Dan's incubation and hatching thread.

[21hens-incharge]

Come on little nuggets! You can do it!

 

[DanielE1990]

I posted this somewhere else but thought I should update it here also.
The little guy started to make little tapping noises on the night of day 20 and I was excited for an early hatch on the morning of the 21st day. It did not hatch overnight but I could still here something inside the egg so I put it back in and waited. On the night of the 21st day I could no longer here anything but wanted to give it the best shot I could so I put it back in.
This morning when I checked it still had not done anything and was recommended to put a small hole in the end to give it more air and waited a few hours. But nothing happened so I opened the end of the egg. He had not broke the air cell but had fully developed. For some reason did not hatch. These eggs where shipped and the air cell may have been damaged in transit.
Here is the pic of the chick that did not make it.

I have two more bantam eggs that are in day 19 now. Hopefully they will make it

 

[DanielE1990]

Well I candled the quail eggs. I now have 32 good eggs that are on day 14. That's 64% so I do not feel that is too bad considering they are shipped.

Also waiting on the last two bantam eggs and hoping that they hatch.

 

[DanielE1990]

All eggs are in lockdown except the remaining quail eggs. They will be tomorrow.

Going to use shelf liner that has lots of tinny holes in it to place on top of the plastic grid inside the little giant incubator when I lock those down.


Also question to all you. Puppy pads or pine shavings for the quail brooder? I've read of using both.

 

[Tonyroo]

Less dust with puppy pad that's the only up side of it. But you'll see all the poop and them walking all over it, hehe. Hope your hatch goes well.

 

[DanielE1990]

Bantams are still no shows. But the standard breed are starting to hatch!

 

[DanielE1990]

Time for an update! A lot has happened!

I'll start with the sad news and work into the good news.
First. The Japanese bantams did not make it. They was just not strong enough to hatch unfortunately.

One had peeped into the air cell but went no further and the other did not even make it that far.

For the standard breed so far I've only had two that had an issue during hatching. One peeped broke a hole in the shell but then never progressed further.
The other seems to have been backwards in the egg and needed on the wrong side for some reason and again did not make it.
Here is it's pic.

Now that is enough sad news. Time for some good news!
I have had lots of the standard breed chicks hatch so far. Interesting lead though the australorps seem to have started roughly 16 hours before the Bielefelders did.

Here is the first guy to hatch!

About 4 hours later the rest started coming.

Then the first Bielefelder came!

At the end of the first day I had about a dozen chicks.
That night though my first quail hatched!

So SO SOOO tiny!!!

And then more chicks!

At this point I think I have around 2 dozen. 6 being Bielefelders (3M/3F) and the rest are Australorps. There is still a few in the incubator and at least one more hatching.

I do have a few more quail starting to hatch to. Looks like I'm running close to a day late on most of these. But right not I have 4 with more on the way it looks like.

One is still in the incubator drying as I speak and it also has that chipmunk coloration.


Last a pic of Takoda trying to figure out where these keep coming from.

 

[Tonyroo]

Any hatch is a good hatch. Are you starting a new flock?

 

[DanielE1990]

Any hatch is a good hatch. Are you starting a new flock?

Yes. First one in years. I got a handful of pullets but needed some more and decided to go the slow and exciting path of incubating.

Now I have 10 or 11 quail hatched also! Never had them before.

 

[DanielE1990]

A few updated pics are in order!