Do we open the incubator now or wait?

[Beaglemomof5]

We have quail eggs that started hatching out yesterday morning & only half of them have hatched. When I left for work this morning there were 12, now 9 hours later there are 14. Do we go ahead & get the babies out to start feeding them or wait a while longer to see if more hatch out? Will it kill the ones that have pipped?

 

[BirdGirl2004]

Well, they can wait up to 2 days till they need feed because they absorb the yolk. I would wait a little bit longer, and then have somebody help you pull them out quickly. It will not kill the other ones that are trying to hatch if you go quickly. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Beaglemomof5]

Thank you for the response!

 

[Beaglemomof5]

Last night there was 1 that had almost pecked all the way around the egg & I had hoped when we got up this morning that it would have hatched out, but it wasn’t & I was so concerned for it that I took it out & broke away the egg. Bless it’s heart - I thought it might be dead, but when I picked it up I could hear it chirping!!! When I got it out of the shell, I noticed that it had pieces of the shell lining stuck to it in several places, so I got a really warm wet paper towel & wrapped it & gently wiped it down all over & finally got the pieces of lining off of it. I cut a solo cup in half & put the chick back in the incubator inside the top half of the cup so that the bigger chicks won’t peck on it until (I pray) that it gets up & moving around. I don’t know if the little thing will make it or not but I couldn’t NOT try to help!!! But it was so pitiful still shaped like an egg after getting it out!!! I hope it’ll get the kinks worked out if itself pretty quick so we can remove the “cup barrier” & it can socialize with the others!!! Any suggestions on anything else we might need to do?

 

[WVduckchick]

You can take the chicks out whenever you feel comfortable. My guide isn't time, its how active and able they are.
And we humans can go days without eating and drinking too, but do you like to do so? Some people leave them in the incubator until they think the entire hatch is done, I pull mine in waves, during down times of hatching. Neither is right or wrong, just preference.

Good save on the partial zipper. Usually if they start zipping, they should finish within an hour or so. Quail usually zip quickly!

Post some pics when you get a chance!

 

[Beaglemomof5]

Well, the little one didn’t make it. My husband called me at work & told me that it died. We took the rest of the eggs out of the incubator & we ended up with 14 that hatched. I cracked open the others to see what they looked like & several weren’t even fertile & the others looked to be fully formed, although on the small side, but with a lot of yolk. We didn’t candle throughout the incubation period because we were scared we’d do more damage than good since it was our first time! Not really pleased with a 50% hatch rate, but I’m not going to give up since this was our first attempt.

 

[WVduckchick]

So sorry it didn’t make it!

Candling doesn’t harm them, and will show you the infertile eggs so you can remove those. Candling can also help you find stinkers, that you definitely don’t want infecting the other eggs.
Do you use an auto turner or hand turn?

 

[Beaglemomof5]

So sorry it didn’t make it!

Candling doesn’t harm them, and will show you the infertile eggs so you can remove those. Candling can also help you find stinkers, that you definitely don’t want infecting the other eggs.
Do you use an auto turner or hand turn?

Automatic

 

[Beaglemomof5]

Here are our little guys & gals today!!

 

[RenegadeSkate3]

Not gonna lie you and I are on the same page right about now.... just hatched these quails.... thanks byc they helped me so far and leh_bwa did too... these are the pictures of my bebes so far! Good and healthy! I’m also using the EcoGlow 20... I waited 2 hours for mine to break out the egg waited until they wobbled enough and looked strong and out them sometimes dry sometimes damp in the EcoGlow 20( wich is basically a floating heat plate!) and they puffed up in no matter than 5 minutes... I grinder food to dust like! And feed them till day 2 of brooder were they started eating big chunks!