Baby quail is stuck in the egg

[NatNZ]

All advice I’ve had in the past days don’t intervene, but I took your advice as the little quail wasn’t doing much at all and I hatched it, unfortunately I left it too long before intervening and the little baby died I am so sad it had out it’s head out a few times and ended up wrapping itself which when I removed it I thought yay it’s breathing but it died straight after. In future I will be intervening a lot sooner if zipped and not hatched. Thank you very much for your advice I’m glad I did help it but it had been that way for a bit too long unfortunately I have 38 eggs left in lockdown so I will wait and see how the rest do

 

[feedman77]

Sorry the little one didn't make it.

Good luck on the rest of your eggs.

I just finished at quail hatch. I assisted 8 that were some if the very last ones to hatch.

What I've found is most times when I help them there are reasons they couldn't make it out. Generally neck or leg issues.

Out of those 8. 4 have passed. But if Iwouldnt have tried all would have died.

 

[NatNZ]

Sorry the little one didn't make it.

Good luck on the rest of your eggs.

I just finished at quail hatch. I assisted 8 that were some if the very last ones to hatch.

What I've found is most times when I help them there are reasons they couldn't make it out. Generally neck or leg issues.

Out of those 8. 4 have passed. But if Iwouldnt have tried all would have died.

Thank you for all your advice and I am sorry to hear about the 4 that passed I wish you all the best with the remaining 4 that you helped, and yes I agree with you I believe you’ve got to try otherwise they may not have survived. Thanks again I will pop an update on the rest in a weeks time

 

[JaeG]

All advice I’ve had in the past days don’t intervene, but I took your advice as the little quail wasn’t doing much at all and I hatched it, unfortunately I left it too long before intervening and the little baby died I am so sad it had out it’s head out a few times and ended up wrapping itself which when I removed it I thought yay it’s breathing but it died straight after. In future I will be intervening a lot sooner if zipped and not hatched. Thank you very much for your advice I’m glad I did help it but it had been that way for a bit too long unfortunately I have 38 eggs left in lockdown so I will wait and see how the rest do

It's always difficult to figure out when/if to step in but I always like to give them a chance. Sometimes you are successful and sometimes not. As a rule of thumb if they have externally pipped but not progressed to unzipping after 24 hours they probably need help, though I've stepped in at that stage only to find active blood vessels in the membrane. And as Feedman 77 said, unzipping is generally pretty quick so if that stops they've got stuck. The important thing is to go slowly and try and assess what's going on. Peel back the shell and keep an eye out for blood vessels. A bit of coconut oil or similar is good for keeping the membrane moist to stop it drying out once exposed.

What's your humidity? It's important that is high enough (at least 60% - I like it around 75-80%) so the membrane doesn't start to dry out once they externally pip.

Quail are easy to incubate but can be very delicate in the first day or so, and you get the odd one that just doesn't seem to recover from hatching.

 

[NatNZ]

Thank you for the advice, none of my other eggs have pipped yet they were alive at lockdown I’m going to give them another week and just see if anything happens, if not I will try again with a new lot if fertile eggs. I had humidity at 55% all the way through and then increased it to 65% from lockdown and once I saw the pip I took it up to 70% for the hatch and was hoping the more would start however it was just the one and it didn’t make it hence just giving it a few more days to be sure before I pull the plug on this lot. Again thank you for your comments