Expectant first time coturnix quail mommy, egg help please?!?

[becomingquailmommy]

Hi! It’s my first time incubating eggs, ever. We received celadon coturnix eggs from a friend, her babies started hatching on day 14!

We are on our day 13 right now, and when I went to add water yesterday there were 3 eggs wiggling! I texted my friend who warned me that hers started hatching on the morning of the 14th day and she said for me to ‘lockdown’ right away I took the egg turning tray out, put eggs on the bottom tray, added water, shut the lid….but now I see no movement from the eggs that were definitely wiggling yesterday.

What do I do besides freak myself out with worry? No, I didn’t ever candle them. They’re in a forced air incubator. I have a hygrometer with probe sitting inside the incubator reading at 67% and 99°. Did I kill them going to lockdown too soon? Do I need to manually turn them if I prematurely removed the egg rotator?

Halp!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Early lockdown is fine, mine routinely hatch day 16 with an occasional 15 or 17. The wiggling is just chicks moving into position, it may yet be DAYS before they hatch. A colder incubator can set you back to day 19/20! The pips are very hard to see, they are often just a little crack! I shine a flashlight at a ninety degree angle to look for them. I’ve had chicks go 60 hours between pip and hatch so don’t worry there either! Quail chicks are also mainiacs, they drag each other around, kick unhatched eggs, scream if they are lonely! You can leave them in for 24 hours but I put mine in the brooder when I have 3-5 as my humidity is insane and they never dry out. Just add water to spike the humidity, open briefly and grab the kiddos, and shut (be ready to go and maybe have an assistant) and shrink wrapping won’t be an issue. Also call an addiction help line, as you are about to get sucked into the quail vortex, enjoy!

 

[becomingquailmommy]

Early lockdown is fine, mine routinely hatch day 16 with an occasional 15 or 17. The wiggling is just chicks moving into position, it may yet be DAYS before they hatch. A colder incubator can set you back to day 19/20! The pips are very hard to see, they are often just a little crack! I shine a flashlight at a ninety degree angle to look for them. I’ve had chicks go 60 hours between pip and hatch so don’t worry there either! Quail chicks are also mainiacs, they drag each other around, kick unhatched eggs, scream if they are lonely! You can leave them in for 24 hours but I put mine in the brooder when I have 3-5 as my humidity is insane and they never dry out. Just add water to spike the humidity, open briefly and grab the kiddos, and shut (be ready to go and maybe have an assistant) and shrink wrapping won’t be an issue. Also call an addiction help line, as you are about to get sucked into the quail vortex, enjoy!

Thank you! This makes me feel so much more at ease, as I’ve heard from others that I absolutely need to leave them alone until all viables are done hatching and just the thought makes my chest feel tight I don’t even have a quail baby yet and I’m already searching online for where I can get more eggs locally so we can have more genetic diversity