Brooding Bobwhites

[Kirk]

I have raised chickens for years and just decided I would get a few bobwhite eggs for hatching and see if I could raise them. Everyone "in the know" told me that they were very hard to raise. I am now a believer. I hatched a few quail chicks and none of them lived longer than 4 or 5 days. I NEVER once saw them eat or drink. I even put some chicken chicks in the brooder with them hoping they would learn to eat from them. What am I doing wrong or what is the trick? I am more determined than ever now to be successful with them. There are many suppliers of eggs here in Georgia but I don't want to go through the time and trouble of incubating eggs if I've got to watch them die one by one. What to do?

[big quail dude]

Did you have them warm enough? If they got chilled right away the may not eat or drink. I just put them in the brooder at about 99 degrees. with small food and water dishes and have never had a problem. Also leave them in the incubator for 24 hours so the have a chance to get stronger. Getting out of that shell takes a lot out of them.

[klsquail]

Did you crush their food?  It  has to be just about dust when they're little.

[MaDHaTTer]

I don't think that with the proper heat in the brooder , water and food you would have a problem !
I keep mine in a brooder with the temp of at least 99 when they come out of the hatcher . I have like dish rags i put one down on the wire put them some started on it and they seem to do fine . after they are eating good then I put them a feeder in the brooder for them to eat out of.

You may have to encourage them to eat & drink .

Good Luck

[Bloomingtongamebirds]

Try mixing a boiled egg crushed up small with regular gamebird starter on a paper towel and they will eat like crazy.  Do this for about  3-4 days and then just as a treat if you want to. This will do the trick!

[Don McGowan]

I guess we are just lucky, we loose very few chicks. Here's how we do it  Brooders are set at 95, we use quic chick in the water for the first few days. the brooder has paper towels on the floor with the feeders and water ready when they hatch. cover the floor of the brooder with food.  when moving the chicks to the brooder take the time to dip the beaks into the water.  What this does is gives the chicks a good drink and helps them find the water dish they will pick at the food that sticks to there feet and start to eat. the extra food on the floor will hold them till they find the feeder.  Hope this helps.

[wirenut]

There are adout dozen ways to do it, one works fine one time and then doesn,t work to good the next (sometimes) I go along with Don, We use to dip their beaks but we don,t no more and we have the same survial rate. Just make sure you have your brooder at a good temp. at least in the upper 90s, no drafts but still have freash air, spread out some food on the floor that is small for them even if you have to crush it some,and fresh water but not to big that they drown and the little buggers will take off. AND WATCH THEM OFFTEN. That just the way we do it and we still have a few to die but we have come a long way in keeping them alive to.

[Kirk]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I am going to have another go at it. I found a man not too far away that sells chicks and eggs and I plan to try some already hatched chicks. I have heard that antibiotics should be put in the water. Is there anything to that?