Coturnix eggs failure

Quote:I just hatched button quail, and had 2 the same way, but they were not fertile. Were yours like that fertile? The rest of mine came out fine, I only had 1 quitter out of 11 eggs.

 

That doesn't sound like a failure to me, that's success! I know it's frustrating to have so many in the bator and so few hatch. I was shipped 42 eggs, put 24 in the bator (the rest were either smashed or had floating bubbles), took six more out that never developed, had four quitters early on, ended up with 9 healthy babies (after I intervened and helped the last two from their shells--a last resort for sure, but it worked out this time), 2 that started to zip and died and three that never pipped, but looked pretty close to full term when i had candled on day 14.

When you're messing with shipped eggs, especially if they have a rough ride, you just have to expect to have a bunch that don't develop. Congrats on the new babies, and I'll keep watching this thread to see if anyone else knows anything about the dried out ones. Strange.

 

I've had a few quail eggs that dried up like that. I just figured they probably had a more porous shell and the contents evaporated.
db

 

Quote:I would think so to from 60 eggs, I wouldn't be to pleased with that hatch. When we first got our quail a friend shipped them from Oregon, forgot it was a holiday weekend so they ended up sitting in the PO over a 3 day weekend. And we had about 30 of 50 some hatch. I wonder if from their size they are sensitive to shipping? Like some breeds of poultry the eggs just don't ship well.

But all is not lost, from those that hatched for you hopefully you will have a good mix of females to males and let me tell you those things do lay! So you can hatch a batch of your own.

Steve in NC

 

You had better success than I did! I had 1 button quail out of 20 eggs hatch, and 2 A&M coturnix quail out of 18 eggs!!

I have heard that quail are harder to hatch than chickens, but 50% is considered good. Was this your first time with quail? It was for me, and I hope to have better luck with the buttons that are in the bator right now!!

As far as the dried up ones goes, really don't know what to say. I had some shipped recently that had one that was similar to that, and these were fresh eggs. Who knows? Maybe someone with a lot more experience will pipe in!!

 

I think the eggs were probably too old at the start of incubation. The dried out ones probably had a crack or break somewhere in the shell. cracks and dents in these eggs is very easy to miss, and the shells are very thin.