Coturnix Quail

The first Coturnix Quail to hatch

Our eggs started hatching late last night.  The first one to hatch was a Pharaoh quail.  As I have said in previous blog we are hatching Pharaoh, Golden, and A&M quail.  So far we have 26 that have hatched as of noon out of the 129 eggs incubated and they are still hatching.

The first two.
The one on the left has been out a short while
the one on the right is brand new.

In our brief experience we have found the babies do better if you do not leave them in the incubator for an extended period of time.  When we were hatching our chickens the ones that spent a few hours in the incubator after hatching seemed to be weaker and sickly.  As a result we decided to remove them and place them in the brooder shortly after hatching.  We also had a problem with a chick rolling eggs in the incubator causing one to drown in the egg in mid hatch.  Sad since it was already on it's way.

I created this little 5x7 wire mess box where we can place the newly hatched until they dry off and get some sort of bearings and for any that may seem a bit week and just need time to rest and recoup without getting trampled or pecked.  It has worked really well for us.