coturnix quails dying before hatching

[ckfarm]

I have been incubating coturnix quail eggs for a few months now, my first clutch was successful. 2 of those babies are now breeding, they are about 3 months old. So far I have gotten 35 eggs from them, but nothing is hatching. I cracked open 5 eggs over due to hatch this morning out of curiosity, and 4 out of 5 were dead! They were not fully developed so they died days ago. I am using a homemade styrofoam incubator, the temp is between 99-100 degrees and the humidity is at 60-65%. What am I doing wrong?


Mom to:
2 human babies, 2 alpaca, 3 dogs, 2 hens, 1 rooster, 2 coturnix quail, a snake, and 2 hermit crabs

 

[shelleyd2008]

Does the incubator have a fan? If it does, your temps are fine, but if it doesn't, your temps are a little low. A still-air incubator should be kept close to 102 degrees. Other than that, I don't know. Your humidity is a little high (my opinion), but that would make you have chicks who died after pipping into the air cell...and I don't even know that your humidity would cause that.

 

[The Critter Place]

I read recently that high humidity can cause the chick to become too large and leave it unable to position itself for pip.. Which leaves ti to drown.

The humidity does seem a little high to me too.

I've been using 45-50 % and bump to 60% at lockdown, with pretty good results. All the eggs I opened, had a few quit very early, and only 2 late of about 60 quail. The majority just had't started to develope.

Are you hand turning? Is it possible a few got missed?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Too high humidity would cause the chick to be unable to turn (zip) in the egg, it wouldn't cause them to die days before they are due to hatch.

 

[The Critter Place]

Here's the info I was referring to. It's a paper from Texas A & M Univ.

http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/b6092.pdf

If the humidity in the incubator is too high
during incubation, too little water will
evaporate from the egg. The air cell will be
too small for the chick to reach during the
hatching process. The chick will either drown
or the chick will be too swollen with water to
turn itself within the egg. The yolk sac will
also be too large for the navel to completely
close. These problems will cause the hatch to
fail

If the yolk sac is too large for it to absorb, couldn't that cause death a few days prior to hatch and result in chicks not fully developed.?

Bacteria maybe? Iknow it's really hard to figure a hatch fail....
I'm starting to keep journals of each time I turn eggs, temp and humidity... so I have a little to look back on.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have always kept this site on hand for trouble shooting hatching issues.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

 

[The Critter Place]

Great site twocrows!
I'll have to read through it thoroughly a little later.

I have a few more saved somewhere in the computer... But it's not an organized mess.

 

[ckfarm]

There is no fan and I am hand turning them, religiously, 3 times a day. I have a clutch in there that's almost done, doubtful now that they'll hatch successfully. I have raised the temp and lowered the humidity so maybe the next clutch will hatch successfully. wish me luck

 

[Chikndinner]

you will get some to hatch. There are many stories of people forgetting to turn eggs and having successful hatches

 

[kmsek]

Using home ade incubator add a computer fan splice in a old low volt power supply Ex old pulg in calculator let run full time even if thermostat cuts on and off. I ordered 28 eggs from ebay and hatched 9 successfully pretty good for shipped eggs . I have also hatched chicken eggs in this incubator.