Kay, I have 22 healthy, adorable, spunky, active Pharoah Coturnix Quails in my brooder (all hatched out very early morning- first at 1 am...on day 18).
I purchased 100 eggs from Red Oaks farm, they sent me about 130....about 10 of those were cracked from shipping, and I can't even remember how many others I noticed under candling had cracks and weren't fertile on day 7 (i should have counted them because I could have dont percentages better)....anywhooo... after that I was stoked I had about 70 eggs in my brooder (not an exact number, prob more like in the upper 60s--again I did not have the pacience to sit there and try to count out all these spotted eggs in my small incubator window ha ha-- so the number is more than likely not exact...)!!!
Anywhoo, out of those TONS of eggs all I have to show for it is these adorable 22 chicks (they are adorable im happy I atleast got them however i want to know what i did wrong).
I know people on here are going to wag their fingers at me for what im about to say but i am greatful I was impacient. There was some eggs that just hours after I stopped turning them on day 14 started rockin and rolling. Well when today rolled around, and chicks started popping out like mad, I realized the ones that i saw rolling on the first day had no pips no nothing...so i delicatly opened the air cell enough to shine a light in.....DEAD.....the membrain around them sucked to their little bodies.....I assume they suffocated!?!?! The membrane was abnormally TOUGH almost like leather. When I went through 4 of the eggs like this finding all had dead chicks inside, I paniced and opened up every remaining eggs aircell just enough to look in...a few I found were struggling to get out of the egg but to no avail (stuck to the membrane)....those chicks (about 7) are healthy and fine...I had to physically remove them by soaking a q tip in warm water and delicately removing the membrane with tweezers (they had already absorbed the blood and yolk) once i did that they popped out like...well a chick that REALLy wants out of it's egg.
They were hot....they felt hotter than what 100 should feel like...but maybe i was just thinking that. I did have 23 chicks but one died at about 4 pm, but had been having trouble getting around since it hatched.
My temps hovered around at 99.7-100 humidity was at 60-70. From begining incubation i kept the temps around 99.5-99.7 for the most part, the one day it did drop down to 96 for a few hours but obviously it didnt kill any of the chicks..a.nd ofcoursewhen i'd go in to roll the eggs the temps would normally drop down to 98 for about 15 mins or so. The humidity i kept around 40.
So....where did i go wrong??? I know opening the air cell isn't the smartest thing, but it saved 6-7 chicks lives...I wish I could have realized something was wrong sooner, I could have saved a lot more...all the chciks that were dead, had their yolks and viens fulled absorbed....it was really disheartening to see and know they suffered and died....for something i am not sure what I did wrong....
ANy thoughts???
By the way, I finnally saw a chick hatch before my eyes...I only got to notice it happening because I HEARD it hatching "CRUNCH SNAP CRUNCH!!!!" and ofcourse "PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP!!!" it took that chick from pip to zip...5 minutes if that....I was stunned!!! I filmed just a few seconds of it, however my camera is blurry at close focus....stupid thing..
The major reason i want to know what i did wrong is because i have Sams jumbo eggs still in the incubator due to hatch on thursday or friday...i stop turning now (since it's midnight ofcourse lol). I am dreading it...i am so scared since all those chicks died, that what if Sams are dead already..i'll almost cry if none hatch...they came to me perfect I want atleast a few to hatch for me or im gonna be bummed...however Sam will just have to deal with me ordering more from him either here soon (if he has any ofcourse) or next spring he he....but I was so looking forward to these ones...and gosh...i'll just be devisated...i just want to know waht i did wrong...with the temps humidity or what...so maybe somehow i can save these ones or if anything avoid it from happening in the future...
The only thing i can note is it was VERY hard to get my incubator to go up into the 60-70s I put in very warm water in cups and soaked paper towels of warm water in teh incubator on the day i stopped turning...it took really until day 17 before the humidity raised....I am wondering if this lack of moisture caused all of this...however from the 17th to the 18th...it was almost in the 80s humidity wise (almost). Right now it's at 72....dont know how i got it to stay up there now, because it was extreemly hard to even get it to this point, but now that it is im keeping my fingers crossed that it stays in this range as my theory is the humidity was too low for a crutial point in the hatching process but i may be wrong...this is all still a learning experience for me so I want some advice any! LOL!
Here is the peepers I do have...
This below is "PorkChop" the one I actually got to watch hatch- he was the FIRST to hatch too (picture taken early morning he's all fluffy and spunky now):
By the way i ordered just Pharoahs from Red Oaks...and two of the chicks are patterned different...im not sure but they look very similar in markings to my splash button quail, im curious if any of you guys may know if these two my be "tuxedo" coturnixs or if they're just differently marked chicks that will mature to look like normal pharoahs?
Heres the "owl looking" chicks well one of them the other looks identical to this one, one of them has yellow tips on the wings as well though they both might i havent looked at them both in any major detial yet just letting them be chicks but i did notice the difference on their heads and backs almost immediatly:
thanks for any help!
sorry so long!
Niki
edited due to major typos LOL!
I purchased 100 eggs from Red Oaks farm, they sent me about 130....about 10 of those were cracked from shipping, and I can't even remember how many others I noticed under candling had cracks and weren't fertile on day 7 (i should have counted them because I could have dont percentages better)....anywhooo... after that I was stoked I had about 70 eggs in my brooder (not an exact number, prob more like in the upper 60s--again I did not have the pacience to sit there and try to count out all these spotted eggs in my small incubator window ha ha-- so the number is more than likely not exact...)!!!
Anywhoo, out of those TONS of eggs all I have to show for it is these adorable 22 chicks (they are adorable im happy I atleast got them however i want to know what i did wrong).
I know people on here are going to wag their fingers at me for what im about to say but i am greatful I was impacient. There was some eggs that just hours after I stopped turning them on day 14 started rockin and rolling. Well when today rolled around, and chicks started popping out like mad, I realized the ones that i saw rolling on the first day had no pips no nothing...so i delicatly opened the air cell enough to shine a light in.....DEAD.....the membrain around them sucked to their little bodies.....I assume they suffocated!?!?! The membrane was abnormally TOUGH almost like leather. When I went through 4 of the eggs like this finding all had dead chicks inside, I paniced and opened up every remaining eggs aircell just enough to look in...a few I found were struggling to get out of the egg but to no avail (stuck to the membrane)....those chicks (about 7) are healthy and fine...I had to physically remove them by soaking a q tip in warm water and delicately removing the membrane with tweezers (they had already absorbed the blood and yolk) once i did that they popped out like...well a chick that REALLy wants out of it's egg.
They were hot....they felt hotter than what 100 should feel like...but maybe i was just thinking that. I did have 23 chicks but one died at about 4 pm, but had been having trouble getting around since it hatched.
My temps hovered around at 99.7-100 humidity was at 60-70. From begining incubation i kept the temps around 99.5-99.7 for the most part, the one day it did drop down to 96 for a few hours but obviously it didnt kill any of the chicks..a.nd ofcoursewhen i'd go in to roll the eggs the temps would normally drop down to 98 for about 15 mins or so. The humidity i kept around 40.
So....where did i go wrong??? I know opening the air cell isn't the smartest thing, but it saved 6-7 chicks lives...I wish I could have realized something was wrong sooner, I could have saved a lot more...all the chciks that were dead, had their yolks and viens fulled absorbed....it was really disheartening to see and know they suffered and died....for something i am not sure what I did wrong....
ANy thoughts???
By the way, I finnally saw a chick hatch before my eyes...I only got to notice it happening because I HEARD it hatching "CRUNCH SNAP CRUNCH!!!!" and ofcourse "PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP!!!" it took that chick from pip to zip...5 minutes if that....I was stunned!!! I filmed just a few seconds of it, however my camera is blurry at close focus....stupid thing..
The major reason i want to know what i did wrong is because i have Sams jumbo eggs still in the incubator due to hatch on thursday or friday...i stop turning now (since it's midnight ofcourse lol). I am dreading it...i am so scared since all those chicks died, that what if Sams are dead already..i'll almost cry if none hatch...they came to me perfect I want atleast a few to hatch for me or im gonna be bummed...however Sam will just have to deal with me ordering more from him either here soon (if he has any ofcourse) or next spring he he....but I was so looking forward to these ones...and gosh...i'll just be devisated...i just want to know waht i did wrong...with the temps humidity or what...so maybe somehow i can save these ones or if anything avoid it from happening in the future...
The only thing i can note is it was VERY hard to get my incubator to go up into the 60-70s I put in very warm water in cups and soaked paper towels of warm water in teh incubator on the day i stopped turning...it took really until day 17 before the humidity raised....I am wondering if this lack of moisture caused all of this...however from the 17th to the 18th...it was almost in the 80s humidity wise (almost). Right now it's at 72....dont know how i got it to stay up there now, because it was extreemly hard to even get it to this point, but now that it is im keeping my fingers crossed that it stays in this range as my theory is the humidity was too low for a crutial point in the hatching process but i may be wrong...this is all still a learning experience for me so I want some advice any! LOL!
Here is the peepers I do have...
This below is "PorkChop" the one I actually got to watch hatch- he was the FIRST to hatch too (picture taken early morning he's all fluffy and spunky now):
By the way i ordered just Pharoahs from Red Oaks...and two of the chicks are patterned different...im not sure but they look very similar in markings to my splash button quail, im curious if any of you guys may know if these two my be "tuxedo" coturnixs or if they're just differently marked chicks that will mature to look like normal pharoahs?
Heres the "owl looking" chicks well one of them the other looks identical to this one, one of them has yellow tips on the wings as well though they both might i havent looked at them both in any major detial yet just letting them be chicks but i did notice the difference on their heads and backs almost immediatly:
thanks for any help!
sorry so long!
Niki
edited due to major typos LOL!
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