Dry Hatching Cortunix Quails

[pinoyathletics]

I would ask the seller for something. Slightly more than 50% fertility is pretty bad, especially if you are selling hatching eggs. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

I paid $20 for 24 eggs + and then $10 postage. Im thinking if i should get $10 back. As its clearly not a postage issue.

 

[pinoyathletics]

Hi LJS. So your point is more about humidity and settings for dry method. Rather than eggs losing fertility. How many eggs did u set when u had 4 hatching.

last time i used normal method and had 23 of 39 hatch, and 15 of those were fully developed that drowned in egg. But that was when i got them from a different seller. So i think he had good stock, and the higher humidity drowned them so my incubation method is at fault.

However in this case if the eggs are never fertile to begin with its not an issue with methodology at this stage. It could be further on, and im guessing thats what i will update you on. As i will lock down the eggs on Wednesday . And we will see how many hatch over the weekend. My incubation has been around 25 to 30. I have my alarm set if it drops below 25. Its beeped a few times at 24 in which case i need to put in a damp wet cloth which gets it back to 35. Then i remove the cloth.

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Hi LJS. So your point is more about humidity and settings for dry method. Rather than eggs losing fertility. How many eggs did u set when u had 4 hatching.

last time i used normal method and had 23 of 39 hatch, and 15 of those were fully developed that drowned in egg. But that was when i got them from a different seller. So i think he had good stock, and the higher humidity drowned them so my incubation method is at fault.

However in this case if the eggs are never fertile to begin with its not an issue with methodology at this stage. It could be further on, and im guessing thats what i will update you on. As i will lock down the eggs on Wednesday . And we will see how many hatch over the weekend. My incubation has been around 25 to 30. I have my alarm set if it drops below 25. Its beeped a few times at 24 in which case i need to put in a damp wet cloth which gets it back to 35. Then i remove the cloth.

I started with a dozen, broke 2 right away, 4 were infertile duds, one died in the first week i think. the other 5 continued to develop, one dying a few days before it was due to harch as far as I could tell, and the last 4 hatching., with 3 surviving. So it sounds low, but only 6 were fertile so a 50 percent survival rate with a what, 60 percent hatch rate? I'm not too good with math!
So since it was mildly successful I'm gonna try these 6 or 6 dozen I have now. Just bought them out of town today and have them resting up until tomorro.

I hope yours do well , and I'm very interested to hear your techniques and how it turns out, since I'm doing something so similar too.
I wish I could figure out how to get a 100 percent hatch rate on all eggs!

 

[pinoyathletics]

LJS. Yeah we are doing the same thing. Except you are using a lot less eggs.

I have already done this with the standard method with a 58% rate, with the remainders developing but drowning. So that guy i purchased the eggs from had 27 of 30 fertile eggs. So it was more my fault not his in that case. This time i definitely will ask for a rebate of some depending on how many are infertile.

I think no one really ever gets 100%, anything over 80% is good already.

Last time i had 23 hatch out of 39. (1 early stage death, and 15 drowned in too much humidity in egg). I cracked them open and fully formed chicks. I had 5 infertile 38 of 44 either hatched or had fully formed chicks inside. So that guy had good stock.

Of my 23 that survived. Because i was new to this. I didnt have a proper heat lamp i used a regular lamp, so it made them super aggressive and trample each other.

And i also had a DIY waterer. It wasnt so much they drown cause i had marbles. But they kept getting wet chilling and dying. 10 of my quails survived to be adults from this hatch of 23.

1 drowned straight away the first to hatch she ran straight into the edge and fell into the water duct and drowned. So now i tape cardboard around the edges to prevent this.

One had boils, so died. None of my straddle legs survived i had 5, some of them got chilled from the water and died. One got trampled to death and torn in half by the other quails.

So what i learnt was

1. Minimize the amount of times incubator opened.
2. Make sure u have the right material for the chicks to hatch on incubator to minimize straddle and spraddle legs i had 5 of 23.
3. If you have an incubator with large gaps round the edge cover it up so chicks dont fall down and drown
4. Make sure u have a proper red heat lamp or something similar dont just use a desk lamp.
5. Make sure u buy proper waterers or nipples or mason jar stand dont DIY or else water leaks and kills chicks sometimes.
6. Make sure in brooder u have right material for chics to walk on so they dont develop leg problems

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Wow that is like around 70-80 eggs. How many does ur incubator hold? mine holds 56 but thats cause it has chicken trays, if i modify it to quail egg trays in the turner i can have prob 112 eggs.

Are you going to dry incubate again?

Yeah they are tiny. But your hatching Cortunix right not Button! Quail!?

Yeah just put them in last night, gonna do the dry incubating. I ended up with 7 dozen , coturnix. Never bought from this seller before so I'm not sure how fertile they are...

I don't use turners so with that many eggs I have my work cut out for me! I made my incubator, it could hold probably another 3 or even 4 dozen more quail eggs but I like to keep a large area in the middle under the light free of eggs, and I don't fill the corners either.
(It held 50 large chicken eggs this way before.)

 

[Erkenstein]

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!

 

[feedman77]

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!

I pulled the vent plugs on my tabletop incubator and tossed them. I personally like a good air exchange thru the whole process.

Most of my sticky chicks were because of too high of a humidity early in the process and egg not losing enough moisture.

Good luck on your hatch.

 

[pinoyathletics]

Well this is more an experiment with dry hatching for me. While I do not have 214 of 250 quails hatch like Feedman 77 that is an 85% hatch rate or decent hatch rate.

Erkenstein i had drowning issues due to humidity being high, and late deaths. Checking my logs.

Last time i had 38 fertile eggs / one under developed as i put that in incubator in Day11, 23 hatched and the other 16 that didnt hatch had fully developed chics inside that had drowned late in the process. Most of these eggs came from a different buyer to this next set. There was 27 of 30 fertile.

This time i had 56 eggs in the incubator.
20 of 32 of mine being fertile after candling,
14 of 24 of the new batch i ordered being fertile (i am not too happy about this, and once the brooding has been complete, i will be asking for some partial refund. Based on the number of total infertile eggs. If chics develop from the batch i bought and dont hatch thats on me not the seller).

So i have 34 eggs in the incubator using dry method, and have locked down on day 13.75. Last time i incubated i locked down on 12.75 and 13.5 (2 sets of eggs). This could possibly be why some drowned as i raised the humidity early. I have now raised the humidity to 65-70 from 25-30. with warning beep if it drops under 55. Auto turner used but now removed.

So i have 34 eggs, last time i had 58% hatch rate, cause of lots of late drown death.
So i need at least 20 to hatch (less if there are more infertile, about 5 of the eggs i didnt throw i was about 50/50 about) to beat what did last time. Id be happy if i got 25 to hatch out of 34 thats 73%.

I have locked down the eggs now on 13.75. Last time i used the non dry method my eggs all hatched on Day 19 and 20 (if we consider day 0 day 1). So they were like a day late than normal.

 

[RosieR]

Well this is more an experiment with dry hatching for me. While I do not have 214 of 250 quails hatch like Feedman 77 that is an 85% hatch rate or decent hatch rate.

Erkenstein i had drowning issues due to humidity being high, and late deaths. Checking my logs.

Last time i had 38 fertile eggs / one under developed as i put that in incubator in Day11, 23 hatched and the other 16 that didnt hatch had fully developed chics inside that had drowned late in the process. Most of these eggs came from a different buyer to this next set. There was 27 of 30 fertile.

This time i had 56 eggs in the incubator.
20 of 32 of mine being fertile after candling,
14 of 24 of the new batch i ordered being fertile (i am not too happy about this, and once the brooding has been complete, i will be asking for some partial refund. Based on the number of total infertile eggs. If chics develop from the batch i bought and dont hatch thats on me not the seller).

So i have 34 eggs in the incubator using dry method, and have locked down on day 13.75. Last time i incubated i locked down on 12.75 and 13.5 (2 sets of eggs). This could possibly be why some drowned as i raised the humidity early. I have now raised the humidity to 65-70 from 25-30. with warning beep if it drops under 55. Auto turner used but now removed.

So i have 34 eggs, last time i had 58% hatch rate, cause of lots of late drown death.
So i need at least 20 to hatch (less if there are more infertile, about 5 of the eggs i didnt throw i was about 50/50 about) to beat what did last time. Id be happy if i got 25 to hatch out of 34 thats 73%.

I have locked down the eggs now on 13.75. Last time i used the non dry method my eggs all hatched on Day 19 and 20 (if we consider day 0 day 1). So they were like a day late than normal.

Why do you lock down on day 13? I’ve never heard of anyone locking down that early.

 

[pinoyathletics]

Lock down is Day 14, but since i had to leave the house i locked down at 13.75 a few hours before the start of Day 14. Incubator counts first day as Day 0. So its actually 14.75 if you start from 1.

Erkenstein what is the optimal humidity?