Hatching Quail Question.... anyone do it?

the past few hatching I have collected eggs, put them in the incubator, turned it on.... then just add more eggs everyday until it is full.... (instead of collecting all the eggs I am going to hatch then starting them all at one time..) It makes for a few more days of hatching... I get several chicks over a 5 day period here and there until they are all dont hatching... they dont all hatch at one time... or one day..

Anyone else do this? Or should I not do it this way? I havent really been able to calculate my % hatch rate because last time the electricity went out... so I am trying it again...

I was just wondering if it would tend to make the hatch rate go down because eggs go on a lock down a few days sooner due to the ones that are about to hatch...


Or do yall think I should just fill the incubator and start them all at one time?

If you are using a turner, load them into the turner in the incubator. Have the turner operating, but not the incubator. Once you are full up, then plug in/turn on the incubator and start the full process for all eggs at the same time.
If it takes more than ten days for you to collect all the eggs, your hatch rate on the older eggs may not be very good.

Or get another bator, when you mark eggs for turning, get different color markers and you can group them by color code, then as each comes to lockdown, put them in the hatcher, one bator incubating
the other on lockdown settings.

I prefer to hatch all at once to avoid mixing big chicks with little ones.

Why not just collect eggs for 5-7 days, turning 2X per day, and then put all of them in the incubator at once? This way your hatch will take place at about the same time over 2-3 days. You can take the chicks out of the incubator when they dry.

Well im trying it this go around... i have had a handful of non fertile eggs... probably my a&m eggs.... see what happens... so far not a good hatch... im gonna go back to my other way for sure next hatch...

Being late on this post, I bet you have already made a decision but I have to agree with the others on this one. Starting them all at once is the better way to go.

I have left eggs in the nest for 15-20 days twice now and I still had a remarkable hatch rate. I have 88 out of 95 due this week. That is minus the accidental drops and chips, clears and 2 slow cookers. My first ones sat out in the weird weather back in May for 20 days, I had 46 out of 48 to hatch. That is after I culled the initial drops, chips and clears from the 57 I collected. I don't know how others grab a percentage but I wait until after I candle and cull the first time (4 days). I mean how can you clacluate your hatch rate/success using infertile and cracked eggs. Sounds like a thread or poll to me!
I will be able to brag the results on this batch when they hatch if I didn't over cook the bottom rack, if so - 44 or 50%, I will just ship those to china and let them eat em up. LOL

On other thought, as you open and remove the chicks you will be exposing the other eggs to a humidity drop each day after lock down. I doubt that a momentary "snatching" of a few chicks would have much effect, but keep in mind the shrink wrap effect that it could have on the other eggs. I would not leave the chicks in for more than 48 hours while the others were pipping and zipping, thus my vote to start them all at once spite the age.

Yeah thats what im gonna do next hatch again...

I've hatched out bobwhite eggs that I had for at least 2, maybe 3 weeks before I put them in the incubator and had very good hatch %'s from them. You want to stop turning them a couple of days before hatching, if they are all the same date, that's easier to keep track of.
Personally I think it's better to start them all at once, once they hatch out they like to bunch together for warmth, it makes more sense to have them all hatch as close together as possible.

Thats what i am gonna do... suprisingly enough though i am getting a very good hatch after all doing this... eggs laying on their side a few days extra are still hatching... i havent counted birds yet... but number of chicks verses number of fertile eggs im guessing im about 90% right now.... got more to put in the brooder tonight when i get home at 3am!!! Soo truth be told... it works doing it this way... but you do have chicks hatch foor about a week straight... keeps ya lil busy...

That's how I do it, and I've had an alright hatch rate. I don't see why people put them all in at once really. But I guess it's all just a matter of preference, so I'd do it whichever way you like. Personally, I have a small styrofoam incubator, I get about one chick hatching per day and I remove them as they hatch, and out of about 20 eggs I've put in, 1 was infertile, 1 stopped developing early on, and 2 of them died while trying to hatch. One of those was due to a lack of humidity (it was at like 15% because the water dish ran dry), one I think had too much humidity through the incubation. So really, none of those were really due to opening the incubator briefly. Overall, I don't think putting them in one at a time has had a huge impact on them either way. I just open it a crack to put the eggs in and get the chicks out. A brief cooling down period doesn't seem to effect the eggs very much, it's actually more natural than keeping it at a constant stable temp.

Only thing is that if they are considerably different in age, the older ones may pick on the younger ones at first. If they are born like a week apart, for example. When you first put the newborns in before they can walk, the older ones may pick on them, and not let them sleep, which I've noticed is hard on them. So I separate them for a day until they are able to walk around, then they usually get along fine after that, at least mine do.