Hatching Quail

[CoturnixCurt]

I'm fairly new to hatching and incubating and normally I can search and find my answers here. But today's hatch gave me a question that I couldn't find an answer to so I thought I'd make my first post. I've been hatching and incubating buttons and coturnix together all year and normally get a 50% hatch rate of both species without candeling eggs. I always place them in the incubator the same day, shut off the turner on day 13 and the buttons hatch on 16 and the cots on 17. Well it's day 16 and already about 75-80% of the cots hatched and only 5% of the buttons hatched. Does anyone have any clue why this would happen? The only thing that I can think of that I've done differently is that I kept the humidity about 15% lower on this hatch. Is it possible that the coturnix prefer a slightly lower humidity and the buttons prefer a higher humidity?

 

[n8ivetxn]

I don't know anything about quail, maybe after you shut down you should open a few and see how developed they are? Look at the air cells and see how moist or dry they are inside.... I would think their humidity tolerances would be fairly close....

That is strange that suddenly you would have such a huge discrepancy.

 

[eHuman]

My last hatch I had humidity at 50% then 65% at lock down and got 44 of 54 hatched. 81.5% rate.

 

[CoturnixCurt]

Well I just got home from work again and now I have 4 more cots hatched and 1 more button. So that makes 26 of 30 cots and 3 of 30 buttons. Pretty strange if you ask me. Normally I get 10-15 of each. Usually I use 50% then 65 humidity but I decided to try a dry incubation. So it stayed around 35 the whole time then jumped to around 50% just from them hatching.

 

[AmandaMBG]

I've never incubated but I'd imagine it'd be possible for their humidity levels to be different. They probably have diff she'll thicknesses and I'd imagine size dif too. So they could lose moisture at different rates. Where is each species naturally found? Aren't button quail in fairly moist climates?

Well I just got home from work again and now I have 4 more cots hatched and 1 more button. So that makes 26 of 30 cots and 3 of 30 buttons. Pretty strange if you ask me. Normally I get 10-15 of each. Usually I use 50% then 65 humidity but I decided to try a dry incubation. So it stayed around 35 the whole time then jumped to around 50% just from them hatching.

 

[CoturnixCurt]

I've never incubated but I'd imagine it'd be possible for their humidity levels to be different. They probably have diff she'll thicknesses and I'd imagine size dif too. So they could lose moisture at different rates. Where is each species naturally found? Aren't button quail in fairly moist climates?

I'm not sure I'm thinking they are both from Asia but that actually makes quite a bit of sense. I'm just surprised that in all the reading I've done I've never seen anything about them needing a higher humidity. Another thing that is weird is that I actually stop turning them 4 days before the coturnix hatch too so it's actually favoring the buttons. I'm getting ready to put 60 more eggs in so I guess we'll see if it's a fluke or something to look into.

 

[AmandaMBG]

Courtunix are also known as Japanese courtunix so I'd imagine they are from Japan. I have no clue what the humidity level is there lol. Everything I've ever seen about Japan is all cities honestly now that I think of it. A little odd. I mean id think I should have seen some sort of wildlife documentary about there sometime. My curiosity is peeked tho. I think I'll go do some digging.

I'm not sure I'm thinking they are both from Asia but that actually makes quite a bit of sense. I'm just surprised that in all the reading I've done I've never seen anything about them needing a higher humidity. Another thing that is weird is that I actually stop turning them 4 days before the coturnix hatch too so it's actually favoring the buttons. I'm getting ready to put 60 more eggs in so I guess we'll see if it's a fluke or something to look into.

 

[CoturnixCurt]

Courtunix are also known as Japanese courtunix so I'd imagine they are from Japan. I have no clue what the humidity level is there lol. Everything I've ever seen about Japan is all cities honestly now that I think of it. A little odd. I mean id think I should have seen some sort of wildlife documentary about there sometime. My curiosity is peeked tho. I think I'll go do some digging.

Haha yes it is very interesting. I feel like I'm in science class doing controlled experiments. But I guess in 2 weeks I'll know if there is actually something to this humidity thing.

 

[AmandaMBG]

They both are in Asia and Africa according to wiki. But a little dif areas in both. It said that the courtunix prefer open meadows, crop land or brush near water sources while the button live in grasslands.

 

[CoturnixCurt]

They both are in Asia and Africa according to wiki. But a little dif areas in both. It said that the courtunix prefer open meadows, crop land or brush near water sources while the button live in grasslands.

Hmm well that's strange. Maybe it was just a coincidence