Cracked eggs hatched!

le_bwah

Crowing
5 Years
May 1, 2018
1,261
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Boise, ID
My Coop
My Coop
Four of my quail eggs arrived with hairline cracks covering half their surface, and I was able to repair them using candle wax; all four hatched! I can't say how well this works for larger eggs, or for larger cracks, but I wanted to share for anyone facing similar issues.

All I did was melt a drop of wax off a birthday candle and "coax" it across the shell surface using a lighter. The flame never gets hot enough, or is out long enough, to heat the egg contents. More than keeping bacteria out, I believe this allowed the eggs to keep moisture in. The four of them had larger air cells than the rest, but not dramatically so.

Here's pics of one of the repaired eggs, and the chick that came out of it.

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Awesome "repair" and even better results! :) I kind of wish we tried to save a few slightly cracked eggs with wax (also learned don't keep egg cartons/flats sitting on top of a box in the backseat of the truck, especially if you apply the brakes slightly harder than a feather touch on the way to drop them off for incubation...). Our friend gave all the ones with any type of cracking to her birds/pig when we dropped them off.
 
That's great to hear! I've currently got an egg in the incubator with a hairline crack in that I've sealed with candle wax, so this gives me hope!

I hope everything goes smoothly!

Awesome "repair" and even better results! :) I kind of wish we tried to save a few slightly cracked eggs with wax (also learned don't keep egg cartons/flats sitting on top of a box in the backseat of the truck, especially if you apply the brakes slightly harder than a feather touch on the way to drop them off for incubation...). Our friend gave all the ones with any type of cracking to her birds/pig when we dropped them off.

There's always room to try next hatch! No guarantee, but there's a chance.

Yay! I am hatching quail for my first time and we have one chick so far, one piped trying to zip out, and four more that can clearly be heard internally pipping! Four others are still quiet. Crossing my fingers on those!

Congrats on the hatch! Hoping those other babies hurry up :fl. It's been so fun hatching these little fellas, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
 
I hope everything goes smoothly!



There's always room to try next hatch! No guarantee, but there's a chance.



Congrats on the hatch! Hoping those other babies hurry up :fl. It's been so fun hatching these little fellas, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

I have chicken eggs that just went on lockdown and then in 4 more days I have three duck eggs going on lockdown. Lots of fluffy little butts soon!
 

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