Button quail hatch along

[Ladybird CA]

A friend is hatching (#5) but has been zipped like this for almost 2 hours. I read someone else having a fully zipped egg for 3 hours and another BYCer said the fully zipped egg would have enough oxygen. So I’m a little worried but not too much at this point. Humidity is showing 74% on one hygrometer and 73 in another so it shouldn’t be shrink wrapped but it’s hard to tell if the chick is too dry or not.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I decided to help the chick out at 11:43 pm. It was dry and stuck to the shell. I kept applying a bit of water and the chick was out at that time. The other chick hatched at 4:35 this afternoon.

I didn’t see blood when I helped the chick out but when I put it in the incubator there was some. Hope it will still make it.

That red stringy thing is just it’s foot

 

[TeresaW]

I decided to help the chick out at 11:43 pm. It was dry and stuck to the shell. I kept applying a bit of water and the chick was out at that time. The other chick hatched at 4:35 this afternoon.

I didn’t see blood when I helped the chick out but when I put it in the incubator there was some. Hope it will still make it. View attachment 3981385
That red stringy thing is just it’s foot

How’s it doing now?

 

[Ladybird CA]

The chick is doing better. I thought the incubator was too dry despite showing humidity in the 70s between two hygrometers so I put the incubator in the styrofoam shipping case that it was in as well as the cardboard boxes. For some reason that made the temp drop to 36.2 C (97.2 F) so I took the cardboard box out and left it in the styrofoam box for about half an hour which decreased the temp even more. Now the smart incubator is how it was (no styroam underneath)…hoping that will increase temp as eggs number 6, 9, and 12 have not shown any signs of hatching.

Egg number 8 in the hovabator has pipped.

 

[Ladybird CA]

No other progress so far. Both incubators temps are in the 36 C range so I turned off the humidifier which ran out of water anyway and the other humidifier seems to have stopped working. It was only about $3, the other one around $45. The smart incubator a third party gave it to me, said the person who gave it to him already had another. It is missing the part where water can be added externally but since it’s free I’m glad to have 2 chicks out of it at least. I had to turn off/not add water to the humidifier because it’s not supposed to be on while a heater nearby is on.

I find it interesting that the chicks hatched on 11-5 and those are their numbers. Also that the eggs that were clear were numbered 2, 3, 4.

The first chick is eating and drinking the food and water that I added to the incubator when I took the 2nd egg out to assist it last night. I read that button quail chicks can stay in the incubator up to 48 hours but that they can’t go without food for days like chicken chicks can.

The first chick is looking more like a golden Pearl. The 2nd might be red breasted but neither is fluffed up yet.

 

[Ladybird CA]

Chick number 8 hatched in the hovabator. I first thought the chick was all yellow and would be white but I see some silver feathers on the back/bottom so it may be a silver. The screen is all fogged up so I tried taking a picture but nothing showed up.

I was able to get the temperature in the smart incubator to be around 37 after setting it to 38 as well as putting a bed sheet around it. It was 37.3 about 2 hours ago and now says 37. Although the thermometer on top of the incubator goes between 37.9 and 38.1. I thought I saw a pip on egg number 12 but it turned out to be one the chicks’ down because it moved to the very top of the egg.

I’ll put the chicks in the brooder tomorrow around 4:35 pm (48 hours from when the first chick hatched)

 

[Ladybird CA]

After reading a thread late last night on here from 2014 someone suggested taking button quail chicks out of the incubator 6-12 hours after hatch. So I put the 3 chicks in their brooder this morning.

#11 and #8 in front of the Cozy Coop heater set on low

#5 a silver splash or silver tuxedo unless it turns out white. Already my son’s favorite because it is “yellow like a ducky” maybe that will be the chick’s name even though it won’t be yellow as an adult.

#11 a golden Pearl

#5 on top a normal red breasted

Their food and water station which they haven’t gone to yet possibly due to the distance. It is on top of a small pet heating pad

I had food closer to them then added this quail waterer with quik chik leftover from when I got chicks from McMurray mid July.

I didn’t think I needed marbles because it is for quail but #5 got all wet in it. I dried the chick with a hairdryer and put aquarium gravel in it as well as on the base of the yellow waterer because #5 got wet from that when it was in the incubator. Once the chicks are bigger, maybe a week old I will remove the gravel so they don’t eat it. It is too big for them to eat now and I couldn’t find the marbles I had for when I last hatched buttons 4 years ago.

The other 6 eggs in the incubator haven’t pipped. I thought about doing eggtopsies tomorrow (day 20) but someone on here waited til day 24 so I might do that instead. I believe it was the same person who said she sometimes get chicks hatch on day 19 which is today for the remaining eggs. She I believe also mentioned having pipped eggs die when chicks rolled on them so she put them in quail egg cartons. I don’t have quail egg cartons but at least the chicks are out of the incubators now. I have the foam with the egg holes in them and might use that in one of the incubators if I need to open either one due to dryer humidity.

 

[Ladybird CA]

DH wanted the thermometers to test the temps on the 2 oil filled radiators we got off kijiji. One was for the shed and one for the coop but the neighbor wants one so we might just give him one as a gift after reading about the pros and cons about putting one in the coop. We also got a baseboard type space heater for the basement which I still hope to be able to put the buttons there. If there are 3 males they will go in the shed since our 2nd son will be born next month, not sure how loud three button roosters will be. I saw a YouTube video of some. If there are 2 males and a female I will keep a pair in the basement and the extra male in the shed so they don’t constantly call for each other; until I can hatch eggs from the pair to get him a mate. So an eggtopsy was done today, day 21 on the 6 unhatched button eggs. #9 was clear. 3 had dark chicks and 2 light. They were almost fully formed or formed with just some yolk left.

The 3 hatched chicks are doing well.
Pics from Friday:

From today, 5 days old

 

[Ladybird CA]

Since the hatch is over, I’ve started a new thread on the 3 chicks for updates on them
Thread 'Updates of my button quail'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/updates-of-my-button-quail.1645600/