Hatching quail, beginner's lessons

[Dreamers Nook]

24 eggs made it to the lockdown, 19 hatched, the last one is still in incubator but I'm afraid he/she won't make it (My fault, started opening up them too soon and noticed one was still alive and drew some blood)
So overall, my best hatch rate so far! I hand turned them twice a day. Half of the eggs were from local market to add some excitement. Had a surprise egg as well. My eggs were from manchurians(yellows with black stripes) the store bought chicks were darker(like little bumblebees) except one that was entirely yellow. Never had one like this before!
How did you do?

You did better than I did, you may be right on the turning, I watched and the quail eggs do turn multiple times during 1 rotation. I had 12 out of 25, so better than my previous. I'm much happier with this batch, many color variations so I'm excited to see what they turn out like. My last 3 are way different than any I have currently.

But, I really do think you may be right, I had 2 that I assisted because hatched on wrong end. Normally I wouldn't, but they were really trying. I also lost 3 after external pip.
So I'm going to try as you did this weekend with 10 of my own eggs, see how it goes.

Thanks for updating me, you may have helped a few of us! Merry Christmas!

 

[farmer90]

12 out of 25 is a way better result than I ever achieved with my automatic egg turner. Wish you good luck and I would also be interested in hearing about the results.

 

[Dreamers Nook]

12 out of 25 is a way better result than I ever achieved with my automatic egg turner. Wish you good luck and I would also be interested in hearing about the results.

Actually 14, I had 2 surprise Christmas chicks.
Will definitely give an update of what happens with the 10. Like you, am turning twice a day.

 

[Dreamers Nook]

12 out of 25 is a way better result than I ever achieved with my automatic egg turner. Wish you good luck and I would also be interested in hearing about the results.

Well, I think you may have discovered an issue with the auto turner for quail eggs. So I hand turned them twice a day until lock down. All 10 went into lock down, and all 10 hatched!!!

And not only did they seem to hatch more easily, they were more consistent (except for 1) hatching together. Before, I had 1 hatch on day 16, then on and off till day 19. And only difference I did this time is hand turned. Everything else was the same.
So I will continue in the future hand turn my quail eggs.
Hope this helps.

 

[Kfaugeaux]

Yes, what I figured, but I didn't actually check all the first unhatched eggs, I did the 2nd. I didn't even have any red rings or etc. Completely infertile but the 4. 1 was almost full term, then the 3 that hatched, which are doing wonderful. So I honestly think we should check, as many here has said before, the progress sometimes tells us the issue of unhatched eggs. And obviously, there's not always an issue of infertile eggs, but that many? If anyone has input on Meyer's eggs, please comment. I'm just stating an honest evaluation. I myself don't want to risk using them again.

how do you check? theres a candler on my machine i have okkobi machine
i cant really see anything with the one on the machine
all of this was a gift that my husband said yes too so i was not at all prepared for any of it and ill be happy to succeed at all even if its just one. what do i need to do if i get one to hatch in a few days? does the humidity still need to be up? do i change the heat?

 

[Dreamers Nook]

how do you check? theres a candler on my machine i have okkobi machine
i cant really see anything with the one on the machine
all of this was a gift that my husband said yes too so i was not at all prepared for any of it and ill be happy to succeed at all even if its just one. what do i need to do if i get one to hatch in a few days? does the humidity still need to be up? do i change the heat?

I have found it's sometimes hard to check quail eggs (probably all dark eggs), during incubation. I have a candler flasg light, even then cant always tell. If you can't tell, go through whole process. I check unmatched eggs by opening them, to get an idea when the egg died and trouble shoot, trying to improve hatching. It's especially upsetting to lose eggs you purchase.

The first 14 days, I do dry incubation (best I can without incubator sqawking lol) with below 35% humidity and 100 degrees temperature. And manually turn twice a day. Day 15 is lock down, no turning and up humidity between 55 and 60, same temperature. Hatching can start day 16 to 18, though a couple days later does happen, and ive had a couple hatch day 15. I leave hatchling in until all are hatched (unless a huge difference in time, like one batch had almost 3 difference in hatching), dry and easily moving around. But I also have a large rectangle incubator so hatchlings can easily move around.

As some have said, quail are fairly resilient, so hopefully you'll have some luck. I believe it's all a learning process, trial and error.
How long has it been already? How many eggs do you have?