Incubating eggs!!

[falco]

I noticed that a few ppl on this forum incubate some eggs to raise for food. I just wanna make a place where anyone interested can ask questions or tell stories or whatever. I have recently hatched 3 little button quail that will grow into my breeders for the year. They are about a week old now, only 5 more weeks before they are mature. Right now i have about 25 goose eggs in the bator. We'll see how that turns out. Ill try and get some pics of the baby buttons, they come out of their eggs lookin like little bumble bees. TINY!!!

[morganf]

I'm just wondering how do you care for the babies? what type of food you feed for various ones? And finally, is it cost effective, like will it pay off in the end to use your own stock? I know it didn't for rats (long story, lots of work, not much pay). Thanks falco!

[falco]

Well, i hatch young that come out ready to feed for themselves, cant remember the exact term. So i show them where the food and water is and thats all it takes. I raise mine in a aquarium with a heat lamp above them. Cost is effective for once they are breeding you generally cant ever incubate all the eggs. I use turkey grower to feed them with, it is a mushed up pellet that has about 27% protien in it. This allows for quick growth. The geese are hatched to eat later in the year, they are the most cost effective since they are free ranged and dont require much commercial food. It does cost a bit to start but ive used my equipment for 2 years now with no problems. Hope that helps a bit.

[tanaro2]

Falco, I am in the process of building a brooder. Its basicly going to be 7 feet by 4 feet. Of course it has a wire bottom and solid walls up to 12 inches high. I plan on using 3 infa red heat lamps. The only problem will be maintaining the temp, since I will be brooding them in the garage. The garage is not heated and stays the same temp as it is outside. The only good thing is that it will keep out drafts away from the chicks however the weather is getting warmer and most of the frigid days will soon be gone. I've just ordered 250 Jumbo Coturnix eggs which a friend of mine is going to incubate in one of his professional style incubators. I figured with eggs lost in shipment, some eggs not hatching, and some of the peeps dying before they reach the 4-5 week age where they can go outside,, I figure I should have around 3 fourths of the 250 left. I've also have thought about breeding some rats over the summer. Right now I have a good size male and an average female. I was considering buying about 5 more females but decided to wait and see what this pair does. It seems I can get way more quail and then Incubate the eggs they lay and go through the process again alot easier than I can get a good number of rats. I don't know but it seems the turnover on quail would be cheaper. They grow faster ( 6 weeks and are full sized), Each female lays an egg just about every day, takes 17 days to hatch. The birds I ordered are suppose to reach one pound when 8 weeks old. I do admit that when first starting off it will cost some money, and you'll be lucky to break even the first year. I plan on selling the extras to other falconers in my area. Now the rats on the other hand seems like it would take more time to manage. You would have to remove each female and put them in seperate cages and leave them there until they ween the young, which is about 5 weeks. Then you would have to keep the young seperate and feed the crap out of them until they get to a decent size, which would take about two months. That is just the way it seems to me but I am curious to hear your views on the matter since it seems like you've raised both. 250 Jumbo Coturnix quail eggs cost me $75 (including shipping) I should at the very least be able to hatch another 300 by September giving me a total of about 500 full grown quail (200 in the frezzer and the other 300 sold to some falconers I know). I really don't think I would even come half as close to that number in that short of time with Rats. Also, imagine all the seperate cages you would need to get that number of rats. Not all rats will be social enough to have their pups in a cage with 3-4 other females roaming around. I heard that it somtimes works and other times the mother will fight the others. Again, I really don't know from experience, its just from the conversations I've had with people who have raised quail, and others who have raised rats plus my own research that I have done. Let me get your take on the matter.

[falco]

You def get a better turnaround from quail. Rats do take more time. I enjoy raising quail better anyway. I can get 100lbs of rat pellets here in utah for about 13 bucks. That is a ton. Quail feed is a bit more pricey but they breed so quickly and mature so quickly that they are the best route. Your setup sounds like more than adequate. They should be plenty warm. The easiest way to get them to eat early on is to place a white towel(not your wife best) over the bedding for the first few days, generously sprinkle the feed over it and aroung the normal feeders. They pick it up much more quickly then just in a feeder. Anymore questions, ill do my best to answer.

[m4tt]

my uncle, when we all lived back in Ohio. he and his friend, would drive down to Virginia ( i thnk it was virginia) and buy 1000-1500 Quail eggs, they would take them home, his friend would incubate them, and then when they hatched, they got moved to my uncles house, and then they went a big 40x150 avairy netting covered chamber to learn to fly.

then they sold them to people for training hunting dogs.. etc..

i can get more exact details if u want!

[falco]

Update, all 3 button quail have reached the age of 2 weeks and are doing well. Im hoping for at least 1 male and 1 female. In about4-5weeks they will be sexually mature and able to reproduce. I pull all the eggs from the aquarium daily and store them in my cold storage. When i get about 14 eggs i set a batch in the bator. I raise all the offspring of the first hatch for feeders. On another note, my first batch of goslings are due to hatch in about 4 days, im excited! Its so much fun to have them follow you were ever you go. Ill post pics of both soon!

Oh yeah, of the 25 goose eggs, only 14 were fertile and alive at 2 weeks!

[morganf]

That's cool... but weight... if you put them in cold storage, i'm surprised it doesn't kill the babies

[falco]

When the eggs are laid they have the ability to go dormat for a while. Gamebirds and waterfowl dont incubate until all their eggs are laid, so they sit there at a low temp and dont develop, the danger is when they have started incubating(which means they reached the temp of 98) they cannot cool back down or the embryo dies.

[kenbro77]

Wow that is why I love you guys, . I never knew that falco, good info.

[falco]

Hehe, all in a days work my friend. J/K. I didnt know it either until i really got into it a few years ago. Thats why tree nesting birds have such a big difference in age because the mommy bird starts incubating after the 1st or 2nd is laid, but ground birds all hatch at the same time , that way the mommy doesnt have youngens running around while she's stuck on the nest!

[falco]

On saturday 8 of the 9 goose eggs i started hatched, the other died in the hatching process. Sad but its nature. I have some more that'll be hatching next week sometime but for now heres a few cellphone pics(not the best quality).

[Falcon Boy]

What kinda geese? i thought you had to have permits for canada geese but i could be wrong. Did you get them at a Farm Supply Store?

[flyfisher]

falco said:

On saturday 8 of the 9 goose eggs i started hatched, the other died in the hatching process. Sad but its nature. I have some more that'll be hatching next week sometime but for now heres a few cellphone pics(not the best quality).

Oh man!!!!! they are so so cute!! are they easy to keep as pets?

[falco]

They are domestic breeds of geese. And FB, what makes you think i wouldnt have the permits if they were canadian? They are easy to keep with the proper land requirments. I also breed button quail and all that takes is a 10 gallon aquarium.