Large hatch in LG incubator, and flock size question

[bryan8]

I have a little giant incubator that ive had for a few years. I just added a fan and did a bunch too it, and now it holds temp and humidity great!

I have the older style lg 6200 egg turner with the metal rails and the click in cups. These cups are a little big for quail because they are meant for chicken eggs, so the quail eggs rock around a little. I was looking into getting the small egg cups for quail (having a very hard time finding any ) and they come a pack of 59 so that would be a total of 118 quail eggs it could hold.

Would I have any issues doing 118 eggs in this bator? It says that it can hold 118 but it just would seem cramped to me.

I have 34 quail now, and want to get about 40 females and 10 males so that would be 4:1 female to male ratio. I have 22 eggs going on lock down tomorrow so after they hatch I wanted to save eggs and do a batch of 80-100 eggs in the bator. Id get close to my 50 number with this hatch and cull the extra males for meat. Than the 80-100 hatch would totally refresh my birds, and I could sell my old birds off and id have a ton of meat for the freezer.

Any input?

Bryan

 

[veggiecanner]

The jumbo brown eggs I am getting won't fit in the modern plastic rails.

 

[Sycamore27]

Veggiecanner makes a good point, I would check reviews on the cups because it seems quail egg turner accessories are often sized for button quail eggs. I've heard of many people having to space out eggs or modify quail rails in the other style turner to fit coturnix eggs, especially jumbos.

That aside, if you have the room to brood and grow out that many I don't see why not. Just be sure you can handle that much of a jump in flock size labor/energy wise is the only advice I'd offer.

Good luck, I'd love to see pictures of your operation if you do get it going at that size(or even if not)!

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[bryan8]

Thanks for the input! I guess ill just see how many of the chicken cups I can fit in than since there free might as well just use them

Bryan

 

[veggiecanner]

If you have a scale for reference most of my jumbo brown eggs range in the 13-13.5 gram range. With a few in the 14 gram range.
That's with 12 week old hens. They started out with eggs at 11 gram sizes.
I was told to use chukar egg cups, And one breeder told me to just use chicken cups. But The chicken cups they reffered to had several rings in each cup allowing for better egg support.
I ended up just buying a incubator with no turner.
I am not sure you'll know till you have some eggs to try in the cups.