Lmao, my last two hatches (concurrent, last month) where late but had some mountain quail so I figured I'd give them an extra week... Took them out and Broke one open to check on day 35 and it was alive but not completely developed so I put back into incubator. Day 38 1 hatched, most hatched days 44-47. One mountain hatched on day 48!
Talk about nailbiteing with ~$300+ worth of eggs!
It was my grandad-in-laws sportsman we where using and over the years hes adjusted the back holes smaller and smaller til they where all closed! I guess the eggs where incubated between 80-90 degrees and about 80% humidity. I figure the high humidity actually helped otherwise the eggs/chicks would have dried up.
All said and done, 8% hatch rate on wild turkeys. 5% for pheasant, 75% for valley, gambel, Mexican, and Snowflake and 50% for mountain quail! This proves more than anything else just how bad you can screw up and still Get a decent quail hatch rate! I also incubated at 107-8 degrees a few years ago ( my first hatch) and after culling some feet problem birds I still had over a 50% (surviving) hatch rate.
My grandad-in-law has a calibrated cigar box hydrometer, a couple calibrated thermometers, and nice brand new manual printed out for him (never had one bought the incubator secondhand)
I tried TSC for thermometers but their old fashion non adjustable incubator/brooder thermometers (little giamnt???) ranged from 50-85 degrees (store was about 68 degrees)
What this taught me is folks been hatching for many years before calibrated thermometers, 99.5 is target, but anything close is good enough for quail!
