California - Northern

[OR4-hmom]

You need to figure out a top for them--they will jump out sometimes.

My mental picture was using them upside down since they don't have tops. Don't know how easily they would tip over though.

 

[Ali707]

It seems so much more difficult to hatch quail than chickens. I had the one little one hatch yesterday and lots of pips yesterday but no obvious action since then. We made a quick trip to the feedstore for more pine shavings and some game starter for the quail. We came home to find the little one wedged under the wire screen under the paper egg tray at the edge of the incubator. I slipped a warm, wet sponge into the incubator, lifted the egg tray & screen, and rescued him. I don't have the brooder ready so I put him in a Costco tomato container lined with the flat section of a paper egg carton and one layer of paper towel. I have him sitting on top of the screen cover (100 degrees) on my smaller chick brooder which has my 7 chicks that hatched a few days ago. At first I put the container down into the brooder but the 7 chicks went crazy and mass huddled in the farthest, coldest corner. Quail chicks are supposed to be kept a little warmer than chicken chicks, correct? I feel like I am ill prepared to be a quail mommy!

Poor little lonely quail..... well I have almost ZERO experience, but Chiquita will hopefully get on here pretty soon. The Coturnix I hatched last week went like this..... I had rocking from one egg for about a day, and then the one next to it pipped, and I don't know how long it was that way, on day 17, I came home from work and spent about an HOUR or possibly more inspecting all the little eggs and noted that about 10 or so of them had pips. Some bigger than others. At 10pm the one next to the one that had been rocking, hatched. By the next morning at 8 am I had 8 maybe 9 in my incubator. By the day after that I had about 5 more. The one that was the first one to see rocking was the one I ended up helping out because it pipped on the bottom of the egg by the grate and didn't zip. It was past ready to be out, so I didn't really take any time chipping away at the shell. It just chipped off and I tore the membrane with two tweezers and he finally got out. The very last one to hatch was on day 19 and it half zipped and pushed it's way out, but he had leg issues. He ended up passing this Saturday night. I was going to put him down but he kept fighting. And I kept trying but he wasn't really growing. The others from last week are huge by comparison.

I had one zip between day 17-18 that never hatched. It looked like it could have zipped into the yolk sack. My humidity was registering 65% since lockdown. Prior to that I had ranges of 20-55%. With these little guys there wasn't much mess. They were relatively dry at hatch, but not stuck and the humidity never went up even with all 9 new babies in there.... I am pretty sure some maybe got bounced around by all the running around and that could have reduced the hatch rate. I say all 9 like that is a lot in there, but really they were about the size of a quarter, so there wasn't much body mass in there.

I didn't mix my eggs, since I didn't have any more to put in there. I am starting my chicken eggs this weekend! I don't think I can stand the waiting of 21 days! That's FOREVER.....

Lesson learned..... do not under any circumstance keep the incubator in your bedroom if you need to sleep!

 

[PetRock]

Blue berry containers from Costco are short. Strawberry containers are much taller so they may not fit into the incubator.

You will have a pip soon!

I used a Costco grape container for my chicks. It fit perfectly in my Genesis 1588. I'm pretty sure that 2 of them would fit in if you had 2 groups that you wanted to keep separate.

 

[PetRock]

Lesson learned..... do not under any circumstance keep the incubator in your bedroom if you need to sleep!

I don't think that it helps much to keep it in the spare room, either! I keep getting up at night and checking with a flashlight.

 

[Ali707]

I used a Costco grape container for my chicks. It fit perfectly in my Genesis 1588. I'm pretty sure that 2 of them would fit in if you had 2 groups that you wanted to keep separate.

When you guys use these, I am guessing the top on the plastic container is open so the temp and humidity stays up? Do you also put them in an egg carton inside the plastic container? Or when doing this you just let them get pushed around by the others that hatch earlier?

I would think it would get pretty crowded with a plastic container, and an egg carton in there.....?

 

[chickee]

I just love my chicks! It is so hard not to sit and hold them all day

I am SO glad! It felt so good when you looked at the chicks for the first time and said they were the cutest chicks you had ever seen

It was so nice meeting you. Wish we could have spent more time talking! Hope your trip home went well

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
The egg carton would be cut down to fit--The containers have lots of air slots so The temperature and humidity would be fine.

You would have to hath a smaller number.

I hope to be able to try this in a hatch coon.

 

[PetRock]

When you guys use these, I am guessing the top on the plastic container is open so the temp and humidity stays up? Do you also put them in an egg carton inside the plastic container? Or when doing this you just let them get pushed around by the others that hatch earlier?

I would think it would get pretty crowded with a plastic container, and an egg carton in there.....?

I used an egg carton inside the plastic container with the lid closed but not snapped. The top of the incubator kept the container closed. I only had 8 eggs to set so I cut a paper egg carton bottom in half, trimmed it, and cut off the top of the bumps. I could have fit another row of singles for a total capacity of 15 eggs if I'm remembering correctly. So 2 grape containers could be used to hatch 30 eggs. The 7 chicks that hatched had lots of room to move around and the same amount of head room that they would have had without the container. I did expand a few of the vent holes because I guess that I was obsessive about making sure they had good air exchange. Also, the clean up was so much easier! I just pulled the container w/chicks out and only a few shell pieces fell through the vent holes into the bottom of the incubator.

 

[chickee]

Is that colored tape as id band? How long does that last? Any problems using that?

It is painters tape. It is easily removed because it is not overly sticky. I replace it once a week so as the chick grows it doesn't get too tight. I needed to mark these two chicks when they hatched so I could ID them as the two pure W/BW Ameraucanas as keepers.

 

[debs_flock]

I'm in Davis and have 4 5-week old Sebright chicks, 2 Golden and 2 Silver, that I got at Bradshaw Feed in Sacramento. I'm still not totally sure on the genders of all 4, (2 I think are definitely female, significantly smaller and very little crest development, so at least my odds aren't THAT bad) but I'm starting to deal with the fact that my favorite, the sweetest and most cuddly since the car trip home, is probably a roo. I was planning on going the Craigslist route with any that turned out to be roosters but if anyone on here would like or knows anyone that is interested in keeping a Golden Sebright rooster, please let me know. This chick has been meticulously cuddled every night, and is a beautiful little bird with the most amazing personality. He'd make a fantastic pet for a kid, or a great addition to any little flocks.

Welcome to BYC, cute chick!