240 quail hatch

[Darkestcon]

Got 240 eggs shipped from James Marie Farms. 13 damaged in shipping.

GQF 1502 Incubator


100F, 50% hum no wicking pad 15 days
100f, 60% hum half wicking pad for hatch days =3

Day 16 begining of hatch 1 out at least 20 pips. Many more moving.

My only concern at this point is the Dac paper that comes with the incubator. i figured id give it a shot as its supposed to provide footing as well as absorption. First chick has not stood up yet concerned there is no footing. All the eggs are on the sheet and not sure about pulling them out and putting down screen at this point. As it may harm the hatch.

Not sure if anyone has any interest in the hatch rates performance of machine etc. But if there is interest I will continue to post and answer any questions.

 

[mdees88]

Interested in hatch rates and performance of the machine.... keep us posted.

 

[Darkestcon]

So i made a decision to pull the whole tray and remove eggs lay down window screen that was cut to fit. return the eggs. and put back in. 4 of us working rapidly did it in about 3 minutes. trying to ensure eggs came out and went back in, in same positions. hatched baby is already standing up now. and toes are straight from being able to grip.

pretty confident that 3 minutes of low humidity and the very low amount of warmth lost wont be harmful.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

I doubt if there is a soul on here that dont enjoy seeing a hatch good or bad ! Umm, What do you DO with that many ? Sell, eat?

 

[Darkestcon]

I doubt if there is a soul on here that dont enjoy seeing a hatch good or bad ! Umm, What do you DO with that many ? Sell, eat?

We need 60 for our battery system 15 males 45 female. so we need more than that to get the right ratio. We are selling any excess at 3$ each. we already have people on standby willing to buy 100 of them.

We do eat them. my 12 year old is the boss when it comes to the quail and she has talked to a local butcher and he wants us to start out supplying him with 48 live adult birds per month. at 3$ each. Doesnt seem like much but since its a regular reaccuring order and all money goes to my daughter its fairly considerable. We hope to hit up a few other shops within a 200 mile radius and get a good customer base. Her business and if lucky this could grow into a legit business that brings Really good money for her.

 

[mdees88]

I've been hatching out on regular paper towels and they've worked just fine. I intended to use Scott shop towels but I was out of them.

I have a GQF 1266 and have hatched 2 batches of 50 eggs from JMF. Both were a 74% hatch rate on total eggs set. One was 90 and the other was 95% on viable eggs at lockdown.

If you pulled all the eggs out after they had already pipped I would try and keep the humidity very high in the incubator for the rest of the hatch. I did 3 staggered hatches 1-2 days apart and I did have some shrink wrapped chick's that died and I had to assist several more for the first time (from opening the incubator several times while they were pipped). They pipped but never zipped and the membrane was rather darkand dry.

Hopefully yours will be good. But I wouldn't recommend opening the incubator during lockdown at all. Sounds like yall were real quick about it though.... that's good.

I typically run two pads at lockdown and open my vents up a little more to keep the humidity around 68-69% during the hatch. Anymore than that and I get a ton of condensation inside my incubator.

 

[Darkestcon]

I've been hatching out on regular paper towels and they've worked just fine. I intended to use Scott shop towels but I was out of them.

I have a GQF 1266 and have hatched 2 batches of 50 eggs from JMF. Both were a 74% hatch rate on total eggs set. One was 90 and the other was 95% on viable eggs at lockdown.

If you pulled all the eggs out after they had already pipped I would try and keep the humidity very high in the incubator for the rest of the hatch. I did 3 staggered hatches 1-2 days apart and I did have some shrink wrapped chick's that died and I had to assist several more for the first time (from opening the incubator several times while they were pipped). They pipped but never zipped and the membrane was rather dark.

Hopefully yours will be good. But I wouldn't recommend opening the incubator during lockdown at all. Sounds like yall were real quick about it though.... that's good.

I typically run two pads at lockdown and open my vents up a little more to keep the humidity around 68-69% durine the hatch. Anymore than that and I get a ton of condensation inside my incubator.

Yeah we talked to the owner over at James marie today about humidity etc at hatch. he actually advised no increase in humidity or at most 60. I really didnt want to open it but we felt that the Dac paper was too slippery as 30 min after hatch the bird was still spread eagle toes still curled. After the screen slapped in he was up and moving fine after about 30 seconds.

Staggered has to be more complicated with that humidity. hoping we dont have to hit that any time soon lol.

looks good had 2 more hatch in last 3 min. hoping goes well. will keep updating.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

12 years.. thats awesome. I wish her well. Good luck on this hatch. I bet it will look like

 

[mdees88]

Robbie would know.... GQF manual states 68-80% humidity during lockdown. I would have an inch of water in my incubator at 80%. If I keep it at 65 I'm happy...

Wish I could get a regular customer like that. I would love to hatch on a regular basis. Craigslist is a little unpredictable...

Good luck with the hatch

 

[Darkestcon]

11:00 day 17 and we are up to around 15 and with more popping. So looking good so far. down side to the GQF is window view is not the greatest. not horrid but not the greatest. Temp holding same as expected humidity rose to 64% and returned to 61%.