- Jan 23, 2015
- 66
- 3
- 43
So this was our first time hatching.
We ordered 60 quail eggs from up north. (mind it's winter time).
At lock down, I candled and could see mass in 42 eggs, not all the same amount so I knew some were not fully developed live eggs.
We hatched 14 quail. 1 died within a few hours of hatching.
1 pipped through the shell but didn't make it out.
But this is what really made me sad!- when dissecting the unhatched eggs, we found 8 fully grown feathery little birds that never made it out.
I don't know how they are suppose to be positioned exactly but I do know this.
- they all had a dry air sack in the top.
-none of them had pipped through the inner membrane
- I only saw one of them with it's beak pointed up toward the air sack. The rest of them were tucked inside.
What went wrong in the last days?
On day 13, I realized that my egg turner quit rotating a full rotation to one side for about 24 hours. I began help turning them for the next two days.
On day 14, I went into lock down, taking them out of the turner and laying them on their sides.
On day 16 I cranked the humidity up to 85% and kept the temp at 99.5 to 100.5 degrees
We got our first hatch on day 16, the majorty on day 17, and the last four on day 18. The bird that died was hatched on day 14.
Any suggestions so I don't repeat? This could be an expensive venture with those hatch rates...
It was heart breaking to see so many little birds left in their eggs.
We ordered 60 quail eggs from up north. (mind it's winter time).
At lock down, I candled and could see mass in 42 eggs, not all the same amount so I knew some were not fully developed live eggs.
We hatched 14 quail. 1 died within a few hours of hatching.
1 pipped through the shell but didn't make it out.
But this is what really made me sad!- when dissecting the unhatched eggs, we found 8 fully grown feathery little birds that never made it out.
I don't know how they are suppose to be positioned exactly but I do know this.
- they all had a dry air sack in the top.
-none of them had pipped through the inner membrane
- I only saw one of them with it's beak pointed up toward the air sack. The rest of them were tucked inside.
What went wrong in the last days?
On day 13, I realized that my egg turner quit rotating a full rotation to one side for about 24 hours. I began help turning them for the next two days.
On day 14, I went into lock down, taking them out of the turner and laying them on their sides.
On day 16 I cranked the humidity up to 85% and kept the temp at 99.5 to 100.5 degrees
We got our first hatch on day 16, the majorty on day 17, and the last four on day 18. The bird that died was hatched on day 14.
Any suggestions so I don't repeat? This could be an expensive venture with those hatch rates...
It was heart breaking to see so many little birds left in their eggs.
