Disaster Hatch

[eveliens]

Hi all, thanks for being such a good source of information! I'd like to pick your brains, if you don't mind.

Recently I was gifted an incubator and 5 Gambel's quail eggs. I'm not a stranger to birds, but I've never hatched/raised chicks. Honestly, I wasn't really expecting this project (I was planning to purchase pre-hatched chicks from a local breeder) and I tried my best, but I think I goofed something badly. I'm invested now and plan to try again with a larger batch of eggs but don't want to mess up again.

I have a still air incubator and was hand turning 4-5x a day. The temp. was set at 101F and I had 3 thermometers to verify (my family said that was overboard but I'm seeing it is a good idea from the threads I've read). The humidity was 40% until lockdown and I raised it to 65% for lockdown. Put them into lock down on day 19 and did not open it until day 25. Let them go until day 28 when I cracked them, certain I wasn't going to kill any living chicks.

Brooder heat spot was set at 100F. Ambient room temp. was 80F. No drafts or a/c in the room (spare room with vents blocked off for hatching). Chick feed was crushed and 28% gamebird starter. Water was a jar lid with rocks.

-1 chick hatched on time with no problems. He came out active and healthy but abruptly went downhill the evening of day #3 and died within a few hours
-2 eggs were duds
-2 chicks were fully formed but died in the egg - 1 internally pipped, 1 did not internally pip

Any ideas how to make sure the next hatch is more successful?

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi there. I'm sorry for the bad luck!

Did you calibrate your thermometer and hygrometer? When I did mine one hygrometer was off by 7% and a thermometer was off by 2 degrees.

Were the eggs local or shipped? That can also be a big factor.

 

[eveliens]

Thank you for the response.

The hygrometer was borrowed from the reptile enclosure. I'm definitely double checking the hygrometer for the next batch but I'm fairly certain it is more or less accurate. The thermometers were checked against an accurate one, including the one that came with the incubator. I did read that it is better to up the temp. to 103 for still air incubators though.

The eggs were shipped. I'm not exactly thrilled with the breeder/shipper (but again, I didn't purchase them) because they ended up sitting at the post office over a 3 day weekend. One of the eggs was an odd shape/color, and while it did end up forming a chick, I don't wonder if the shell shape was the reason it couldn't hatch :/ I have no idea how long they sat before they were shipped either or the conditions of the parent birds. I'd prefer local but it is late in the season and the only breeder I knew of seems done for the year.

 

[igorsMistress]

It seems you did everything right. I would suspect the shipping played a major role and the questionable egg would make me think twice as well.
Maybe another breeder would do a better job. Can you find anyone in state at least? I had eggs shipped from NC to AZ arrive in perfect shape but had a 60% hatch rate. I had eggs shipped in state that arrived with 3 broken but all the others hatched and lived. I'm convinced flying has a big impact on viability.

 

[eveliens]

igorsMistress, thank you again for taking the time to help me out. I didn't want to jump to pointing fingers at shipping in case I missed something on my end.

I will definitely double-check the hygrometer like suggested and look harder into local. I did find some Valley quail chicks but they are out of driving range, which is a bummer. Currently the closest Gambel's or Valley quail eggs are in AZ but maybe by the time I'm ready to purchase the next batch someone closer will have them for sale.

I do find it ironic I live in the Central Valley yet can't find a Valley quail breeder locally LOL. (my pref. over Gambel's although I like them both!)

 

[Quailobsessed]

I'm sorry for the bad hatch. It sounds like you did everything fine. I think it was probably the eggs. It could have been from shipping them, but I think it could be the genetics.

I had a pair of california quails and a pair of bobwhite quails. I decided to try and hatch some of their eggs. I originally just put two eggs in (I know, crazy). Neither hatched (I didn't think much of it), so I tried again. This time, I put about seven eggs in. One chick hatched (a california). It seemed healthy and fine at first, but it grew weaker and died a few days later. I think the problem was the genetics of the parents. I have since pieced together that the breeder I bought them from inbreeds his birds. The bobwhite hen even had a deformed foot (definitely poor genetics). Unfortunately, both bobwhites and the female california have since died. It's just so wrong that breeders do this.

Make sure, when buying more, you look for a reputable breeder.

Good luck in hatching more

 

[igorsMistress]

igorsMistress, thank you again for taking the time to help me out. I didn't want to jump to pointing fingers at shipping in case I missed something on my end.

I will definitely double-check the hygrometer like suggested and look harder into local. I did find some Valley quail chicks but they are out of driving range, which is a bummer. Currently the closest Gambel's or Valley quail eggs are in AZ but maybe by the time I'm ready to purchase the next batch someone closer will have them for sale.

I do find it ironic I live in the Central Valley yet can't find a Valley quail breeder locally LOL. (my pref. over Gambel's although I like them both!)

Lol I find that rather ironic as well, but I hope you find someone local or in state who can ship. Sometimes the wait is worth it!

 

[eveliens]

Quailobsessed, I considered that as well. 5 is a small batch, but to have all of them fail kind of sucks a lot. I don't know what happened to the little guy that did hatch. I used to handfeed/raise cockatiels & conures (for work), so I am decently savvy about baby bird aspiration and illness. The fact he died so quickly and that it was on day 3 makes me suspect something was wrong with him I am definitely planning to go with a different breeder next time! Thanks for sharing.