First Time with Quail and its hatching day!

[Grillmaster33]

At around 6AM, before work I noticed a tiny crack in one of my ten good eggs.

When I was home, by 3:30PM. That crack became a hole.

I can see the little baby's beak and can tell that it is alive. However, no progress has been made and it is now 6:38PM.

No other eggs have been pipped.

Do I help this babe out?

Is this normal?

Please help. I'm excited and anxious.

 

[Everlong]

Funny that our quails are hatching on the same day, and that its our first time etc .....

Not Funny that 13-14 people viewed our threads, and not a single person can respond, yet all other threads get answered.


I did some reading and sometimes it takes up to two days for these little buggers to come out. Some come out quick. Good luck. Let me know if anything changes.

 

[eHuman]

Funny it's only been a couple of hours...
Not funny, those who read the thread might not have an answer.
Let them hatch on their own.

 

[Everlong]

Funny it's only been a couple of hours...
Not funny, those who read the thread might not have an answer.
Let them hatch on their owuoS

Sounds like a plan.

No panic, we're just panicking! it's our first time

 

[eHuman]

Good luck with your babies. Nothing will turn an adult into a kid at Christmas like hatching eggs. The anticipation is horrible. Find myself checking on them 5 minutes after checking on them.

 

[Grillmaster33]

The one chick has died in the egg.
Should I remove it? Nothing has happened with the other eggs yet.

How's your hatch coming?

 

[Everlong]

Well i couldnt wait. So last night before going to bed at 2am i popped the egg partially. some of it was shrink wrapped so im glad i did that. The other ones that started cracking the egg, no movement, no beaks, no holes, we'll see

 

[Everlong]

Well, he is eating and drinking

 

[Binki]

It sounds like you guys may have had an issue with humidity loss which can happen from opening the lid too often and/or having improper hygrometer readings

This is what works for me/my experience... What usually happens is...

Day 14 of (coturnix) quail incubation, you raise your humidity from 45-50% to 65% and you stop turning them/take them out of the turner.

Day 16 to possibly 20 but mainly 17 should be hatching times if your temperature has been pretty stable at 100 degrees (for incubator with a fan) - keep in mind even the built in digital thermometers and hygrometers in incubators can be waaaaaay off! So you'll want to look into calibrating those for ideal hatch rates and chick survival. If those times were wonky or if some chicks have deformities then you may have had a temperature issue.

Even a drafty room/room that changes temperature night/day can effect development/hatch time.

So back to the point hehe - if your humidity is too low, the chicks will not be able to get out of the shell!

If your humidity is 65% but then you open the lid and let the humidity escape too long, *especially* if chicks have already pipped/cracked through the shell, the egg membrane will dry up (like shrink wrap you said?) trapping the fully formed, healthy baby in there to die and really you do not want to have to mess around further by rehydrating it (because you can't simply crack it out as the membrane has blood vessels connected to the chick and it can bleed out/get infection so best to help it rehydrate and let it come out itself) and further opening and closing the incubator, possibly disrupting other eggs and chilling chicks.

Hands off is the best approach I find just keep the environment sterile and stable and let them do their thing and have someone help you take them out once a day - my roomie and I aced a system hehe - I hold the lid over a few inches (taking it off completely would be full humidity loss) and shine a light, attracting the chicks, she grabs a few, covers them and puts them in the brooder a few feet away as I whip out some cracked shells, then we repeat either the next day or if there are more than a handful ready, we wait about 15-30 minutes, the longer the better, obviously, then repeat it, probably without any shells but ASAP putting the lid back when the babies are out.

Sorry if this is way too much info as you guys have already hatched hehe

 

[preciouseureka]

Thank You Binki!

This is the clearest, most concise explanation I've seen anywhere!