mere-merely
Hatching
- Apr 28, 2022
- 4
- 5
- 9
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!
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!
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