Button eggs; Do I have a chance?

[Pent]

I've probably made almost every mistake possible during the course of my button egg incubation, it'll be a miracle if any of them hatch. . Today the humidity dropped to 23%... re-filled the water dish and sprayed the eggs with a mist of water, I hope they recover. I moved the incubator at one point, I only put an X on one side of the eggs, and really none of them are still being rotated with the same x-up to -down position, its all a little random. I'm not rotating them at the same time every day, due to work schedule, or the same number of times. I let some sit at room temp too long, others not long enough. If I get even one chick out of this hatch I will be astounded. Has anyone else thoroughly botched a quail egg incubation, and still had some hatch? Obviously I'll do things differently next time, I'm in an upheaval with my life right now, and I'm hoping my quail eggs aren't completely lost because of it.

 

[gabrielle1976]

I always give eggs the benifit of the doubt till its at least 3 days past there last due date or they smell

rotten . What day are they on?

 

[Pent]

I've written down that I need to stop turning on the 27th, and if any hatch it should be on the 29-31st. Forget exactly what day I started incubating, though. And I started one a day after the others, because my female laid it and I thought hey, what the heck.

 

[Pent]

Well, to further add to my mistakes, my humidity has shot up to almost 90%, and while I was at work my temp dropped, hopefully not for long but still... Wow, if even one of these eggs hatch, I am going to declare it divine intervention.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Well you will know in a day or two wont you? Good luck , maybe all will hatch

 

[Pent]

hey, there appears to be something going on! no rocking, but small chips are opening in the sides of some of the eggs, and I saw one of these chips lift and lower. I think I spy a breathing hole! Unfortunately, the temp outside has risen again after its plummet of last night and yesterday, meaning the adjustments to temp I did to compensate for the cold have to be balanced today by adjusting for the heat. So, my temp was at 103 briefly. Yikes. At least that helped me lower the humidity to the desired 65 or so.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

you should be ok, i'd be surprised of what them little birds can make it thru. Just try not and open the incubator, its hard not to. I know you seem to have tons of stabliity issues, is there anyway you can put it in a closet, or bathroom. someplace that is small and has a door. who knows.

Good luck!

 

[Pent]

Three out so far, and one working on it. The incubator is in a closet, on an inside wall, too. I moved it there during incubation at one point. Now I just have to get my brooder set up, because I really wasn't expecting this and didn't want to disappoint myself.

 

[GrandmaBird]

Good luck. I just had 7 out of 11 eggs hatch that I swore would never make it. They are now a week old and doing great. I love buttons they are so darn cute.
Be careful when you remove the chicks to the brooder as they are really fast and can jump as well. You might want to put the incubator into a deeper box before trying to get them out. I almost lost 2 off the table and that for sure would have killed them. Anyway have fun with your chicks and let us know if we can answer questions or anything...

 

[Pent]

ugh, just had to rescue two that managed to get under the repticarpet I used for traction, and the wire mesh the incubator came with, because apparently it is tons of fun to splash around in deadly pools of cool water. I keep doing a headcount now to make sure no one else has managed it.