home-made incubator

[MochaChai]

my dad and i have hatched chickens before, and we had made a wooden still air incubator, my dad wrote a program that turned a light bulb on and off to keep the temperature withing 3* of the same, and we had a water bowl with a sponge for un-measured humidity. Now we're about to get courtnix button quail eggs, and we made a new incubator with the same program,but now i'm want to know, is withing 3 degrees (moving air) accurate enough(3 degrees moving around 99.5) to hatch quail? And, now we're going to measure the humidity. How close to 60% humidity does it have to be? Any help would be good
Thanks in Advance-
Mark & Jay Hamlin :)

[MochaChai]

oh, i forgot to ask this too- What do we feed the chicks once they hatch and get moved to the brooder? I've heard it mentioned once that you should use crushed up waterfowl feed becasue of the extra protein. Thanks in advance--again

[Redhorse]

I am using game bird starter by purena. My chicks are healthy and growing fast. In my limited experience 3 degrees fluctuation will not pose a problem with hatching out bobs. I am not measuring my humidity either, so have nothing to base a response regarding that. Hope some of this helps. :)

[animalmaniac8]

hey,


      there is no such thing as coturnix button quail. coturnix are much bigger than buttons and they cannot be bred together. button quail are amazing little birds and are quite easy to hatch and care for. coturnix are also easy to care for but take longer to hatch. you need to find out what type of quail you have or you will have button quail in 16 days and most will die if you have a turner. coturnix quail take about 20 days to hatch. a high protein diet is best for all quail.


                        Justin :twisted:

[MochaChai]

we are getting "Chinese & Japanese Coturnix Quail Eggs" from "http://www.strombergschickens.com/stock/button_quail.htm" the category they are under is button quail, (and i'm very new to hatching quail), so i though Courtnix Quail were a type of button quail with categories of their own. I'm very confuzed.(obviously). We are getting eggs of Brown Pharaoh's, Tuxedos, Tibetan's, and English. These are all Courtnix quail--right?, so i should have humidity about 58%, and stop turning at day 18?? is that right? Please help me, i am very confuzed now, and the eggs come in 2 days!!
oh,no
     --The very Confuzed Mark Hamlin

[Superbird]

The quail you listed are coturnix. Stop turning at 15 days. They will will hatch in 16 to 17 days.

[animalmaniac8]

yea they are all coturnix. the button quail are also known as Chinese painted quail. their scientific name is coturnix chinesis. while they may be part of the coturnix quail group they are very different. stromgbergs has links to all its quail from all quail links. the link you click on puts that specific quail on the top of that page. stromgbergs is a great place to order from. they have great, friendly service and quality products.




                             Justin :twisted:

[joip]

Also when you stop turning your eggs don't forget to boost your humidity up as well around 80 - 85%

Joip

[MochaChai]

ok, just to double check EVERYTHING, then (at the current moment) i'll be out of questions.
For this hatch, i set incubator to:

around 101 temp.

humidity 55-60%

turn 3 times a day, up until the 15th day

hatch around the 16-17 day

when i see one starting to hatch, boost humidity

yes? is that right?

thanks for the help everyong

--Mark

[animalmaniac8]

for quail, most birds for that matter, need an incubation temp of about 99.5 degrees F. a fluckation of 99 - 100 is fine but any lower or high can cause poor hatches and poor chicks. the rest of your response and questions are correct. hope you have a good luck. first time is always the hardest.



             Justin :twisted:

[MochaChai]

ok, also, i can't get the humidity to stay anything above 53%, it's held for a few hours at 52%. Is that ok? And, when they start hatching--to boost the humidity, is it ok to take a spray bottle and spray the lightbulb?

[joip]

52% fine for incubation but you have to increase your humidity when you stop turning the eggs not when there hatching, mist your eggs with the spray bottle not the light bulb you could be asking for trouble if you do

Joip

[Superbird]

Do not spray the bulb. If it has been on and is hot the cold water will shatter the bulb.

[MochaChai]

i moved the humidity reader to eggs level (before it was above), and suddenly i have 60% humidity. You've told me that a good MINIMUM is 52%, so what's a good MAXIMUM? Please answer ASAP, it might go up, should i put cold water in the water dish?

[joip]

60% ok, raising and lowing the humidity can be done by how big your surface area is not how deep your water tray is, when I mean surface area its how wide and long your water tray is, so if you want more humidity add another tray or bowl or whatever and if you want less humidity use a smaller one, just remember it has got nothing to do with how deep the water tray is, the good thing with a deep water tray is that you don't have to fill it up so often

Joip