How to raise and brood your quail chicks
Have you been interested in raising Quail chicks but are worried they might be too difficult? This blog will help to step by step guide you to make quail raising fun and easy! We believe anyone can do it!
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First, Let’s start with the supplies you will need to raise your quail:
70 degree Fahrenheit room where brooding will take place.
Brooding tank (sized according to how many quail you are getting*).
Nipple line or gravity water (gravity water you need marbles or hose line) We will have a blog on how to make your own nipple line.
Heat bulb, must be 250 WATT/120 VOLT. The 125 Watt do not get hot enough.
Paper Plates
Large Flake Pine Shavings
Blender or food processor
Feed and Water Preperation
Feed
Start the quail chicks on a 28-30% Protein Gamebird or Turkey Starter feed. Try to get it as a mini crumble feed. Make sure the feed is medicated with Amprolium for Coccidosis prevention.
You need to grind the feed into a powder. We recommend to keep Bobwhites on this powder for the first 7 days and the Coturnix for the first 3 days. Then transistion the chicks back to the crumble.
Just take your crumble feed and use a blender or food processor to grind the crumbles in a powder. Try to get the consistency of flour. See Picture below.
What NOT to buy for Gamebird Starter feed.Do NOT buy these feeds as Starter Feed! They are not enough nutrition for baby quail.
When looking for Quail Starter feeds, many of the labels can be misleading. They may have the words “Chick Starter” or “Gamebird Starter,” but like the feeds above, when you examine the nutrition label, the protein % is actually not high enough. Make sure you find the Ingredient label on the bag and read the % protein. If it reads lower than 28% it will not be enough nutrient for your baby quail. Now, the feeds above are listed at 22% and 24% protein, these you could use as grower feeds. However, Bobwhites would no go on a grower feed until 8 weeks of age. Coturnix would not go on a grower feed until 3 weeks of age.
Water…
Nippleline
We recommend to use nipplelines as they are cleaner than gravity waterers and there is no risk of drowning. We see the livability for quail is better with nipplelines. It is very easy to make your own nipplelines. We will have another blog cover how to make your own nipplelines.
Hang your nippleline in your brooder tank and once the chicks are placed, make sure to adjust the line height so that the chicks are just able to reach upward to tap the nipple.
For the first day keep the nipples about level with the nostrils when the chick is standing up relaxed.
The next day, slightly raise the line so that the chicks reach upward to tap the nipple. But don’t need to be on their tippy toes.
Continue to raise the line so that the birds are always reaching upward to tap the nipple. Birds use gravity to swallow water so having them a bit higher is less stressful on the birds.
The worst thing you can do is not have the line high enough where the birds end up drinking at the nipples sideways. This is stressful to the birds and causes quite a mess! But also keep in mind not to adjust the line to high out of any of the birds reach! Make sure to set the height based on the smallest bir
Figure 5 - Chicks are using the nippleline by reaching upward towar the nipple. Make sure to not have the nipple to low or the chicks may get wet!
Figure 4 - Place hose line in lip of waterer so the chicks can’t drown.
Gravity Waterer
Using a gravity waterer works just fine if you are getting started. The main things to do is to follow these steps.
Make sure you buy waterers with a small enough lip for the day old chicks. No higher than 1 inch lip.
Once you fill the waterers with water and place in your brooder, fill the lip of the waterer with marbles or cut a piece of hose line and wrap it in the lip. Make sure there are no gaps! This is important to do because the chicks are so small they can actually drown in the lip. The hose and marbles make it so that the chicks don’t fall down into the lip.
Clean your waterers daily! Quail are very fragile chicks and susecptile to bacteria. It is very import to clean the waterers daily. Make sure to use a poultry disinfectant for cleaning such as Tek Trol or a 35% peroxide. Bleach is not a very good cleaning agent for poultry products because it doesn’t kill all the poultry viruses like proven and tested poultry products.
6. Check on chicks hourly for first 3 hours to make sure they adjust well. They should be running around eating and drinking. Check on your chicks and stir them up 4-5 times per day the first week. Quail like to sleep so the first week you need to stir them up to make sure the eat and drink enough to stay healthy. We encourage you to call us if there are difficulties!
How to Set up Your Tank
DO THIS FOR THE FIRST 7 DAYS FOR BEST LIVABILITY. Read ALL Steps!
1. Start the chicks on NONSLIP paper. DO NOT start them on shavings as they may eat them instead of eating the feed. You can add shavings after 7 days or put the shavings under the paper before you begin, then you can just remove the paper after 7 days.
-Blue shop towels (see figure below)
2. Use plates only - you can add feeders after 7 days.
3. The brooder (see figures 2/3) should be over 100F underneath the heat source with the ring at 95F and the edge at 88F. The chicks need variable temperature to be able to go toward or away from heat source.
4. If you buy chicks from us, they will come with a packet of grogel and a small sample of feed. Use the feed sample and also observe the texture of it so that you can match the texture if you grind your own feed.
5. Grogel- Follow the directions on the grogel for mixing and place it directly on the FEED. DO NOT PLACE IN THE WATER. The grogel provides a fast rehydration source for the chicks and also provides probiotics when they ingest it. It really helps reduce the stress of the shipping process on the chicks.
CHECK WITH THERMOMETER ON FLOOR OF BROODER.
DO NOT PLACE CHICKS OUTSIDE - the sun does not provide them warmth. Chicks do not produce their own heat so they must have a radiant heat source.
6. After the first 7 days, you can start putting down shavings to give the chicks dry litter. Take out your paper and put down 1 inch of shavings to start. Then bed daily as needed to keep the chicks dry. USE LARGE FLAKE SHAVINGS. (see figure below).
What to do When Your Chicks Arrive at your Local Post Office
NOTE* Quail chicks are much more fragile than chicken chicks so it is extremely important to follow these steps to reduce the shipping stress.
1. Pick up your chicks immediately. We ship Tuesdays so you should expect them Wednesday or Thursday morning. If you live on the coast, Friday morning is most likely. Usually you can call ahead to see if you can stop at the PO dock to get them before the office is open. If you can’t get ahold of anyone and you want to pick up them outside business hours, go to the dock of the post office in the morning and ring the bell. Tell them you have live chicks and usually they will get them for you.
2. If you cannot pick up the chicks, designate someone to pick them up for you and place in your brooder. We have many ship dates available so please choose what works for your schedule.
3. Have your brooder at the proper temperature before picking up the chicks. The water and feed should be set up already.
4. Upon getting the chicks home, place them in the brooder immediately so they can get warm.
5. After chicks are placed, pull out the chick pad in the shipped box and find the packet of Grogel that we provide. Mix the powder with 1/2 cup of water until “jello” like and place the gel on top of the feed. DO NOT PLACE IN WATER. See the 4th picture on where to place Grogel. The green color attracts them to eat the Grogel which provides hydration and probiotics. By placing it on the feed we encourage them to start eating.
6. Check on chicks hourly for first 3 hours to make sure they adjust well. They should be running around eating and drinking. Check on your chicks and stir them up 4-5 times per day the first week. Quail like to sleep so the first week you need to stir them up to make sure the eat and drink enough to stay healthy. We encourage you to call us if there are difficulties!
We will be coming out with additional blogs on how to raise the quail after 7 days of age and also another blog on what is required for feed, water, and living space for all our breeds of birds.
Stay tooned!
Your Quail enthusiast,
Kristin