First Attempted Quail Hatch: Went BADLY!

[punk-a-doodle]

Hey guys, hoping you can help me identify what went wrong. I had some Chinese Blue Breasted eggs shipped (excellent and trusted seller, so I know the problem does not lie with them or their stock for sure!

), 15 in total. Despite the excellent packaging job, one was definitely cracked, so I didn't have much hope for it. I did try to seal with candle wax. It lost weight very rapidly, as did some other eggs, so I am wondering if the mail service did a number on at least a few of these eggs. I did not want to candle or weigh eggs this time around as I am hatching for pets and as a hobby only, and have heard button eggs sometimes do better if you aren't fiddling with them and letting them lose heat. So, I went with more of a hands-off approach. I do kind of wish I did candle before incubating them though as 1. I'd be able to provide you guys with more information, and 2. I may have been able to see if the eggs that lost weight very rapidly were all cracked from the get go or not.

When the eggs arrived, I let them sit for 24 hours, large end up. I then placed them in my home-made incubator which runs at 99.5 to 100.2 degrees F. The incubator is slightly tilted so that the large end is always slightly raised. I started them at 45% humidity, then raised that to 60-65% humidity for lock down. I use a small side door I made to reach into the 'bator, and since my arm blocks the hole, I lose virtually no heat or humidity when I open it. I use a Reptitemp 500R for a thermostat, have two reliable thermometer/hygrometers (one is a caliber III that seems to be dead on to the decimal), and a humidifier hooked up that has different settings. Temp and humidity seem to stay very, very solid for the most part. One exception is that I did have a temperature spike during lock down (106 degrees!), but I know for sure what caused it (my dog...she stepped on the thermostat dial which I have now fashioned a snug cover for), but none of the eggs appear to have made it close to that level of development. I have ventilation holes, but am not clear on how much is not enough.

Despite not candling, it was pretty clear to me before hatch day even arrived that they didn't seem like they were...alive/developing. I turned them 3-5 times a day, and they just didn't feel right for developing eggs. I'm afraid I can't pinpoint it.

I still have 8 eggs to 'eggtopsy', and will update when I get to those. As for the seven eggs I opened today, this is what I found:

Egg one:
This was the one I tried to seal with candle wax. Obviously missed some of the hairline cracks, and this egg lost weight much more rapidly than the others. The yolk was actually solid with no visible egg white, and most of the shell was empty. There was no odor. There was no blood ring, so I assume this one never started developing.


Egg 2:
Though I didn't see any cracks, this one also lost weight very rapidly. Same thing. No odor, no blood ring, 'cooked' solid yolk. This one did have some solidified whites though:


Egg 3:
This one was heavier and juicy. Their didn't seem to be any development or blood ring though. The whites and yolk appear to be mixed up like you get when you shake an egg. There was no odor:


Egg 4:
The yolk was solidified, but it was a bit heavier than the first two eggs, and it had a blood ring. It also had a slightly bad odor to it:


Egg 5:
This one appeared to have a chick that had reached few days of development. The yolk sac had some light veining, and that looks like an eye to me? The whole blob was dark and stank as soon as I poked a hole in the egg.


Egg 6:
This one was similar to egg 3. No odor, no blood ring, whites and yolk seemed to run together:


Egg 7:
Bad odor, small embryo. Seemed much less developed and was much smaller than in Egg 5:



Today is day 18 for the eggs. I will try to have the rest opened up and photographed tomorrow. What are you guys thinking? What should I be doing differently? I have the brooders up and running, and it is more than a little bit depressing!

 

[Pent]

well, first off i'd say the postal service played soccer with your box. Sometimes they just don't care. Might really be your only problem, the eggs might have just been too damaged inside to develop further than they did. Other than that, your home made incubator might fluctuate more than you think it does, though I'm sure you've checked that. Perhaps the mail carrier let the eggs get too warm, and they started developing in shipment?

 

[Habibs Hens]

i would agree

looks like those egg yolks are cooked


look at yr bator and try to get eggs your self then delivered


i had 12 eggs in bator yesterday was day 10 all shipped

i only have 3 developing today

 

[TwoCrows]

Yeah, lots of things can go wrong with shipped eggs. If they were too cold, too hot, abused, etc...Also where you purchased these eggs...

All you can do is control your own environment and make sure your incubation process is working properly. Proper temp, humidity, air movements, no hot or cold spots, turning eggs...

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Thanks so much for the help guys! I'll be buying another Calliber III as they seem so accurate, and use it to check for temp flunctuations. It's a pretty small 'bator and forced air, so it seems pretty even, but I had both temperature readers very close together. I didn't think to space them out to ensure I am getting even temps. Is it typical to see eggs that look so different when cracked open, and that have stopped at different levels of development?

Thanks again for trying to help me figure out what went awry!

PS. So sorry to hear that only three of your little guys are developing Silver. :/ I'll be rooting for them!

 

[greymane]

I would agree that the eggs look cooked, but also that is looks like they never got a start. In the batch I just hatched, I actually did better with the shipped eggs than with my own. I had ten Cots of my own and 20 shipped Jumbos. Only one of mine hatched and twelve of the shipped Jumbos hatched. I think mine my have been too cold when I collected them, though.

Having a background in heat transfer and fluid flow, I don't open the bator any more than I have to. Turning them up to five times a day would concern me. I have two broody chickens right now and it just amazes me how efficient they are at maintaining a stable environment for the eggs.

 

[Habibs Hens]

PS. So sorry to hear that only three of your little guys are developing Silver. :/ I'll be rooting for them!

thanks for your kind words

here is a a incubation chart for quails


Quail Bator
Centegrade
Hatcher Centegrade Humiity Bator % Humidity Hatcher % LockDown Day Hatch Day
Coturnix 37.5 37 45-55 65 15 18
Bobwhite 37.5 37 45-55 65 20 23
Chinese Painted 37.5 37 45-55 65 12 16

 

[jbobs]

aww that sucks! I would also agree that the package was not handled nicely, some of them look shaken up. I would also wonder how long them spent in transit? Sometimes eggs that are a little old don't develop well either. I have found that packages I send and recieve have much more respect given to them when they are labeled as "live embryos" rather than "eggs"

True Story: I ordered some very expensive chicken eggs once and was waiting their arrival when the delivery lady came into the porch with them. It was Labeled "Eggs - fragile, handle with Care!" on all sides. Right in front of me she TOSSES the box onto the freezer onto its side and I was like "OMFG be careful those are eggs!" (thinking, can't you read but I didn't say it out loud). She laughs and says "What, really?" and I say "Yes really, and I paid a fortune for them too." She laughs again and says "I didn't think anyone actually sent eggs in the mail. Everyone writes 'eggs' on their packages!"

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Thanks guys for all the input! I'm going to see if I can pay a bit extra and use FedEx next time. I had a live pigeon squeaker shipped through them last year, and he arrived in beautiful condition.

Jbobs, I can just imagine how wide your eyes got as you saw your expensive chicks-to-be tossed around like that! Ah man, never ceases to amaze me. X)

Here are the last few eggs. They are much the same as the first!

Egg 8:
Small embryo, but no odor


Egg 9:
Small embryo, no odor.


Egg 10:
Partially solidified yolk. No odor, no development


Egg 11:
Not solidified, but yolk and whites mixed up together. No odor, no development. The air cells were on the sides of some of these eggs, but was at the completely wrong pointy end of this egg despite the eggs being boxed and stored pointy side down, and being tilted pointy side down in the incubator.


Egg 12:
No odor/development. Partially solidified yolk.



Egg 13:
No odor/development. Glob of yolk fell out of this shell in a clump. Yolk mixed in with remaining white.


Egg14:
No odor/development. Yolk not intact.


Egg 15:
Yolk actually seemed to be intact on this one, but no odor/development.


That's the last of them. No fully cooked eggs this time around. 5 out of the 15 had blood ring to embryo development, and 10 had no development. General consensus seems to be that they got overheated, shaken, and cracked during shipment. Hope this helps someone else help ID what went wrong with their hatch!