Bad hatch need advice...

[Pequena ave]

I think I’m glad living here in a dry climate instead of high humidity, whew that’s humid outside…. We might need to dress up because of the cold but at least we can take off a few layers when we get hot..

This is a tricky one to figure out. If temp is too low it prolongs the hatch days, and if pipped for more than 24 hours, they will dry out. If the chicks can’t do their thing to get unzipped after 12 hrs pipped I will start to investigate, and will peel back some of the shell, and I can tell if they wanna get out of there, but I will not completely unzip them, I will leave just enough where they have to push out when they are ready. People say, don't help out chicks that can't unzip because their are the weak ones and you don't want them in your flock. Yes I will help them out because it is me who did something wrong with humidity or temp, the chicks know what they are supposed to do, and I will give them a helping hand.
I can only suggest that it’s a learning curve we all go through and just get better going forward.

You got yourself a nice mixture. I had silver tux male, I did like the color but for some reason all I was getting were males. The ones I kept I found to be a little too aggressive with the girls, they fought like hell when handled and the ones I had for meat don't seem to get as big as the pharaoh, so after some thought I decided to dispatch all silver tux and settled with pharaohs. They get bigger and seem to be so tame and gentle.
Enjoy your flock! Here's hoping to a better hatch next time...

 

[FloorCandy]

To lower humidity you can put dry rice inside the incubator, you can use little net bags like wedding favors, or little cups, but be sure to remove at lockdown so they can’t eat any. Your dry chicks dried out because the incubator was open too long while they were pipped, or they took way too long to hatch and dried out in the shell. Too high humidity will make the chicks bellies swell, I believe, which makes them have trouble getting in the correct position and hatching.

you can also run a dehumidifier in the room with the incubator.

Legs straight out sound like slipped tendons, and that’s usually more related to nutrition than humidity I think. I ordered eggs, and got several cross legged, bent leg bones, toes curled into a little fist, and then many healthy ones started slipping tendons over the first week. Someone who is in vet school told me it was the nutrition of the parents. The next generation of the survivors and my existing quail had none of those issues.

To test for slipped tendons, take the affected leg, gently pinch the hock (knee) between your thumb and index finger on either side. Roll the joint between your fingers gently. If the tendon is slipped, it will snap back into place, you’ll feel it. Some people tape the hock to keep it in place, but I’ve found they will keep slipping it anyway, and it’s beat to cull before you get attached.

 

[FloorCandy]

Also did you say the eggs were $100 for 44 eggs? That’s crazy expensive. I don’t ship, but I do sell 100% celadon eggs locally for 24 eggs for $15. Every bird hatched from my eggs will have 2 copies of the celadon gene. I see far too many hatcheries that offer a less than 100% celadon rate, and tbh it’s shameful, if you don’t guarantee 100% it shouldn’t be more pricey than normal eggs imo.

 

[Pequena ave]

P.s.
Here's a trick I use that I learned from someone else and have had very high fertility rate among the eggs I chose that will go into incubator. I might have a dud here and there but am amazing how many eggs are viable with this method.
I candle all eggs and choose the ones that look almost all clear with no dark spot or blob before i incubate any egg. A clear egg indicates it's fertile. A dark blob indicates non fertile.
I was very skeptical about this method but IIke what I was told..... if you don't believe me .. try it.... so I did... I was blown away. I almost had 99.8 % fertility rate with every egg and chick development to lock down with most of them hatching. Just to prove this I also choose some that had dark blobs and marked these as duds....99.998% they turned up as duds!!
Like Holy Quail...this method works!.
if you don't believe me.. give it a try.......
Since your eggs cost you monie I would put all eggs into incubator but see if you can determine which ones might be duds and mark them. Going forward with hypothesis don't waste space with eggs that aren't fertile to begin with. Good luck.

 

[Petermariah]

Thank you all for the great advice. My goal is to get a good breeding group going so that I can sell quail chicks at a local farmers market along with chicken eggs. I plan to brood each group for a few weeks so that they are not super weak and then sell them for $6-8 each. I feel that the varied colors will maybe attract buyers since I think most people mostly see the plain brown ones. I found another breeder in Missouri that I’m going to order from next time that’s a bit cheaper and I’m getting a variety pack of colors (not celadon). I have no choice but to order and ship because no one around here sales eggs or chicks. But once I get going my eggs will only cost the price of feed. I have a career, this is not a money making venture just trying to break even with a fun hobby. I started with chickens in April 2020 and I’m a few thousand dollars invested due to coops runs etc. so just trying to make a little bit of money so that my husband quits giving me side eye every time I go to Tractor Supply.