1st time hatch... Are eggs supposed to do this...(Button Quail)

[KellyHM]

The small ends are supposed to be tipped slightly down so that the chicks pip at the large end where the air cell is. It's natural for them to want to pip "upwards," so it would be bad if the small end was sticking up. I think they'll do fine. Good luck!!

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

Quote:
Thank you.. I sure hope they are fine.. After looking at the eggs again.. I think I see only 2 that are not doing the small end tilted down thing now.. Thats what I was thinking, maybe that is so they will pip at the right end?? Im new so have no idea.. And I have never even watched a hatch.. And my home made incubator, well it is a bit iffy.. I really need to get some thing to tell the humidity too..

P.S..
I havent had time to read all the *stickys*. I have two small kids at home. And eggs to watch.. But I have read quiet a few.. Im still clueless.. And a bit nervous that this wont work.. I have a 6 year old, she gets sad at the thought of them all being "dead".

 

[twigg]

warez*sunny :

Quote:
Thank you.. I sure hope they are fine.. After looking at the eggs again.. I think I see only 2 that are not doing the small end tilted down thing now.. Thats what I was thinking, maybe that is so they will pip at the right end?? Im new so have no idea.. And I have never even watched a hatch.. And my home made incubator, well it is a bit iffy.. I really need to get some thing to tell the humidity too..

P.S..
I havent had time to read all the *stickys*. I have two small kids at home. And eggs to watch.. But I have read quiet a few.. Im still clueless.. And a bit nervous that this wont work.. I have a 6 year old, she gets sad at the thought of them all being "dead".

Sometimes it doesn't work.

The problem you will have is that you won't know WHY it didn't work, should that be the result. That reduces your chances of more success next time and, ultimately, will end up with you being disillusioned.

Incubating doesn't respond well to much in the way of guesswork.

For example ... you say you have 3 night light bulbs for heat. This is borderline for even a small incubator. Your heater is about 21W. Even the small Genesis and Hovabators have 25W, and they are actually quite difficult to keep stable. We are talking about 1/2 a degree F stability, for 3 weeks. Less accuracy than that and you can't be sure that temp. fluctuations didn't cause problems.

Humidity is less critical, but still important. Yours might be close to perfect, but without knowing what it is, you wouldn't know if 10 dead-in-shells were caused by low humidity or not ....

See what I mean?

Incubation is actually very simple, but it isn't always easy. Take a chicken egg .... keep a good egg at 99.5 and 50% humidity for 18 days, turn it regularly. Then keep it at 70% humidity for 3 days, and a chick will emerge .... simple.

This demands at least a hat-tip to accuracy.

We all have to learn and BYC is a great place for help and support, but it is important that the basics are adhered to for us to offer any meaningful advice. It doesn't need to cost $$$ either. A decent temp/humidity meter can be had for less than $10, and a secondhand Hovabator for under $50.

Keep going, and good luck.

edited - thanks for kindly worded reminder

 

[Akane]

Stop turning at day 14 and wait until day 22 before you give up on them. Buttons will wait and wait and wait and then all of a sudden start popping out of their eggs like crazy.

As for the tipping a little is normal. A lot I found means the egg has dried up inside and weighted the end. My eggs that kept flipping back over and were really leaning all turned out to be a dried up egg yolk that had done nothing when I broke them open. I think buttons do better with a slightly higher humidity than chickens. Humidity could be a problem in your incubator since your using vents to control temp. For some reason I also found it harder to keep the humidity up with my button eggs than with chicken eggs. They don't seem to have as much moisture to lose as chicken eggs. I suppose it might have to do with the fact button eggs have alot more yolk and less white.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Take a chicken egg .... keep a good egg at 95.5

95.5???????

Good luck with your babies. I hope all turns out great!!!​

 

[arlee453]

With buttons, all you can do is set them, turn them and hope for the best.

You can't really candle them.

Stop turning on day 14 and then sit on your hands and DON'T open that bator!

As Akane said, they seem to all just pop out at once.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
95.5???????

Good luck with your babies. I hope all turns out great!!!

Did you never have a typo?

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
95.5???????

Good luck with your babies. I hope all turns out great!!!

Did you never have a typo?

Ummmmmmmm..........YEAH!!!

I am sure we all have. Was just wondering if you REALLY thought it should be 95.5.

 

[deerman]

Oh yes but need to be changed.


99.5

 

[twigg]

Quote:
Did you never have a typo?

Ummmmmmmm..........YEAH!!!

I am sure we all have. Was just wondering if you REALLY thought it should be 95.5.

Really? My post was so amateurish, and lacking in insight that 95.5 might be something I meant?

Did you not see any other posts I made today?

We just had a webcam for all to see a 100% hatch rate from home produced eggs in a homemade incubator. Today!

You might have helped a little more by replying:

What Twigg said, except he meant 99.5 rather than 95.5