Hatching "breach" Eggs?

[Chris102]

I have a batch of Very rare coturnix eggs that are on day 10 of incubation. Two of the eggs are developing with air sacs at the opposite (pointed) end of the egg. The embryos appear healthy other than being "breached".

Over the years I've had a few eggs develope this way. Several hatched on their own, some needed assistance, while the others failed to hatch.


As I was turning eggs today, I wondered if there was any way to help improve the hatch rate of breach eggs. My first thought was to place these eggs with the pointed end up instead of down.....

Would this placement help the embryos to develop with chicks in proper "breach" position for hatching?

Does anyone have tips or tricks to improve the hatchability of eggs that are developing this way?

EVERY egg counts with these guys!

 

[Monkau]

I imported 28 eggs, 8 were viable after post. I ended up manually hatching every single one because the babies that started to hatch were unable to hatch on their own and kept drying out - 2 were dead when i got to them and 6 pulled through fine. They are now all doing well, females just started to lay. All 400 - 420g so their growth is not affected

I have also assisted all my breach babies who ran out of juice to go on and they have all lived and developed the sane as the others - they do take longer to get up and running but i leave them in the incubator longer and its no problem.

Just keep and eye on them in my opinion. See where they start to pip from. Theres no saying that the breach bubs will even pip in to the airsac even if you placed it airsac up.

I have noticed an improvement in hatch speed since i started setting my eggs upright during lockdown, with less breach pippers.

Are your eggs laying sideways during incubation? I found i had many more airsac issues (ie airsac extending down the side of the egg) using a rolling turner than an upright rocker.

 

[Chris102]

I imported 28 eggs, 8 were viable after post. I ended up manually hatching every single one because the babies that started to hatch were unable to hatch on their own and kept drying out - 2 were dead when i got to them and 6 pulled through fine. They are now all doing well, females just started to lay. All 400 - 420g so their growth is not affected

I have also assisted all my breach babies who ran out of juice to go on and they have all lived and developed the sane as the others - they do take longer to get up and running but i leave them in the incubator longer and its no problem.

Just keep and eye on them in my opinion. See where they start to pip from. Theres no saying that the breach bubs will even pip in to the airsac even if you placed it airsac up.

I have noticed an improvement in hatch speed since i started setting my eggs upright during lockdown, with less breach pippers.

Are your eggs laying sideways during incubation? I found i had many more airsac issues (ie airsac extending down the side of the egg) using a rolling turner than an upright rocker.

Thanks for the reply!
Glad to hear your quails growth wasn't effected by the assisted hatch. I'm hoping I won't have to intervene the hatch, but I'll be closely watching just in case. My eggs aren't in an auto turner. I turn 5x a day by hand and always set the eggs with the large end up at high as possible. I think I'm going to leave one of the breach eggs small end up and see If it helps with hatching.

 

[Monkau]

Everyone always warn you not to do it, so people shy from helping the birds out- but if youve done it enough you get really good at it and there's no damage.
Its time consuming. But its rewarding.

Good luck with the hatch, hopefully they all have no problems and pop out nice and quick.

Just double check that all eggs are stored round end up before incubation in future.

Or if you can fit egg cartons in the incubator you can keep the eggs upright and chock the bottom of the incubator on one side to turn the eggs.

I have a small handful of eggs in from 2 girls who were with a male i dispatched so Im incubating his last offspring. Theyre just placed in the cut up carton.

 

[Chris102]

Everyone always warn you not to do it, so people shy from helping the birds out- but if youve done it enough you get really good at it and there's no damage.
Its time consuming. But its rewarding.

Good luck with the hatch, hopefully they all have no problems and pop out nice and quick.

Just double check that all eggs are stored round end up before incubation in future.

Or if you can fit egg cartons in the incubator you can keep the eggs upright and chock the bottom of the incubator on one side to turn the eggs.

I have a small handful of eggs in from 2 girls who were with a male i dispatched so Im incubating his last offspring. Theyre just placed in the cut up carton.

Thanks for the tip! I never thought to keep them in the cartons...brilliant! As soon as I saw your post, I placed all the eggs back on the carton...making turning a breeze.

I was a few days off when I posted, its just about hatching day! Almost every egg has now pipped... I'm hoping for a good hatch. I kept one of the the breach eggs with the small end up, and it has pipped at that end. Im keeping a very close eye on them in case anyone needs assistance.

These eggs were shipped to me...21 out of 23 were fertile, and last time I candled, all 21 were alive. I know the person who shipped them stored the eggs properly, but I think being shipped scrambled a few and could be the cause of the misplaced air cells.

I'm VERY excited for this hatch and will let you know how everything goes!

Thanks Again

 

[Monkau]

How did your hatch go? Hopefully upside down bub made it out.

 

[Chris102]

How did your hatch go? Hopefully upside down bub made it out.

Sorry I'm WAY late getting back with you! The hatch went very well! The breached eggs made it but both need assistance. I got some gorgeous colors from this hatch! Platinum, silver, silver Italians and many more...some I can't even identify, and NO pied genes in these birds! I'll try to get pictures posted up tomorrow