MegTheHenEggQueen
Chirping
Hey friends. Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday! Happy 311 to those who like the band 
Anyways so I breed Coturnix Quail for therapy, fun and sharing with friends. 43 year old mid life crisis. Well anyways I started this journey December 2022 of incubation and actually started with chicken eggs with my oops rooster. I loved it so much my friend got my 10 quail. My incubator has been running constantly with a break here and there since December 2022. Needless to say I’ve been through some incubators! I don’t have a professional tall cabinet type just the ones you can purchase at farm stores.
Still rambling so here is my question. This is just for fun. But……
I can tell if a quail egg is fertile BEFORE incubation with candling! Can you? I know they must be stored differently before incubation than chicken eggs bc they will continue to develop if the temp they are rocking in (I use a large incubator rocker in a room that has the correct temp and humidity until it’s incubation time). But I love being able to tell 100% if an egg is fertile prior to putting in the incubator. What I mean by this is I can’t tell if it isn’t fertile usually BUT I can definitely tell if ones ARE fertile. Some I have to wait a day or 2 after incubation but for example I just put 75 eggs into my incubator yesterday. I already know that 70/75 are fertile. 5 I am unsure and probably are not or were laid more recently than the other.
So if you have any questions wondering if an egg is fertile to go into the incubator contact me! PM, follow, whatever is clever. Send me a pic of the egg while you candle it. Now I can only tell you if it’s fertile I can’t tell you if the egg will grow until hatch or be a quitter.
Everyone will say the only way to tell is to crack an egg open to see if that hen has been mated or wait until Day 5-7 of incubation. No thanks! Not wasting an egg and I prefer to mark (*) those that I know are fertile prior to putting into my incubator and then putting a (?) on those that I am unsure still.
Anyways I thought this was interesting info to share.
And yes, I know the longer the eggs set out before incubating decreases success rates for hatch. But I have to tell you I had a group of eggs I forgot were rocking and were 1 month old. It was the healthiest hatch and most successful out of all the eggs I have hatched this entire time.
Anyways so I breed Coturnix Quail for therapy, fun and sharing with friends. 43 year old mid life crisis. Well anyways I started this journey December 2022 of incubation and actually started with chicken eggs with my oops rooster. I loved it so much my friend got my 10 quail. My incubator has been running constantly with a break here and there since December 2022. Needless to say I’ve been through some incubators! I don’t have a professional tall cabinet type just the ones you can purchase at farm stores.
Still rambling so here is my question. This is just for fun. But……
I can tell if a quail egg is fertile BEFORE incubation with candling! Can you? I know they must be stored differently before incubation than chicken eggs bc they will continue to develop if the temp they are rocking in (I use a large incubator rocker in a room that has the correct temp and humidity until it’s incubation time). But I love being able to tell 100% if an egg is fertile prior to putting in the incubator. What I mean by this is I can’t tell if it isn’t fertile usually BUT I can definitely tell if ones ARE fertile. Some I have to wait a day or 2 after incubation but for example I just put 75 eggs into my incubator yesterday. I already know that 70/75 are fertile. 5 I am unsure and probably are not or were laid more recently than the other.
So if you have any questions wondering if an egg is fertile to go into the incubator contact me! PM, follow, whatever is clever. Send me a pic of the egg while you candle it. Now I can only tell you if it’s fertile I can’t tell you if the egg will grow until hatch or be a quitter.
Everyone will say the only way to tell is to crack an egg open to see if that hen has been mated or wait until Day 5-7 of incubation. No thanks! Not wasting an egg and I prefer to mark (*) those that I know are fertile prior to putting into my incubator and then putting a (?) on those that I am unsure still.
Anyways I thought this was interesting info to share.
And yes, I know the longer the eggs set out before incubating decreases success rates for hatch. But I have to tell you I had a group of eggs I forgot were rocking and were 1 month old. It was the healthiest hatch and most successful out of all the eggs I have hatched this entire time.
