coturnix late hatch, when should I float test them?

[Purin]

Thank you for the suggestion. Will try candling later, although we couldn't see anything in the second half of the incubation because of the dark shells :\.
We didn't have any problems with the temperature. The only thing I can think of is that we had the eggs shipped, maybe they were mishandles or something.

 

[Purin]

I candled and float tested all three eggs. (we actually now have only three, started with four but one turned out to be infertile so we took it out).
One sinker, two floated but there was no rocking. When I candled them I could only see that one of the floaters had the air sack but that's all, the colours of the shells didn't allow us to see anything else.
It's the end of day 20 now. I guess there isn't much hope left.

 

[laseterlass]

At this point stick the egg to your ear. You can here them if they are alive. I have never had much luck with candling coturnix unless its an unpainted egg. And the float test was unreliable too. I just wait till hatch day and start listening. Mine just went into lock down. I dont mess with all the humidity stuff. I just keep the gutters full until lock down. Turn them every few hours. Try to keep the temp as close as possible to 99.5 in my little giant. At lock down I add paper towels and a wet sponge. As long as there is condensation hanging on the window. Its wet enough. I hatch 90% average as long as the power does not go out.

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Don't always trust float tests. I still had overdue eggs that never hatched. I float tested them, and they all floated. None of them rocked though. It was way overdue, so we decided to crack them open. We found out that three died during development, and the other 20 were infertile. They floated because they all developed air sacs which really bothered me...

You could try contacting the person who sold you the egg and ask them if they were actually fertile. If nothing happens with the eggs, then you could maybe ask for... a refund? But really, you're pretty much doing everything correctly for the incubation period. It might just be the eggs, or the mishandling of the eggs during shipping. Just wait one more day and see if anything happens...

Best of luck.

 

[Purin]

Thank you both for the advice.

I tried sticking the eggs to my ear and listen but I couldn't hear anything. I'm also aware that the float tests do not always work, I was really hoping they would rock. With a certain percentage of eggs that are actually infertile, plus the ones that start developing but for some reasons don't make it till the end and the shipping I presume we might have been really unlucky. I'll wait for a day or two and try opening one of them. I'll keep you posted.

We're not giving up though! Beginnings are difficult I guess, so we'll try ordering eggs from a different source

 

[Purin]

I opened the one that sank and it appears to have died around day 6 (?) because it was like the chicken embroy on day 7/8 in the picture on this site

http://www.poultryhub.org/physiology/incubation/

Does that mean anything? wrong temperature maybe?

 

[Ms Goosed]

Sorry to hear of your troubles with hatching quail. We have had shipped eggs that hatched at 0% and 90%+ as well as a great many hatches between those rates. We hatch hundred of quail a year and even when the eggs only travel from the barn to the house we get variable hatch rates. I so know that our fetility in quail eggs is lower between Thanksgiving and about the end of February. If I want to hatch eggs in these months I add a little artilficial light to the birds for several weeks before collecting hatching eggs.The only other factors that I can think of that might have impacted your hatch would be the age of the eggs at time of setting and not resting them after shipping.
Do you know how old the eggs were when you set them?
Did you allow the eggs to rest after shipping and before setting?

 

[Purin]

Actually we didn't let them rest much after they were delivered. I hadn't actually seen it anywhere at that point that you have to rest the eggs for at least 12hours, plus we were so excited about getting them that we put them into the incubator straight away. Maybe that was our mistake... I thought I had read enough about incubating but obviously I was wrong. Maybe that was our mistake..
I don't know how old the eggs were when we got them though.

 

[SeptemberQuail]

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/44871220/Developmental-Stages-of-the-Japanese-Quail---PDF
Yallapilko posted an interesting chart of coturnix quail development. Though I might re-post the link.

It's hard to get a 100% hatch rate, those who do are extremely lucky, so having chicks die in the eggs isn't uncommon. But it's really sad...
I had a few that died in the egg during the early stages, probably because the egg viability was weak.

 

[Purin]

Thank you for the link!

We opened the egg that was at day 25today. It floated, and when we opened it there was a fully-developed chick inside it must have died in the shell. What could have been the reason?
We kept the humidity at very high level, mostly over 70% sometimes as high as 85%. Was it just not meant to hatch because it was too weak or something? I know there are probably countless reasons, but what are the most common for a chick to die even though it has developed?