I only have 3 adult quail hens, at this point, and incubating to increase that number. I have built my own incubator from an old broken beverage refrigerator. I have a controller that I purchased on amazon for $25, a $2.50 heater I found on amazon and a $4 donut usb humidifier, also from amazon. I'm using a automatic turner that I had bought for my little giant foam incubator but, the foam incubator was all sorts of wacky and was never consistent with temperature or humidity. My incubator seems to be working far better than I had hoped.
The question I have is in calculating hatch rates. I collect eggs for 5 days at a time and will have anywhere between 10-15 eggs to add to the incubator. On day 15, when I move that batch of eggs to lockdown, I candle all the eggs going to lockdown. My first batch of eggs was 11 eggs in the incubator and out of them, 6 were viable and developed. In the end, all 6 eggs that I suspected viable had hatched on day 18. Right on time. My second batch, out of 11 eggs, 8 were viable but, I didn't put the 3 non-viable eggs in the hatching tray this time. Out of the 8 viable, 7 hatched. Would you calculate your hatch rate from the total amount that you put in the incubator or out of the viable eggs when candling them. So far, I feel my rate is pretty good, anyway. From total eggs, I'm looking at nearly 60%. If I'm only calculating by the viable, it's 93%. What do you think?
Thank you
Phunk
The question I have is in calculating hatch rates. I collect eggs for 5 days at a time and will have anywhere between 10-15 eggs to add to the incubator. On day 15, when I move that batch of eggs to lockdown, I candle all the eggs going to lockdown. My first batch of eggs was 11 eggs in the incubator and out of them, 6 were viable and developed. In the end, all 6 eggs that I suspected viable had hatched on day 18. Right on time. My second batch, out of 11 eggs, 8 were viable but, I didn't put the 3 non-viable eggs in the hatching tray this time. Out of the 8 viable, 7 hatched. Would you calculate your hatch rate from the total amount that you put in the incubator or out of the viable eggs when candling them. So far, I feel my rate is pretty good, anyway. From total eggs, I'm looking at nearly 60%. If I'm only calculating by the viable, it's 93%. What do you think?
Thank you
Phunk