Surrogate Button Quail Research Project
Project Introduction
One of the biggest hurdles in breeding
birds, from chickens to button quail, is that if you incubate eggs, the chicks may not learn all the birdie stuff they should.
Surrogates are one of the ways I have come up with to solve this problem. By simply introducing a hen to newly hatched babies,
you can make sure that they will learn what they need faster, rather than the win-or-lose technique of people teaching a bird
to be a bird. Using surrogates, your incubator hatched chicks will learn just as if they were hatched by a hen.
But why surrogates? Well, it is my opinion, that
if a bird is raised by a hen it will be more likely to sit on its own eggs and raise other chicks. Also, the chicks will be
able to learn things only other birds can teach them. In just 24 hours of my hen, who has never surrogated before, being in
with the chicks, they have learned to eat spray millet, scavenge, sit under mommies’ wing for warmth and follow her
around. Just try to get a baby button to do that!
I will be collecting data from all
over the world from button breeders and hobbiests alike. Please e-mail me at if you would like to be a part of this project.
I will e-mail you the forms and everything you need to get started!
