➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[FloorCandy]

I did what you told me, but it was hard! Given your experience with quail hatching, I have a quick question? One of the late night pips is now a dime sized hole and I can see the little beak moving and breathing--I have been checking every 20 mins for the last 3 hours and there's been no progress. Is this normal? Okay to keep waiting, or should I begin worrying that it needs help at some point soon? I don't want to make things tougher for it...I haven't seen any new pips this morning either...so far just the three before bed, and one that is working on getting out. Thank you!

Is this hole in the proper spot, the fat end of the egg, if it is, go shopping. If it is in the middle of the side of the egg, watch for the edges of the membrane to start turning brown.

 

[kurby22]

Is this hole in the proper spot, the fat end of the egg, if it is, go shopping. If it is in the middle of the side of the egg, watch for the edges of the membrane to start turning brown.

It is on the fat end of the egg! I was hoping that was a good sign Okay, I will try really hard to focus on work (yeah right...) and then go shopping!

 

[FloorCandy]

I’m setting a staggered hatch, I just added 3 trays to the brinsea, I have one tray in that hatches next week I think.

This is kind of an iffy group, 2 weeks ago I had separated my sex link group, I left my scarlet messy tux boy,and I added Tiger Millionaire, my pharaoh tux. I took out the Tibetan messy tux girls, and left 6 nice Tibetan tuxes and added all of the oldest group of snowie/celadon carrier hens. Not everyone is laying, some are early eggs, still small, but I figured there’s room in the bator, why not try? I also added eggs from my last years hens who are with a young snowie/ celadon carrier male (not sure he has the hang of it yet).

This hatch will probably have lower fertility as all the hens are about year old or just starting out. I’m hoping for some new Tibetan tuxes, I have one hen who is younger, and she’s got some white spots on her back area, I’m hoping to work toward a more panda pattern in the tuxes so they’re more white with broken patches of color on their backs.

There are 47 of tux and snowie/celadon carriers, they’re all together because I’ll only be keeping blue laying hens in both groups. Then I have 14 from the snow angels, 1 is a double yolker. This includes 9 from my celadon hen that’s in the snow angel cage, so I’m pushing the limits on fertility there as well. I’m hoping for 8 new Tibetan tux hens, and I’ll be happy if I get 3-4 celadon laying snowies or other variations from them (SSC range, Italian, autumn amber, fees, etc).

I’ll probably set 2 more trays of the snowie celadon/tuxes when the older eggs hatch next week. I really love this brinsea ovation, it does great with staggered hatches.

 

[Kiki]

Not quite two weeks old yet.
I can spot a few boys.

 

[muddy75]

My dummies....bigger than the button now at 2 weeks!!! Looks like a pansy fee, 3 Rosetta, 1 silver, 1 pastel, and 1 wild or Egyptian

 

[RUNuts]

Ouch

 

[muddy75]

Ouch
View attachment 2629262

That looks almost as big as some of my pheasant eggs!!!!

 

[sealer39]

So my 1st incubation is complete. I set 45 Myshire Jumbo Mix. I gave the other 15 to my ex-wife to hatch.

45 set
22 clears
17 hatched
5 died sometime after developing
1 died just after it hatched
So that’s 70.8% for the eggs that started to develop.
I don’t think that’s to bad for my first hatch. However, it’s right at the point where I don’t know what to adjust if anything. If I had a 50% or lower hatch rate I would know to make major changes in the process. If the hatch rate were in the high 80s to 90s I wouldn’t change a thing.
I’ll wait to see how my ex’s results are and then see if she wants to compare notes.

 

[Nabiki]

I have a broody hen. She's my first. Yesterday she was hiding in the grass, today she had dug in a bit and was pulling every bit of grass within her reach closer. I only found two eggs in the pen, so I reached under her, and there were four more. Normally, none of my birds would stay put if I were moving them to get eggs. She didn't move. All four eggs were nice and toasty warm.

I felt bad taking them from her, but I need to ship them out tomorrow. She can have tomorrow's eggs. I'll mark them so she doesn't gather too many and see what happens.

 

[muddy75]

So my 1st incubation is complete. I set 45 Myshire Jumbo Mix. I gave the other 15 to my ex-wife to hatch.

45 set
22 clears
17 hatched
5 died sometime after developing
1 died just after it hatched
So that’s 70.8% for the eggs that started to develop.
I don’t think that’s to bad for my first hatch. However, it’s right at the point where I don’t know what to adjust if anything. If I had a 50% or lower hatch rate I would know to make major changes in the process. If the hatch rate were in the high 80s to 90s I wouldn’t change a thing.
I’ll wait to see how my ex’s results are and then see if she wants to compare notes.
View attachment 2629305

Congratulations on your first hatch!!!! The number of clears sounds abnormally high even for the jumbos variety. I would definitely recommend comparing notes with the ex and maybe discussing that number with Zack to see if he has any idea as to what the cause could have been.