HELP! Quail hatch day slippery floor!

[Rafnel]

3 more hatched overnight!

 

[Farmer Fowler]

I'm kind of freaking out, I'm on my second attempt of quail hatching (first attempt nothing hatched) and my first quail has officially hatched. About 1 hour ago. It has been trying to stand for an hour but just keeps slipping. The floor of the incubator is just this dumb plastic flooring and I never thought to put drawer liner down or something!

Should I intervene? Other eggs have yet to hatch but have multiple pips. Don't want to open the incubator and ruin the others. Don't want to let these chicks get splayed leg though because I have no clue how I will fix splayed leg if all these little guys get it!

Will they be ok? Is it normal to struggle to stand for the first couple hours even on non-slippery floors? Do i take the quail out? It keeps doing the splits to try to stand up, the thing is so dang frustrated!!! I'm getting frustrated just watching!!!!

My heart goes out to you and the little one that is trying to stand, but if you open the incubator now, it is highly likely that the ones that have pipped will be shrink-wrapped in their shells and die. The little guy will be fine. I usually like to line my incubator with a damp microfiber cloth for humidity and it helps them stand. Farming is all about accumulative knowledge and we don't often get it right the first time. Lessons sometimes come the hard way, but this one isn't all that bad.

 

[Ridgeback825]

Don't trust the read out on the incubator, I have the same one. I added drawer liner to mine for hatching but also got a bluetooth temp and humidity sensor to get a more accurate reading. I think that the theory of shrinkwrapping is widely overstated. I focus more on the humidity level during the hatching process. As it takes more than 5 seconds to dry the membrane.

 

[Rafnel]

Thanks all. So far I think I avoided splayed leg. The one I took out last night is very strong now and walking.

I had 13 in the incubator, only 4 hatched. I candled the remaining and confirmed no more development, so I cut them open and threw them out. I'd say 4 / 13 is a success as my first attempt was 0 / 11. I'm using eggs from my young male and his 3 females. I imagine he might have a poor fertilization rate here early on but I bet the next hatch will get better.

Next time I will use the puffy drawer liner material on the bottom. I also had an independent thermometer in there and it pretty consistently read at 37ish C (99-99.5 F) so the incubator at least wasn't lying there. I still haven't found a good hygrometer that isn't one of those cheap digital thermometer/hygrometer pairs (I heard the digital ones aren't super accurate)

 

[Rafnel]

In the future I can just leave them in for longer, I think this time I was just panicking about the splayed leg issue because of how many splits I was watching this 1 hour old quail do. So far this quail is walking normally now so I think I avoided splayed leg

 

[junior67]

I open my incubator quickly when I have pips. The humidity doesn't go down long enough to make a difference. I hatched with a few broodies last year as well and they would get off the nest after a pip and those babies hatched just fine and I have had zero with shrink wrap so I don't worry about it. No I wouldn't open for a long period of time or let the humidity drop down by not adding water but a few seconds to take out a chick isn't going to do anything. IMO.

 

[jimmywalt]

Dollar Tree - Non-slip drawer liner
https://www.dollartree.com/nonslip-shelf-liner-12x72-in/358571