Raising quail chicks — the first four weeks
Warmth, dry bedding and shallow water decide the first weeks — with temperatures per week, stocking density, feeder and drinker space, and the move before laying starts.
A newly hatched quail chick weighs six to eight grams. Everything that goes wrong in the first weeks goes wrong because of that weight: it chills quickly, it drowns in a drinker that would be shallow for a chicken, and it disappears through any gap wider than a thumb. Warmth under the brooder, dry bedding and shallow water therefore decide more than anything that comes later. After four to six weeks the difficult period is over — that is when the birds move, and they move before they come into lay.
Arrival
Chicks belong in their place within twelve hours of hatching. They are still living off the yolk sac during that time and do not need feed immediately, but they do need warmth. If you buy birds in, keep the journey short: day-old chicks are sensitive to low temperatures, and a long drive in a cool car costs more than the cheaper supplier saves.
For transport, use a box at least ten centimetres high. They jump out of anything shallower, and sooner than you would credit them with. A standard box of sixty by sixty centimetres can be divided into four compartments; a hundred chicks per compartment is a figure from large operations, so fewer for a household flock. In the car the box is covered so no draught reaches inside.
It is worth looking closely as you set them down: a healthy chick stands firmly on its legs, moves about, and has the weight typical for its breed. Taking on birds that stand weakly means taking on work that rarely pays off.
Warmth — and what the chicks tell you about it
The room is heated before the chicks move in, not afterwards. As a guide, room temperature from 28 degrees. Under the brooder, at floor level, it is 35 to 36 degrees in the first week. After that it comes down week by week:
| Week | Under the brooder, at floor level |
|---|---|
| 1 | 35–36 °C |
| 2 | 30–32 °C |
| 3 | about 29 °C |
| from 4 | room temperature, free of draughts |
Infrared lamps have proved themselves as a heat source. What matters is not the make but that it is warm under the lamp and cooler beside it: the chicks should be able to find their own spot.
Space and bedding
On the floor you can keep up to 150 chicks per square metre in the first weeks. If they stay in the same pen longer than three weeks, the figure drops to about
- Pens are divided by walls that are solid to a height of around fifty
centimetres and made of mesh above: solid below keeps the draught out, mesh above lets air through.
Floor rearing has an advantage in the first weeks that cages do not show. Chicks of this size injure themselves falling out of cages, and part of the losses in this period comes from exactly that. If you use cages, check every opening.
Peat has proved itself as bedding, two centimetres deep, which comes to about three kilograms per square metre. Sawdust is possible but has a drawback: chicks peck it up. What ends up in the crop is better decided by you.
Feed and water
For the first days, flat trays of about thirty by thirty centimetres are enough. A mesh goes over the feed — the chicks reach through with their beaks but cannot scratch the feed out of the tray. Trough feeders replace the trays later, likewise with a grid against scratching. Allow at least two centimetres of feeder space per bird; anyone who allows less breeds differences into the flock.
With water, the depth is the danger. A chick that falls in and gets wet chills, and in a drinker that is too deep it drowns. A vacuum drinker has proved itself: a shallow dish with an upturned jar on it, a spacer of about five millimetres under the rim so water flows through. For the first days the water should be warmed.
Nipple and micro-cup drinkers work well but need getting used to. As a guide: about thirty birds per nipple up to the third week, then eight to ten — birds drink more the bigger they get. For trough drinkers, a good three millimetres of drinking space per bird is a workable figure. All open drinkers need daily cleaning; bedding reliably finds its way in.
Light
For the first days the light runs around the clock: the chicks should be able to find feed and water at any time. After that it comes down to ten to twelve hours a day, and stays there until about the fifth week. In cages, where feed and water are closer, the change is possible from the second week of life.
The reason for the short days is later laying performance: young birds that get too much light too early come into lay too early, before the body is ready. Only the adult flock gets fourteen hours and more.
The move
Quail come into lay at around 36 to 46 days of age. The move to adult housing belongs before that — a hen that starts laying in the middle of a move lays restlessly, and the first eggs end up where nobody looks for them. So plan the date by the age of the birds, not by the free weekend.
From here on, what applies to adult birds applies: calm air free of draughts, dry bedding, fourteen hours of light. The difficult weeks are then behind you.
The figures and reference values in this article follow the specialist literature on quail keeping — Stele, Osmanyan, Afanasyev, "Egg production in poultry keeping", chapter on the technology of quail egg production.