Dry Hatching Cortunix Quails

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

To op
I'm going to put several dozen quail eggs in tomorrow, and will use the dry method. I tested 6, (That ended up being fertile started with a dozen but the others I dropped a flashlight on 2 and then some were infertile),

ANYway my point is I tried the dry method, kept it at 20 to 30 percent until lockdown, then 45 percent. 4 hatched (1 died that day, he took along time to come out of the shell and then had a fairly open umbilical cord)

This time with this batch of quail I'm going to aim for averages of 30 percent then 55 after lockdown.
There's a great article on here somewhere about the dry method.
I think it's definitely worth trying this method out to see if it works for you because it seems healthier for me, as the way I do it is open many vents so in my still air incubator so it gets plenty of airflow. I think the more airflow the better.
Let us know how yours turn out!

 

[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.

 

[pinoyathletics]

Last time I had a 58% hatch rate 23 of 39 eggs hatched. This is using the 45-55 first 14 days and then lock down 65-75. I think that is probably why some of the chics may have drowned in the late development stage. 70+ is probably much to high.

So now i have 34 eggs max (possibly some of these maybe infertile or even embryo deaths??) but i threw out the clear eggs and we cracked them all open 22 eggs in total and nothing inside. If i get the same hatch rate as last time i end up with 19-20 hatch. Ideally id like about 25 which would be about 73%. I think 20-30 my original guess of 56. 30 is out of the question now that would be an 88% hatch rate.

 

[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]

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

Good grief! Trial and error I guess. The quails are so very tiny they are harder to care for than even bantam babies.
Wow, Never heard of boils on a chicken or quail before! Poor thing.

This time I will have 6 or 7 dozen coturnix eggs in the incubator. The first dozen last month was just a trial run of the dry incubation.

 

[pinoyathletics]

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!?

 

[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.)

 

[pinoyathletics]

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.)

wow got a pic of it. id hate to have to manually turn eggs myself. My incubator auto turns every 2 hours. i suppose i can fit alot more eggs if i manually turn or install a quail egg tray inside.

 

[RosieR]

wow got a pic of it. id hate to have to manually turn eggs myself. My incubator auto turns every 2 hours. i suppose i can fit alot more eggs if i manually turn or install a quail egg tray inside.

That is definitely a lot of eggs to turn! Must take forever! My universal racks hold 48 quail eggs. I’ve just been using them to hold eggs and I tip them manually. Waiting on a motor to come in.