Need help tweaking my end of incubation

Hello!
I need a little help on tweaking my end of the incubation process. I've did a batch of coturnix quail and bobwhite quail (all shipped) and ended up with almost the exact same results. After weeding out non fertile and disrupted air sac eggs I can usual get the rest the eggs to develop far as having shipped egg development rates go. That's where the dilemma starts. On both hatches of quail species I get a lot of fully developed chicks but have a mixture of internal pipping or no pipping at all then dying. A couple had an internal and external pip, but it's mainly the other. After this same scenario played out again with another batch of quail different species different breeders etc etc I figured it must be something on my end that needs tweaking? I run my humidity 35-50% until lockdown then it's 60-75% have several different hygrometers that have all been calibrated so i know I'm pretty accurate there. According to my brinsea spot check thermometer I'm running my Genesis 1588 about 99.5 +/- .5 (the Genesis itself is set at 99.0 to get said temp on spot check.) that being said I did hatch out 6/7 chicken eggs from my moms chickens that were one day old and all fertile. Again though #7 was fully developed in shell but then died. Can anybody help me out here?! There something on my end that needs tweaking? Would really like to up my hatch rates and understand what I'm doing wrong before incubating with more expensive birds/and their eggs.

Thank you!
Luke

You really can't ask for better than a 90% hatch rate! You did great with the chickens. The biggest thing to remember when incubating is that humidity is not a set number. You start at about 35%, and adjust from there. Each week you mark the air cells. If too much growth occurs, you raise up the humidity to about 45. If the air cells don't grow much, you lower the humidity to about 25. Even those who incubate frequently will occasionally have a bad hatch. My last incubator batch was only about 60% hatch rate. My first batch of the year was 90%. Shipped eggs are risky. So many factors beyond your control can negatively affect the hatch rate. And there are so many things that can go wrong, even if you do everything right. Sometimes chicks can't get into position for hatching and die. Sometimes chicks that seem fine, die just before hatching. Upon inspection, they look normal, but they may have an underlying issue that was not conducive to life.

I have had a similar problem with most of my shipped quail eggs hatching but a small percentage with fully formed chicks not hatching. It is sad and frustrating. But 80 to 90 percent hatch is great.

Maybe you can raise some of your own hatching eggs from your new quail and see if you have the same problem with those eggs. I raised a lot of my own quail years ago and never had this problem with those home grown eggs.

Shipped eggs are notorious for making it to lockdown and then dying. My last batch of shipped eggs were call duck eggs. 6 made it to lockdown and then died. With my own eggs my hatch rate is also 90-100%. Shipping does damage on a cellular level that can't be seen to the eye. The only thing that can be taken into consideration is the development of the CAM (chorioallatonic membrane). The CAM takes over for the veins and the membrane acts as a balloon inside the egg during the second week of incubation. Often with shipped eggs we don't turn them right away because of air cell damage. Not turning leads to improper development of the CAM. When it doesn't develop properly the chicks can't hatch. Are you turning or tilting the eggs within 48 hours of incubation?

RubyNala97 said:

Shipped eggs are notorious for making it to lockdown and then dying. My last batch of shipped eggs were call duck eggs. 6 made it to lockdown and then died. With my own eggs my hatch rate is also 90-100%. Shipping does damage on a cellular level that can't be seen to the eye. The only thing that can be taken into consideration is the development of the CAM (chorioallatonic membrane). The CAM takes over for the veins and the membrane acts as a balloon inside the egg during the second week of incubation. Often with shipped eggs we don't turn them right away because of air cell damage. Not turning leads to improper development of the CAM. When it doesn't develop properly the chicks can't hatch. Are you turning or tilting the eggs within 48 hours of incubation?

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From what I read and was told is that your suppose to let shipped eggs rest (big end up) for 24 hours before incubation. Your saying after receiving shipped eggs they should go into turning immediately though hu?

Trapper Luke said:

From what I read and was told is that your suppose to let shipped eggs rest (big end up) for 24 hours before incubation. Your saying after receiving shipped eggs they should go into turning immediately though hu?

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No, I'm sorry for the confusion. When you get them, yes, let them sit for 12-24 hours. Once you start incubating them some people continue to leave them without turning. I let them rest 12 hours outside the incubator and once I set them inside the incubator I do not turn during the first 24 hours of incubation but I do start turning on the second day. So I was wondering if maybe you didn't start turning them for a few days after you put them in the incubator. (Some people have left them without turning for up to 7 days of incubation). Anything more then 48 hours could cause a real problem, developmentally.

Oh alright I see! But yea with the shipped eggs I've gotten so far I'll let sit 12-24 hours then they go into the incubator on the auto egg turners. The more I read about shipped eggs though it sounds like them getting to that point then dying is fairly common like you said. My coturnix are about to the age to start laying eggs so maybe I'll try setting some later this summer and see what kind of hatch rate I get. Thanks guys!

Trapper Luke said:

Oh alright I see! But yea with the shipped eggs I've gotten so far I'll let sit 12-24 hours then they go into the incubator on the auto egg turners. The more I read about shipped eggs though it sounds like them getting to that point then dying is fairly common like you said. My coturnix are about to the age to start laying eggs so maybe I'll try setting some later this summer and see what kind of hatch rate I get. Thanks guys!

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Ok, then you don't have to worry about them not developing properly due to a lack of turning. I would say that they had more damage from shipping then was visable to the eye. Nothing you did or didn't do. Once you try your own quail eggs you will know for sure. Good luck!