Day 7-9 embryos sticking to shell?

[Susan Skylark]

This is going to be a really weird question but important for future hatches. I’ve hatched two clutches of quail eggs in a borrowed incubator before recently buying an Amazon el cheapo one. We won’t be incubating again until late summer (once our quail are laying and our schedule permits) but I thought I’d run the incubator just to see how well it works. Besides for some humidity issues I was rather impressed but was also curious if it was good with actual eggs too and not just a dry run. I had 4 dozen fertile fridge eggs (over a week old too) so I pulled out the white ones and put 9 in the incubator. I wanted the kids to see the difference between white chicken eggs and quail eggs for candling (huge!). We aren’t set up for chickens and the gal who gave me the eggs also doesn’t need more, so we didn’t plan to hatch them, assuming any developed (8/9 did!). Instead we opened an egg a day to study development. Today we opened the last egg, and the last three days the embryo/membranes have been sticking to the shell when I crack it open. I don’t remember this being an issue with the few quail eggs I opened up. Is this normal or do I have a problem with my egg turner? Days 7-9 of incubation. Thanks!

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

How much does the tuner turn? Chicken eggs would need more turning than quail eggs, I assume, wondering if that is the difference... I've never cracked open eggs after starting to incubate so I'm just guessing, but am not sure what is normal.

Curious to see pics if that is an option, to learn alongside you.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Sorry no pics, between getting the kids out the door and treating a sick quail didn’t have much time! It basically just hangs from the membranes attached to the inner surface of the shell. There are blood vessels running inside the inner membrane along the inside surface so I’m thinking this is normal, and it is just a weird time to be cracking eggs! I ended up hand turning my last batch of quail eggs 3 or 5 times daily and hatched 24/27 so at least quail eggs aren’t real fussy about turning.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One of the reasons you turn eggs is to keep the yolk and the developing chick from settling and touching the inside of the shell. If the yolk or embryo touches the inside of the shell it can get stuck.

It sounds like your turner was working once you started incubation, but they were over a week in the refrigerator without being turned. They don't need to be turned the first few days but it sounds like they went too long without being turned.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Awesome, I hadn’t thought of it being a preincubation issue, these weren’t meant to be incubated and weren’t handled as such, that makes a lot of sense, thanks! The turner seems to work fine and is even easily adjusted for quail size eggs so I was hoping it wasn’t an issue.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are not alone, many people do not consider preincubation. How and how long they are stored can have an effect on how they hatch.

You will often read on here to not try to hatch refrigerated eggs. You proved that wrong as most of your eggs started to develop. The turning was the issue, not the refrigeration.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I’ve seen reported hatch rates for fridge eggs as being significantly lower but I haven’t seen anything for developmental rates, maybe they initially develop just fine but don’t hatch due to embryonic death or other issues? Anybody need a PhD thesis? Of the 8 we had develop we had 1 blood ring and another with a dead embryo in it and we didn’t go past day 9, so that was 25 percent loss right there and we still have two weeks to go. Very interesting, thanks! I should also note that my son (whose project these quail are) has ridiculous luck, our first batch of eggs was 8 days in the mail and 1/3 were squashed upon arrival but he still hatched 6/10 on our first attempt incubating anything!