75
1:4 82 73
1:5 72 74
1:6 69 74
1:7 62 73
The choice of eggs form different species hatch out in differently. For Coturnix Quail the days require for the eggs to hatch is 17-18 days.
From the mating ratio, the choice of 1 male to 3 female is the best for the above 2 ratio, the death rate of female are alarming while the ratios below, the fertility is too low.
Which is the best method of Incubation for you?
For the natural way, the quail you have must be straight from the wild. This is only possible if your backyard is the wilderness.
The cheapest and easiest way is to use foster parent. The best is the Bantam (Japanese chicken or short legged chicken). The method is simply to replace the Bantam’s eggs with the fertilized quail eggs.
To start, first set the nest for the Bantam to lay its eggs. When the eggs are laid, after 3 days, replace the Bantam’s with the quail eggs.
The most reliable way is to use the incubator. Before you buy, get as much assistances and advices from people experience in hatching. If interested, refer to Uncle William Ho of LWHfarm. Incubators come in different sizes and types and uses. The price of each also ranges widely. Please reconsider, if you really need to buy for it might cost bit.
Incubation Hygiene
Most people sometime neglect this but it affects the percentage of hatching. The hygiene areas to look into are the nest site, egg and the incubation.
The nest or the cage where the adult quails are house, if not clean, bacteria will flourish in the manure and spilt feed and water. The bacteria will then find it way into the eggs and contaminate it and thus kill the embryo inside.
Eggs are normally collected and marked for recording. When marking, use only pencil but not marker or paint. This two contain chemicals, which might again contaminate the egg.
The incubator is constantly warmth and thus creating a perfect environment for bacteria to grow if the machine is not clean.
To clean, the best way is to gas the machine by formaldehyde after clearing the solid and shells. The next way is to spray disinfectant.
Recommendation: It is best to have a hatchery for the eggs to hatch separately.
Temperature and Humidity
The ideal temperature for incubating quail is 37.8 degree Celsius plus minus 2 degree. It is wise to measure and constantly check the incubator temperature with the thermometers.
Humidity can be measure with the wet bulb thermometer. Singapore the humidity is very high and quail eggs here then to be adapted and thus providing some water aside is adequate for incubation.
Egg Turning
Turning of eggs is a must at least 2 times a day. Rolling the egg to then next turning Fro.
Failing to do so will result in chick with wide spread leg or crippled. Therefore it pays to purchase a fully automated incubator and less the inconveniences.
BROODING
After the incubation and hatching, the Quail chicks are tough independence of feeding, it need to adapt to the surrounding temperature. Therefore a brooder must be provided for the brooding stage. Initially the temperature in the brooder must be the same as the incubator and then reduce the temperature a degree down each day till the surrounding temperature.
A commercial brooder provides a control to the temperature inside by varying the thermostat that cuts the electric to the heating element.
For domestic breeder, simply achieve is by removing the insulation of the cage.
Once reaches the local temperature, cut the heating element for it is not require any more. |
