all who are hatching quail

[itsvidi]

I have incubated white coturnix quail eggs in a home made incubator. It has been 21 days now. I checked it in warm water, all eggs were floating.
I am getting disappointed now. Shall I wait? or accept that my incubator was fail :S

 

[deadeye]

I have a batch of JMF Jumbo eggs (first hatch for me), which went into lockdown tonight. 6 out of 50 were not fertile, so they came out. Others were completely black when candled and many are now wiggling in the incubator I am so excited!

Temp is great, humidity is spot on (and has been all this while), so now we just need to stay away and let them hatch!!! This is quite nerve-wrecking!!! Loving it!

And, indicently, this weekend (today and yesterday) my 5.5 week old Texas A&Ms started laying! Such a great weekend all around.

Hope

P.S. I read in many places that quail should not be 'helped' during hatching period, yet many posted that they do if it's been a while with no progress, because if they will die anyway - what is there to lose?
Any opinion on when I should consider helping??? When the little guy has pipped but not unzipped in 24 hours or what would you suggest?
Thanks!

i had 3 in my last hatch that pipped but werent unzipping. i helped all of them and all ended up just fine. use extreame caution when you are doing it. if you tear one of the blood vessels in the egg from what i understand they can bleed to death. so i made sure i was only opening it up in the air pocket.

 

[Hope It]

i had 3 in my last hatch that pipped but werent unzipping. i helped all of them and all ended up just fine. use extreame caution when you are doing it. if you tear one of the blood vessels in the egg from what i understand they can bleed to death. so i made sure i was only opening it up in the air pocket.

awesome! Appreciate the advise.

please tell me in a little more detail how you did it. Did you wait for them to do it on their own for a while or how long from time they pipped? Or should I give them every opportunity (thorugh day 20 or something)? It seems if you let them go too long, they'll just die of exhaustion...

also, on some eggs I can see an air pocket through candling, but on some I can't. So, if I can't locate the air pocket, should I just peel the shell off gently near where they pipped?

Any additional details/advice from your experience would be MUCH appreciated!

 

[deadeye]

awesome! Appreciate the advise.

please tell me in a little more detail how you did it. Did you wait for them to do it on their own for a while or how long from time they pipped? Or should I give them every opportunity (thorugh day 20 or something)? It seems if you let them go too long, they'll just die of exhaustion...

also, on some eggs I can see an air pocket through candling, but on some I can't. So, if I can't locate the air pocket, should I just peel the shell off gently near where they pipped?

Any additional details/advice from your experience would be MUCH appreciated!

i waited about 24 hrs after they first pipped. one of mine was actualy pipped on the wrong end, his beak wasnt in the air cell. the other two it almost seemed as though the shell was thicker than normal. what i did was chip the shell away around the pip. i tried not to tear the membrane. once i got enough shell away that i felt they could get out i put them back in the bator and upped my humidity to 85%. not long after i helped they were out and walking around just fine. i cannot tell the birds appart from any other so they didnt seem to have any problem other than though shell. i wont hesitate to do it again in future hatches. i feel if i hadnt done anything they would have surely died.

 

[nazredhens]

I have a batch of JMF Jumbo eggs (first hatch for me), which went into lockdown tonight. 6 out of 50 were not fertile, so they came out. Others were completely black when candled and many are now wiggling in the incubator I am so excited!

Temp is great, humidity is spot on (and has been all this while), so now we just need to stay away and let them hatch!!! This is quite nerve-wrecking!!! Loving it!

And, indicently, this weekend (today and yesterday) my 5.5 week old Texas A&Ms started laying! Such a great weekend all around.

Hope

P.S. I read in many places that quail should not be 'helped' during hatching period, yet many posted that they do if it's been a while with no progress, because if they will die anyway - what is there to lose?
Any opinion on when I should consider helping??? When the little guy has pipped but not unzipped in 24 hours or what would you suggest?
Thanks!

My first hatching took place 2 weeks ago with 68 JMF eggs, I stupidly helped hatch 5, one was an accident. I just put my 3rd chick down today that I think I helped hatch due to being unable to walk on one leg. So now that leaves two and one of those has a severely crooked neck but gets around okay but is half the size of the others. My advice is to leave them alone because it will be much more difficult later to do the humane thing and cull them for birth defects and problems. I had a bunch pip and break through and then die in the shell. I read something by a person in another thread that said they had hatched four thousand chicks and had only helped 3 in the years they had been hatching chicks. After I read that I kicked myself and won't do it again.

 

[Hope It]

thanks for sharing your experience also! I know it should be the last resort, just thinking if they will die anyway... At this point, I'm just hoping I won't be in a position to decide. I'll remain positive!

Is it normal for some eggs to wiggle and some not at all? I'm worried, as some are constantly moving and some - never. They all candled OK. I guess I'll just wait and see.

Hope

 

[nazredhens]

thanks for sharing your experience also! I know it should be the last resort, just thinking if they will die anyway... At this point, I'm just hoping I won't be in a position to decide. I'll remain positive!

Is it normal for some eggs to wiggle and some not at all? I'm worried, as some are constantly moving and some - never. They all candled OK. I guess I'll just wait and see.

Hope

That was my reasoning as well, that they would die anyway. It was very difficult for me to put put them out of their misery later after caring for them and doctoring them and seeing them suffer. As for some wiggling and others not, yep totally what I experienced. They ones that wiggled a lot I expected to pop out right away but in most cases it was the ones I didn't see moving that would surprise me and pop out pretty quick. Oh and mine didn't start hatching until the 19th day and last one on day 21, lots of temp fluctuations during incubation may have been a contributing factor to a somewhat later hatch and deformities. Such an exciting time to watch your first hatch! Happy hatching!

 

[falconertomt]

That was my reasoning as well, that they would die anyway. It was very difficult for me to put put them out of their misery later after caring for them and doctoring them and seeing them suffer. As for some wiggling and others not, yep totally what I experienced. They ones that wiggled a lot I expected to pop out right away but in most cases it was the ones I didn't see moving that would surprise me and pop out pretty quick. Oh and mine didn't start hatching until the 19th day and last one on day 21, lots of temp fluctuations during incubation may have been a contributing factor to a somewhat later hatch and deformities. Such an exciting time to watch your first hatch! Happy hatching!

All of mine rocked before hatching, though some much more than others. Some rocked a lot and hatched after others that rocked less. Rocking can be the chick moving into position to hatch just as much as hatching. Mine hatched in the 18-20 day range, and I stayed pretty steady (between 99-101).

 

[rachieboo]

Ive got 24 coturnix hatching this saturday with any luck!

 

[Graphite91]

I have 22 coturnix eggs in lockdown now. It's day 17, and I see pips on at least six of them! Eeeeeek I hope they hatch out ok, I am SO NERVOUS!!! ><