HELP PLEASE Quail Hatching Issues

[mere-merely]

This is my first time hatching quail eggs and third year hatching eggs (I’ve done chickens and ducks in the past).

I put the eggs in the incubator on a Tuesday. Yesterday morning (Saturday - which is day 18 or 19 depending on if you count the first day as day 1 or 0) two eggs hatched on their own. It’s pretty hard to see into my incubator and quail eggs are so textured I find it hard to be sure, but I’m pretty sure at least one other egg had popped and several others were showing lots of wobbling. By yesterday evening I couldn’t see any other pips so I moved the two hatched birds into the brooder but I could see that at least one egg had pipped when i opened the incubator. This morning two eggs had pipped, one is the egg that I’m pretty sure started yesterday morning and didn’t seem to have made much progress. The membrane looks yellowed and dry so I’ve given it some help. Just slowly a little help every few hours. Of the other two, one looks like it will need help but I can still see blood vessels so haven’t done much. The other seems like it may make it out on its own. There are two or three others that don’t appear to have pipped externally but are clearly wobbling around in there. I’m wondering if it’s normal for there to be such a large hatch window for quail or if those eggs’ failure to pip indicates that they’re having trouble.

I wondered if the first two that hatched were kind of sticky. They took a lot longer to fluff up than chickens do and looked kind of greasy. One had its shell stuck to it until I moved it to the brooder and cut it off.

My understanding is that low humidity is the cause of sticky chicks. The hygrometer on this incubator which is new stopped working the first day of lockdown, but prior to that the humidity readings were consistently higher than I wanted and this incubator has a transparent bottom so I can see clearly into the water pan and it never ran low so I’m pretty confident that the humidity levels were high if anything.

For now I’m just going to keep an eye and offer help every few hours if they aren’t making progress. I’ve never had to assist an egg that hasn’t pipped externally though so I’m not sure what to do for those if they don’t get any farther along.

Another detail that seems odd is that one of the hatched shells doesn’t seem to have ever pipped internally. The air cell membrane is still totally in tact. If a chick can’t pop internally will it skip that step if it can? I’ve never seen that before.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Kiki]

Unfortunately, you cannot trust incubators built-in instruments.
Before you set eggs again, make sure you purchase a humidity gauge and salt test it.

If your humidity gauge is salt tested, you are sure that it is reading correctly and you can adjust your water level accordingly.
I hatch quail regularly and I can tell you that I keep my incubator at about 25 to 30% humidity throughout and do not raise it until I see an external pip and then I only raise it to about 50%.

 

[mere-merely]

Update: I helped one hatch this afternoon. It had wry neck and seemed to be suffering and I made the unfortunate decision to cull it this evening.

I have three more that are shrink wrapped that I’ve helped a bit and set in the incubator to see if they can do the rest themselves. I moved all the eggs into a different incubator that I have used for several years and have more trust in the temperature and humidity consistency. There are at least three others that have not pipped externally but are clearly alive. Any advice on if or how to help chicks that have not pipped?

On the bright side the two that hatched yesterday are doing great.

 

[Kiki]

Update: I helped one hatch this afternoon. It had wry neck and seemed to be suffering and I made the unfortunate decision to cull it this evening.

I have three more that are shrink wrapped that I’ve helped a bit and set in the incubator to see if they can do the rest themselves. I moved all the eggs into a different incubator that I have used for several years and have more trust in the temperature and humidity consistency. There are at least three others that have not pipped externally but are clearly alive. Any advice on if or how to help chicks that have not pipped?

On the bright side the two that hatched yesterday are doing great.

Do not help an egg that has not starting zipping. If it hasn't zipped it isn't ready to hatch.

May I ask why you didn't use your trusted incubator to begin with?

 

[mere-merely]

The advice that I have seen is that if an egg has pipped and hasn’t made any progress for over twelve hours and the membrane appears dried out the chick needs assistance. When I help an egg hatch I am just wetting the membrane, peeling back shell slowly and stopping if I see any blood vessels. I help just a small amount then put them back in the incubator for several hours and see if they progress on their own.

I had chickens in the other incubator that hatched a few days ago. It’s a Nurture Right 360 which I had read wasn’t good for quail.

 

[Boppo]

Try wetting a clean sponge, and wring it out pretty much so it's just moist. Set that in your incubator to improve the humidity. That might be enough to help your little shrink wrapped mummies.

here is an article about incubating quail. I am sorry you are having a hard time!

 

[Boppo]

P.S. be careful your sponge isn't too wet because you can add so much humidity that you drown the poor babies in their eggs.