Gambel's Quail Lockdown - bigger air cell? + candling pics

[Quispherer]

Its time for Gambel's Quail Eggs 2: Electric Boogaloo. My first set all stopped developing within a few days, I'm pretty sure it was entirely because I was still figuring out my incubators, but I got the temp stabilized in time for this set to develop nearly perfectly

6 eggs shipped in the dead middle of summer from Florida to Arizona and all 6 of them have made it all the way through to lockdown!

We can't literally "dry hatch" out here in the desert where I am, you have to add water to get an incubator above 17%, but I did 35% - 40%, trying to lean more towards replicating incubating conditions the local quail have outdoors than typical recommendations for New World Quail.

These amazing little eggs have given me the coolest views of developing embryos in ways I couldn't see with the coturnix eggs. Not the greatest pics haha but I know for the future that candling these around day 13-14 is craazzyyyy to look at.

They've just gone into the hatcher yesterday on Day 19. Did a last candling and they all look amazing but I think these air cells might be a little big for lockdown?

Air cell being too big means up the humidity a little more than usual right? I got curled toes on my Coturnix that hatched at 65% so I was going to stick to 60% but because of the air cells I'm second guessing myself. For now I've put a small sponge on the side of the incubator with the 2 larger air sac eggs.

I do worry they might not have enough room to position themselves properly, or might not have had enough space to grow fully, but this is only my second hatch that might actually produce chicks so I know my judgement leans towards cautious lol. Anxious even I was advised by a Gambel's breeder that they are more likely to be malpositioned or pip on the wrong side which is of course making me more conscious of it. Curious if anyone else has heard this about Gambels or other western new world quail?

I assisted one chick in my coturnix hatch a few days ago and while that went swimmingly, baby is healthy as could be (so far), it also made me so nervous to be doing such delicate work meant for tiny bird beaks. I would rather intervene than let them die, but I would rather they hatch on their own than intervene, if that makes sense. I know a lot of people don't believe in helping eggs at all and I appreciate all perspectives esp as a newbie.

On closer inspection is that an internal pip? Or is he just pushing on the membrane? It looks like he's past the edge of the air sac? You can faintly see the line of where the edge is/was, and then some shadows at the bottom.

Maybe I'm crazy haha, feel free to be honest if you don't see it or if I'm totally misinterpreting it.

If nothing else this will be a little hatch diary just to add to the small well of information that's out there about these babies. Would love comments from anyone who also hatches Gambel's, I plan to hatch more in the spring when they start laying again, or Valley which I have going into Lockdown on Saturday.

 

[Quispherer]

I'm devastated in 24 hours I lost 3. TL;DR Only 1 of the remaining chicks looks good.

I gave a safety hole to the early pip and did a quick candle of everyone else. The egg I had expected to pip first (veins had become less visible) wasn't moving under the candler light. When I checked it, it appeared to have a tiny hole in the inner membrane over the wing, a few cm from its beak. It almost looks like it pipped the inner membrane then moved and blocked the hole. I had just seen it moving not long before but by the time I opened it to check, its heart had already stopped

I upped humidity and gave everyone a teeny tiny safety hole with a hand drill in case idk maybe either of those could have helped the first chick? It seemed to be malpositioned. The first pip chick had been resting absorbing yolk and making tiny peeps just fine... it also looked positioned wrong. He passed while I was trying to figure out if I should do something. I didnt want to touch it in case I was wrong and his position was actually normal. He was fine and then he wasn't, he pipped so he had air, his membrane never dried out, theres no obvious reason for why he would have died.

I was told Gambels ended up poorly positioned more often than coturnix but?? Surely I've done something wrong?

The last 3 babies are resting with 75-80% humidity, all pipped through the internal membrane. One baby appears to actually be correctly positioned but I'm not checking further, just keeping my eye on them.

And I've just accepted its still very possible I'll lose all of them. One of the remaining is the smallest egg, the chances of that one making it were already so slim - even before I realized something seemed really wrong.

I really don't know, I might make a separate thread trying to figure out why.

Im just looking forward to my bobwhite hatch which I've already decided is pretty much set-and-forget. I'm only a few days in but I don't even want to candle, I just want to touch nothing and not feel like its my fault when stuff goes wrong ugghh. Early quitters don't bother me like this does.

Wish me luck for at least one of these poor little angels making it

 

[Quispherer]

Three is my lucky number Angel, Corky, and Bunny

This was them drying out. I waited a few days to make sure they'd make it, the one I fully assisted had a real rough time the first 2 days, but we're all good here