Dry Hatching Cortunix Quails

[pinoyathletics]

I'm considering doing a dry hatching Cortunix Quail this time.

I have this model of incubator

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/review-of-the-56-egg-no-brand-incubator.1139751/

Last time i hatched 23 of 39 using the factory settings 45-55 degree humidity then 60-70 at lock down sometime spiked upto 75-80 at times.

Im thinking of using the dry incubation of 15-30 and then 60-65 at lock down.

 

[feedman77]

I incubate dry for chicken, quail, pheasant, and Turkey. I don't keep total percentages of hatches. Tried the 45 to 55 percent humidity for x number of days. Seemed like I had more sticky chicks and eggs that fluid dried over pip hole before chick could hatch.

My last hatch of quail was 214 out of 250 eggs set. My last Turkey hatch was 12 of 25, the rest were infertile or quit early.

So the dry method seemed to work better for my hatching process. It was a lot of trial and error to get there.

But there are also a lot of factors at play. Altitude, regions constant humidity range, size of the eggs, and how well your humidity gauge reads and is calibrated.

I had 4 ( hovabator 1588, brinsea adv, and 2 gqf cabinets) incubators running in Jan. Same room not 5 feet apart humidity readings were from 19 to 31 percent on what they read. So if you just base it on the humidity incubator gives there is a good chance it is wrong.

Humidity is such a debated topic in incubating. That's why some have excellent results dry incubating others it's a total disaster.

What I try to give someone a suggestion on it is to keep records humidity, temp, and day they hatched.
If they didn't get the expected result. Make a change but just one and retry with another batch. When a good hatch is achieved use those setting and try to repeat.

I'm about done incubating for the year my last couple batches of eggs I going to use those as a test run and do a dry hatch. Let them hatch at humidity they incubated at.

 

[pinoyathletics]

News its Day 14 (including 0) or Day 15 in real time. Some of the eggs have a slight hint of wiggle movement. I predict hatch in 2 days not 3 at this rate. Compared to last time.

 

[Sara L]

I just set eggs last night, first time I'm trying the Listerine solution. It's also a fertility test since I switched up some of the groupings. Not adding any water until lockdown, right now the humidity is about 35%.

 

[pinoyathletics]

ok will take pic tom. just weighed.

3 weeks of age
Silver quail, possible Jumbo = 140 grams
Other quail of same age = 100 grams

My biggest Adult Females from last batch = 295 and 290 grams fully grown.

 

[pinoyathletics]

I weighed the biggest 2 of the 5 again

Silver? - the largest one-shot up to 158 grams
Then my next largest one (not pictured) a Rosetta quail is the second largest at 135 grams same age.

As you can see he/she too young to identify gender is a very big bird already compared to his hatch mate.

The smallest of my adult quails is around 170-180 grams in the quail pen.

 

[pinoyathletics]

Well im on Day 7 now, of my hatch. Im not going to bother candling this time. Either they hatch or they dont. I have had humidity down set at 25. Not added water, apart from once it dropped to 24 then i added more water.

 

[lomine]

I'm skeptical about dry incubation. It seems like the only advantage is not having to add water...

After I candle eggs at lockdown with 40-50% humidity and then 50-60% humidity, I get between 80 and 95% hatch rate. I lost some chicks in my last batch that pipped while I was removing dry chicks, and I've had chicks shrinkwrapped from inadequate humidity. I've also had chicks that pipped internally and then died before they could unzip, but I don't know if they "drowned" or just ran out of air, and to me running out of air could mean not being able to unzip because it's too dry in the incubator. It could mean the chick was too weak to make that last stage, or that my temps were slightly off so they outgrew the egg, many possible reasons. However, the eggs didn't seem to be full of water and the other 35/42 chicks were A-Okay.

If someone reports percentages that match mine, I may give it a try, but it would need to be a sample size of more than a few eggs. So Little Jerry Seinfeld please report back!

What I've learned within the last year is that the 'normal' method often advised for incubating doesn't work for everyone in every situation. (I didn't even think to question it until I had terrible chicken egg hatches.) The dry incubation method has really improved my results with chicken eggs, though I still need to work on some things, but it doesn't seem to work as well with my quail. I believe it has to do with the eggshell thickness of chickens hatched at low altitude versus multiple generations of quail breed at high altitude laying eggs better suited to hatch at lower oxygen levels.

Anyway, I think if you are successful with your current method, which it sounds like you are, there really isn't a reason to change it.

 

[Erkenstein]

I incubate dry for chicken, quail, pheasant, and Turkey. I don't keep total percentages of hatches. Tried the 45 to 55 percent humidity for x number of days. Seemed like I had more sticky chicks and eggs that fluid dried over pip hole before chick could hatch.

Interesting comment about the pip hole drying over. I wonder too if the newborn chicks punting the eggs around in the incubator affects the late hatchers, by pooling moisture over pip holes, disorienting chicks, or weakening them. My quitters in the last batch didn't seem wetter than they should be, but they just seem to have run out of time. I removed dried chicks every few hours, so my original thought was that the chicks that didn't hatch were due to low humidity with opening the incubator, since that would either harden the shell or dry the membrane.

I'm relatively new at hatching, but my understanding was that sticky chicks had more to do with late hatchers due to low incubation temperature.

My humidity level tanks when the tray dries in my hovabator, since the heating element with the fan just burns up moisture. It's nothing like the humidity in the room although maybe if I pulled the vent plugs it would equalize and keep some humidity flowing into the bator. I've got a set of eggs cooking now, so I'll keep track. Thanks for the input!

 

[Erkenstein]

Here's an article that discusses problems during hatching. It explains that the chick drinks the embryonic fluid and can hatch dehydrated if there isn't adequate humidity. It links sticky chicks with dehydration:

http://www.melbournebirdvet.com/dead-in-shell-aviary.aspx

In this resource, though, sticky chicks are associated with too high humidity. However, it connects dead-in-shell internal pips with low humidity or improper ventilation:

https://extension.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

This one talks about high humidity leading to chicks drowning, but it doesn't seem to me like 40-50% humidity would prevent adequate air cell formation. It also discusses that chicks need more oxygen at hatch and that restricting ventilation at hatch to increase humidity can suffocate chicks.

https://ashburtonfanciers.weebly.com/faq.html

For my current batch, I think I'll try improving the ventilation during hatch, but keep to my current humidity program. I don't like having fully developed chicks fail to hatch.