Set your eggs, pick the date, and get your whole incubation calendar — candling days, lockdown, and hatch day. Coturnix hatch in about 17 days (16–18 is normal), bobwhites in about 23, and buttons in about 16.
Pick your set date and the full incubation calendar appears here.
Temperature 99.5°F in a fan incubator (100.5°F still-air, measured at egg height). Humidity around 45% for days 1–14, raised to 65–75% at lockdown. Turn eggs at least 3–5 times daily until lockdown — then hands off, lid closed, even when the first chicks are bouncing off the unhatched eggs.
Hatching a day early usually means running warm; dragging past day 18 usually means cool. Note it and adjust the next batch — that's how hatch rates climb.
Quail Keeper Max logs every batch — set date, candling notes, hatch rate by breeding pair — and shows you which pairs actually produce. Free plan included.
Track My Hatches Free →A note from one keeper to another: this guide reflects established quail-keeping practice and first-response care, but it isn't veterinary medicine, and no article can examine your bird. When a symptom is severe, worsening, or just doesn't add up, a qualified avian or poultry veterinarian is the right call — and for emergencies, call one first. Your state's poultry diagnostic lab is also a keeper's best friend when losses need real answers.