All up, the hatch was a great success. Of the 14 king quail eggs that I set, 10 hatched. They are zippy little things – and take no time at all to hatch when ready. The chicken eggs on the other hand, seem to take forever from pipping stage (when the chick first makes that crack in the shell with its beak) to actual hatching out.

They are so cute!

baby king quail (button) hatching

Here are the chicks in their brooder (14 hatched out of a possible 20)

Fluffy chicks in brooder

chicken eggs in the homemade incubator

After 2 days incubating, I had a friend’s dad who was asking if I could help him incubate some of his King Quail eggs (some call them button quail) – his hen had been laying great guns but just refused to sit on them. Unfortunately I think the bulk of the eggs he gave me (14 in total) would be a tad ‘old’ to be setting but I popped them in the incubator anyway because I had the space. Hopefully some of them will hatch. I believe quails take a shorter time to hatch than chickens so hopefully if I’ve timed it right, they will all hatch together.

King Quail eggs in the incubator

Here’s the difference in size

I also resolved to have a bigger viewing window (therefore a bigger lid was required) and also one that was double glazed to prevent the condensation problem that you get when you increase humidity in the last few days. I went to my local Reject Shop and bought 2 document frames, took out the bits apart. I cut a hole in the styrofoam box lid and stuck the glass pane down on either side of the lid, then did the same with the black frame. I found that the backing board fitted the front of the frame and attached it so that it acted as a ‘door’ to open up the viewing window.
Lid closed

Lid open

Then I started work on the insides. I wanted a 2 chamber incubator where 1 side was the egg chamber and the other was the one with the heat source and water to maintain humidity. Using the old styrofoam incubator wall I cut out a section of it so that it would fit snugly inside the new styrofoam box. I also cut out a hole for the computer fan and 2 holes on the bottom fitted with circular plastic vent snap ons (I think they were supposed to be for cupboard vents).

The idea was that the fan would suck air out of the top of the egg chamber, into the heating/humidity chamber and then out through the vent holes on the bottom. I slid the wall in and then caulked with silicon along the sides to ensure a snug fit.

Although the fan is really too high for any scalping of chicks to occur, I still wanted to play safe, so I cut out a bit of plastic gutter guard and covered the fan on the egg chamber side by attaching it to the fan with screws.

Realizing that the incandescent bulb is on its way out production wise, I was keen to trial halogen lamps. Bought one from Bunnings and attached it (50W) – I was concerned that it would melt the styrofoam because it’s so much shorter than your conventional bulb fitting, so I put the metal lid of a soup can on the back to prevent any direct heat hitting the styrofoam. I was a bit disappointed because I found that the single 50W halogen was insufficient to provide heat – I tested it – so I decided to just throw in an incandescent on the side to provide additional heat (40W) and it worked well.

I wanted to ensure that the airflow was working and so I stuck 2 strips of tissue paper on the vents and turned on the fan. The last thing I did was to cut 2 holes on the side walls – 1 into the egg chamber to allow me to turn the eggs and to fish chicks out when they hatched, the other in the heating/water chamber to allow me to add more dishes of water or to fill up water trays as needed. I also cut 2 holes on the top wall directly opposite the fan in the egg chamber to allow for air exchange. Then I plugged in the old thermostat that I had to the 2 lights, slipped the sensor into the egg chamber, plugged in the fan and ran it for a day with a couple of thermometers in there to check that temperatures were stable.

I tested it on some quail eggs I ordered over the mail and hatched them on day 17 – if you look carefully you can see the strips of tissue I attached to check air flow.

What I like about this incubator compared to the first one :

What I would change:

Poked some holes in the lid for ventilation and put a viewing window (perspex from a picture frame)

My thermostat – I didn’t know where to get one so I got one from a store that sold beer brewing products. Since then I’ve learnt that it’s not the best one to get because it’s not as accurate as it should be – it should read to 1 decimal place. I didn’t want to cut holes in a plastic junction box so I ended up using my son’s lego pieces to build a box for it – it’s perfect!

Here’s the result :

What I’d do differently :

Pics of the coop building in progress

Setting out the garden beds – timber sleepers were bought and bolted together to form 4×6 foot beds with paths in between.

Framing the coop – used untreated pine internally

Chicken nest boxes

Chicken nest boxes painted

Chicken coop roof sheathed with external plywood

Recycled some old western red cedar venetian blinds to put on the plywood. Sheathed rest of coop with plywood and painted

Painted lilac and trimmed with white, added coop access doors

Access door to back where nest boxes are made, trimmed and painted

Added wire mesh in bottom of coop and fitted chicken doors to front of coop. Moved chicken tractor coop to position on vegetable garden bed

Just add chickens.