Day 16, no hatching?

[Jacob Duckman]

Question for the button quail people:

This is my first time incubating button quail eggs. I have kept them in my small duck egg bater, adjusting humidity to 45% and temp to 99F. It is day 16 and I see no movement and no hatching. ONE egg has a tiny piece of shell (approx 2mm) that fell off today but the soft white undershell looks intact. Otherwise the rest of the eggs have no signs of pipping at all.

Is it normal to take them more than 16 days? Or should I start cutting my losses? I've assisted problem ducklings hatch in the past (amnionic shrinkwrapped, bad position etc) but these eggs are tiny and I can't seem to see anything candling them, is assistance even possible? Thanks

 

[JaeG]

They can take up to 22 days to hatch so don't give up yet. Sometimes thermometres aren't super accurate so your incubator may have been slightly cooler than you thought which would delay them a little. You could try holding one up to your ear to see if you can hear tapping, rustling or cheeping but I'd do it with a damp hand just in case they have pipped so they don't dry out. Sometimes tapping on the large end gets a response. You could float test them but it's very risky as if they have externally pipped and you don't realise, you will drown them. Let us know how it turns out. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[robdog]

Give them time I had chicken eggs as long as 20 days before any hatched. And on the 20th day I woke up to about 7 out of 20 chicks and more came later that day.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

I had 3 button quails hatch overnight!!! I moved them to the brooder today.

thanks for the info! I'll keep it going a few more days and will post results. These birds are incredibly energetic and active right out of the shell! My ducklings took a good 24hrs to start moving around like that

 

[Jacob Duckman]

I woke up to 3 hatchlings. Yay

 

[Dani xxx]

Congrats very cute ! X

 

[JaeG]

Yay! Congratulations! Hopefully more will follow soon.

 

[Binki]

Grats

How many eggs did you set?

 

[Jacob Duckman]

I ordered a dozen and was given a couple extra ones. So far I got 5 hatches, 4 of which made it through the night. One yellow, one black, and two grey ones. very excited. I'm going to give it another couple days and see if any more come out