Button Quail are the smallest quail in the world, they are about the size of a bumble bee when hatched. They originated in China and now come in an array of colors and patterns. You cannot tell what color a bird will be by the egg color which ranges from lilac to green and everything inbetween. Button Quail hatch in only 16 days but it can take up to 22. Many things may contribute to delayed hatching such as humidity and the temperature of the incubator. Use two different kinds of thermometers in your incubator to make sure the temperature is precise or seperately purchase a high quality thermometer for your incubator especially if using inexpensive incubators. Always place nonslip liner (can be purchased at dollar or department stores) on the wire of your incubator, this protects the eggs from scratches and rolling around, bumping into eachother and may save a chicks life once they hatch. Gently wash eggs in cool water and mild soap before incubating. Washing will help kill bacteria on the eggs surface which can cause embryo death, the bacteria can survive and spread inside your incubator until it is sterilized, killing all embryos inside the eggs. Allow eggs that have been shipped to you to settle small end down for at least 12 hours before placing. When incubating, maintain a temperature of 99.5 degrees. Do not allow the temperature to ever go over 99.9. The humidity should range between 50-60% until the last few days, then raise the humidity about 10-15% higher. Using an incubator with an automatic turner is best but if rotating by hand-wash your hands first then rotate the eggs at least three times a day, up to 8 times. Turn the eggs as gently and quickly as possible. Each time you open the incubator you chill the eggs and release precious humidity. Humidity can be controlled by adding more or less WARM water to the incubator wells or placing a shallow tray in the bottom of the incubator. Alternate which side of the egg is up before bedtime so they don't lay on the same side every night, the longest period before turning again. Mark the sides with an X and an O in pencil or marker so you know which was last if turning by hand. I personally place the date (month-day) on the fat end of the egg (top side in the turner) so I know when they’re supposed to hatch, if placing eggs in with other dated eggs due to hatch at different times. This allows me to move eggs due to hatch into another incubator for hatching eggs only. This cuts down on bacteria and down particles in the first incubator plus it keeps chicks from getting crushed in an auto turner or unhatched eggs rolling around or chicks being crushed by eggs. Incubators should be cleaned periodically (besides being sterilized) by brushing lose down particles and any other mess free from the incubators parts with a toothbrush or similar soft brush. Down particles can eventually clog the thermostat and cause your incubator to overheat or stop working altogether. On the 13th day stop turning the eggs, at this time the chicks are moving into hatching position and should not be moved. You can raise the humidity up to 75% these last few days, especially if you have a poor incubator or bad hatches before. If Button Quail hatching doesn't happen on day 16, you can wait until day 22, by then they would have hatched if they were going to. You can, with experience open the unhatched eggs to see why they didn't hatch, this can help you to correct problems for the next hatch. ie. if it was infertile eggs there will be no sign of an embryo (called a germ which is a tiny blood and flesh mass). Or if the embryo died from a virus or old eggs which causes a visible blood ring and/or rotten eggs, to correct this use fresh eggs and clean your incubator with bleach, gently wash eggs with tepid soapy water before placing in the incubator but do not scrub them, that will only cram bacteria into the pores of the egg. Always wash your hands before handling eggs. If hatching was caused by poor incubation you will find growing or full grown embryos that just died, usually caused by incorrect temperature or humidity during incubation or improper turning, dropping of or banging eggs. If you hatch chicks that are sticky and die soon after hatching (if they don’t dry out fluffy and clean) or if they live and are extremely weak then your than your incubator temperature +/or humidity is most definitely wrong. Keep a high quality thermometer and hydrometer in your incubator or use two. Care of Newly Hatched Quail If everything goes well, on day 16 your chicks should start to hatch. Wait until chicks are completely dry and mobile before removing them from the incubator, it can be up to 24 hours. The chicks should be able to zip around the hatching incubator with ease before removing them. Brood the chicks for 5 weeks under artificial light/heat. Start brooding at 95º and lower the temperature each week by 5º until it reaches 75º at which point artificial heat shouldn’t be needed anymore. Electric brooders can be purchased or made by hand, most people use plastic tubs, a simple cardboard box or fish aquariums to brood in, using a light bulb for heat. Have a large enough area for the chicks so they can get out of the heated area if they get too hot and so they don’t have to pile up under the lamp to get warm. Decrease the temperature 5 degrees each week until the temperature reaches 75º, this is done with a lamp by simply moving it further up from the base of the heater or using a lower watt bulb. Under normal conditions it is safe to remove the heat source at five weeks but keep your eyes on the chicks for a few more weeks, they may still need some artificial heat for a while longer, especially outdoors, in cool months or a windy area. I prefer to use a 60 watt black pet bulb ($7 at Wal-Mart), this allows the chicks the warmth they need and they will sleep at night. A bright white bulb can cause pecking and doesn’t allow chicks the rest they need to grow so a colored bulb should be used, any color is fine but black or red are best. Place food in a very shallow jar lid or shallow dish of some sort and scatter a small amount on the floor of the brooder so they will begin eating. Button Quail are so small that a jar lid filled with marbles should be used for water or a special made small lipped GAME waterer filled with marbles can also be used. You must fill the lid or waterer with marbles so the chicks will not drown in them. Chicks should not get wet, if they do, do your best to gently dry the chick off and keep it warm until completely dry. At a week of age a plain GAME bird waterer can be used without marbles, do not use a chick waterer yet, it is too big and they will fall in, slip and drown.  Quails legs are extremely fragile for a week or so after hatching and they MUST have good footing, especially the first week of life. Always keep clean litter (nonslip liner, rice hulls, hay, wood chips...) about 3 inches deep in the brooder. NEVER USE PINE SHAVINGS OR NEWSPAPER IN THE BROODER, newspaper is slick and pine shavings have been known to cause respiratory illnesses. Button quail chicks will back into an edge or corner to evacuate so the walls of their brooder will need to be washed and disinfected whenever you change the litter. Rinse and dry the brooder well after washing and reheat it before placing the chicks back in. Splay legs and dislocated hip quail chicks are not uncommon and is usually caused by bad footing in the incubator and/or brooder (occasionally from pile-ups or bad position in the egg). Chicks with splayed legs and dislocated hips should be disposed of in a humane manner and the problem in the brooder corrected immediately if that is the problem. Injured chicks will generally die within a couple days no matter how much you try to help them. Some websites claim that they can correct this problem and the steps to correct it is shown on various websites for raising parrots, cockatiels etc. I personally haven’t found it to be true to work for button quail and only slightly prolongs a miserable, short life. Buttons are very wired little birds from the minute they hatch and at about a week old the now feathered winged chicks start flying upward and can cause themselves great damage to their head and even death, called the “boink factor”. A soft cover is needed to keep the chicks from harm and escape (place soft screening or towel over the brooder). This phase only lasts about a week and sometimes not at all, it really depends on how skittish your chicks are. You can clip the chicks’ flight feathers but they are still able to make great attempts at escape even without the feathers. Providing a cover along with feather clipping works best. Adult button males, called cocks, are territorial and very protective of their hens and space. At about 6 weeks of age the birds can be paired up and separated into their own cages or released into a large aviary, provide them with plenty of ground cover for hiding and escape. You should not introduce your new birds into an established population but rather begin a new one. Hens and roosters can be very aggressive to new comers and may kill them and will most certainly injure them at least. If you should place new birds with an established flock, keep a watchful eye on the new birds for signs of fighting which includes swollen eyes, pulled feathers and starvation/dehydration. The new comers will try to stay hidden from the others and won’t even come out or be let out for food or water. Alternatively you can slowly introduce the new birds by placing their cage inside the larger cage of established ones until the older or established birds are used to the new comers, this is not guaranteed but may work. Keep your eye on the younger males especially for signs of fighting such as feathers missing-especially at the back of the head or swollen eyes, which is caused from fights. Baby quail food is a full diet of GAME STARTER, 25-30% protein. Do not use CHICK STARTER or any type of whole grain feed, it is not high enough in protein to keep these fast growing chicks healthy and they aren’t able to digest whole seed yet. If your area doesn't provide game starter than turkey starter will work. Some owners that cannot get starter use kitty food, it is usually about 30% protein, ground up in a blender and it should work fine. Your growing chicks do not need grit or any other food until they reach 6 weeks of age, then it’s mostly given for fun-not a necessity unless their diet needs to be supplemented because of their feed source. Mealworms should not be given to baby quail because they will mistake other chicks toes for worms and will hurt eachother. Hold off on feeding them mealworms until you separate the breeding age birds. Offering treats such as worms to breeding birds helps them bond to eachother as the males offer the treats to the females. Game bird starter is higher in protein than plain game bird feed and starter should be used their whole life. Buttons love finch seed, mealworms, apple, boiled eggs and a small amount of fresh greens (clover, dandelion...) Head, or cello lettuce should not be used, it has no nutrients a button needs so if using lettuce as a treat try using leaf type such as Romaine. Adult Quail need a lot of calcium because they lay so many eggs and for the size of the bird the eggs are huge. Ground cuddle bone/oyster shell into their feed and also the ground boiled egg or just the shell is great. You can also purchase liquid calcium supplement. When using hard boiled eggs’ SHELL for calcium, use only as much as they can eat in about 15 minutes as it spoils fast. Hard boiled egg yolks, their own eggs or not provide extra protein. Adult Buttons should be given grit at 4-6 weeks of age if cage kept or they have no access to grit otherwise. Normally a wild bird would eat dirt but that is not recommended if you want to avoid illness and disease. Since birds have no teeth they need this sandy gravel to help digest their food. Grit can be purchased anywhere bird food is sold and is made of ground oyster shell, providing pure calcium + grit in one! Hens start laying at about three months of age but may take much more time, depending on her happiness. Buttons do not like to be moved around a lot, they like their territory and will try to defend it from others if they feel threatened, even from you. Once you find a spot they like-keep them there if possible. They love being given more space, moving birds from small cages to wide open aviaries or large pens should delight them. Provide at least seven square inches of space for each bird. Hens will usually let you know if you have them in a good spot. Hens that stop laying suddenly after being moved is normal but laying should begin again in a few days, if not then move them back or correct whatever is annoying them. I have found that they do not like extremely shady, breezy or cool areas but rather sunny with shaded areas. Provide fake or real plants as cover for hiding and shade when your birds are in a sunny location. Be sure any real plants you may use are not poisonous. Cocks should be given 1-3 hens as lifelong partners, if you intend on having lots of fertile eggs. Button hens usually live about a year and roosters about 3. Don’t be surprised if you get a very content and healthy bird that lives for several years past his/her prime. Sometimes you will get a hen or rooster that just plain does not like eachother, the only thing you can do is remove the problem and try another hen or cock  pair. Hens and cocks will become broody if eggs are not collected often, if the birds are left alone and provided a good spot to set. It is not uncommon for roosters to do all the incubating and care of the young! Normally both a hen and rooster will brood and care for the chicks though, taking shifts sitting on the eggs. Both parents or just the incubating parent and chicks should be removed from the general population when the chicks hatch, keeping an eye on both parents for fighting between eachother or abusing the chicks. Fighting parents should be separated, most of the time it is caused by one parent defending the chicks from the other parent - which is a real or imaginary fear for whatever reason. First time quail parents are arguably not the best parents, they may abuse their chicks or single one out for a day or two but they learn quickly and should be wonderful parents soon.