Frugal Living
Hatching & Rearing Quail for eggs
QUAIL EGGS

Hatching quail eggs in these homemade incubators we bought has not been easy. In 2009, I tried at least 3 different lots of eggs, I must have got through at least 100 of them and ended up with 5 male quail. It's now February 2010 and the 5 males have wintered well but we need females, or there'll never be any eggs!

A solution to the incubator problem must be found. I'm sure the problem is that I have to open up the incubator 5 times a day to hand turn the eggs, so the temperature and humidity is forever fluctuating, as it takes so much longer to turn tiny quail eggs that the hen or duck eggs. The budget doesn't stretch to buying a fancy incubator with automatic egg turning, so here goes...

I've been busy devising a homemade egg turner. The incubators are made from polystyrene boxes, heated by tiny bulbs connected to thermostats and fans. They have adaptors that plug straight into ordinary mains electricity but, other than that, they are very basic. To maintain humidity is a case of guessing and keeping a cup of water inside the box. The downfall is having to open them up 5 times a day to turn the eggs inside. It's fine for just a few hen eggs but very difficult maintaining steady temperature and humidity when it's quail eggs, as they are so small and fiddly. I've been searching online for a cheap auto-turning incubator but there's nothing within my miniscule budget. As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention.

I have now made my own quail egg turner devised a way to top up the water without opening the incubator at all! I'm hugely pleased with myself and just hope that my crazy 'ingenuity' actually works.

It was like Blue Peter for adults! I had a small funnel, a bendistraw, the lid off a plastic ice cream tub, pliers, a sharp knife, a pair of scissors, a pack of wooden BBQ skewers, plastic coated garden wire and our pyrography kit (because I couldn't find son's soldering iron. The hot iron was for melting holes into the plastic and then fixing the skewers in place.

First trial set for February 27th, when we're trying 2 dozen shop bought eggs to find out if they're fertile and if the incubator contraption works. If it does, I can simply make new turning trays for each size of egg from quail up to duck, turkey or goose.

22 shop bought quail eggs have been set in the revamped incubator. If any of these are fertile, they should hatch around day 18, Tuesday 16th March 2010.

02/03/10 First two days of March have been glorious, so we set about preparing the outside quail runs and moved the 5 adult males into theior new quarters
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Many years ago, I used to rear quail. I had hundreds of them and I loved keeping them. The children probably ate quail eggs as often as they ate our freerange hen eggs so, as soon as the opportunity arose, I decided that we needed to have some more quails. They aren't the easiest birds to come by about these parts, so buying in eggs for incubating seems like the simplest solution. (Please note that if you intend keeping 50+ birds, including quail, you must register with DEFRA. You'll also need to register and apply for a holding number if you want to keep a goat, pig, sheep or cow, even if it's just one animal.)
The little incubators I use for hatching the eggs. They're only 12v, so they're suitable to run from a car battery in the event of power failure. Quail eggs - these take 18 days to hatch and the chicks are off heat and ready to start laying within as little as 6 to 8 weeks.
An empty quail egg shell next to a 10p coin. The chicks scurry about like demented bumble bees and then collapse in a heap, suddenly asleep. 27/03/09, only 16 days into incubation and LOOK! This is bad! The incubator must be over heating to force an early hatch, or worse!
27/03/09 This is one of only five quail chicks that hatched today. 01/04/09 - At one week old, the quail's wings are feathering quickly.
08/04/09 - At two weeks old, the Coturnix Quail are almost fully feathered and can already fly. This one looks like a male. 08/04/09 - Females have cream & brown speckled chests, males have rich chestnut coloured chests. This also has the chestnut colouring.

30/04/09 - I have 5 cock birds and no hens! They have started crowing, flying and are constantly dust bathing. More eggs incubating AGAIN in an attempt to get some hens but I've had no luck with quail so far and it's starting to get expensive. 12/05/09 - 17 days into incubation and without the tiniest expectations, this is what I have just spotted. I certainly wasn't expecting a white or fawn chick to emerge. Let's hope there are more to come.
15/05/09 -This was the only one to hatch and, sadly, it didn't survive the first 24 hours. I suspect incubator problems again, so but am giving up for now. 26/02/10 - my homemade semi-automatic quail egg turner made from rim of an ice cream carton, garden wire and some wooden BBQ skewers.
The egg turner inside is attached to a wire that can be pushed and pulled from outside, rolling the eggs along between the wooden spars as it goes. Water can be added via the flexistraw attached to the small funnel. Iy drips below the blue waterproof non-slip mat on the base.
26/02/10 22 quail eggs set between the spars, garden wire for pulling & pushing the tray to turn the eggs semi-automatically. The quail eggs we're using for this experiment are store bought. Of the 24, two had hairline cracks, so these are not being incubated.
The eggs in the 'turner' and the water container lined up with a straw for topping it up from outside via a small funnel Picture taken through the viewing window after incubator has been closed up - there should be no reason to open it until day 15.
The complete setup, showing eggs in incubator and the 'topping up' funnel attached to the flexi drinking straw that goes into the water dish. 02/03/10 Meanwhile, the 5 adult male quail from last year's incubator hatch have been moved into the garden. See page 2 for details.

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