I would feed them a quail/wild bird feed with added calcium. For chickens, we would feed crushed clamshells. You might need to crush them a bit more for quail though, or feed them crushed tums. Brendasue

sydalicious, you really MUST turn the eggs at LEAST two times a day during the hatch. Three is best, but no less than two for sure. Otherwise you just aren't going to have a successful hatch--the turning keeps the developing chick from sticking to the inside of the shell and dying. You don't want to go to all the effort and then have nearly fully developed chicks that die in the shell just short of hatch, do you? Of course not. Just turn the eggs before and after school. It only takes a minute. :) I personally don't candle my eggs, because my hens lay eggs with darker shells that are impossible to see through--also, I am concerned about handling the eggs too much and either dropping them or letting them get too chilled. So I just wait and see what comes out on hatch day. :) I figure if I'm already doing everything I can, and correctly, me candling isn't going to do me any good since I can't see through the shells. But if you get some light-colored eggs and want to candle, by all means try it--here is a site with candling info and great pics: http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1166-w.html I use great big cardboard boxes for brooder boxes, and just throw them away when I'm done with them. I've got info and pics on my site about how I do my brooder box setups. I just use a large piece of chicken wire for a top (unless you have small children, cats or dogs that might get to the chicks, then use something sturdier) that I can lift on and off. I also like to cut a window in the side of the box and hot glue a piece of hardware cloth over it so the chicks can see out--being n a box for weeks without being able to see out is BORING! And overcrowding and boredom in chicks can lead to pecking, which is a bad thing. Basic brooder box setup: I use a couple of bricks to elevate my food and water containers, it keeps them cleaner by helping keep shavings out of them. Using either a quail waterer (see it in the pics, it has a smaller drinking ring area--or adding marbles to a chick waterer is a MUST--chicks can and do easily drown in water dishes. For heat I use a gooseneck desk lamp with a 75 watt bulb in it, and just adjust the head of the lamp up or down--if the chicks are huddled under it and peeping, they are too cold, if they are avoiding it in a big circle and gasping, they are too hot. In action! :) Here it is from the outside, Millie my Belgian d'Uccle is visiting the chicks: You can easily use wire to partition off a large box: In this case I had three 3 week old chicks and was going to add newly hatched chicks. Velvet ~:>

I tried hatching out quail eggs from an incubator several times mostly unsuccessfully. I did hear that humidity is important. Also I heard you should NOT touch the eggs with your hands or fingers. I had numerous chicks that couldn't make it out of the egg, and also numerous times I tried to help them out of the egg, and they were never healthy. I also had quit a number that hatched, but had deformed legs and couldn't walk right. It was very heartbreaking. I did have 2 occassions where the hen actually did hatch out a couple babies (out of many eggs) and they are the cutest things on earth. I call them bumblebees! Even the other quail in the pen would sit on them to keep them warm. I really enjoyed them. I don't have them anymore and do miss them.

Dennis- When I was down in Madison (WI) I noticed the trees down there seemed to have set a good crop. How many trees do you have?