Hatching Report

[cookiesdaddy]

I'm a newbie on quail. I ordered eggs from JMF. Took awhile to be able to reach Robby, but it was worth it. He's an absolute gentleman. The eggs (James Marie C line) arrived 18 days ago very securely packed. I used my homemade incubator and they just hatched yesterday. Thought it might be helpful to some other newbies if I report the result. Also have some questions at the end.

Of the 52 eggs:

- Original weight in the range 14-15g, a few even at 16-17g. WOW!

- 14 infertile (I candled around 7th day and they glowed)

- 1 was cracked accidentally (dropped a battery on it LOL)

- 29 hatched successfully (had to "help" 2 or 3 after pipping and little progress - chicks seemed to be in wrong position). They all hatched within 10-12 hours.

- 4 fully developed but dead in the shell. One had movement but could never pip. On "autopsy" I think the chicks were just too big and in wrong position, beak could never get in the position to the air sack. Is this normal that you'll have some from a batch with this condition and how to help in the future?

- 4 had a good size air sack but no developed chicks. I didn't break the membrane (too messy) but I could tell it's just clear liquid (white yoke) and yellow yoke at center. Does this mean these eggs were also infertile, or somehow stopped developing after a few days? (I thought infertile eggs do not develop an air sack)

- All chicks seem very healthy and happy. No sign of leg problem that I could see. I weighed a few and they average around 11 g, one weighed in even at 15 g! WOW.


I'm very happy with the result. But I always like to tinker with things, so here are my questions:

- What might caused those 4 fully developed chicks but could not get out? I'm pretty sure I got humidity under control especially through lock down, staying at around 65-70%. Before opening to remove the hatched chicks I made sure to add hot water to compensate for loss of humidity. I My theory is (1) chicks were too big and not in right position to pip, as mentioned above, or (2) I got 20+ active chicks running around in the incubator knocking over other eggs and might have messed up their pipping process. If so I will need to remove the chicks earlier.

- Why might caused the 4 eggs that developed the air sack but not the chick?

- Is 14 (or 18?) infertile eggs out of 52 typical for the eggs bought commercially? That's at least 25% infertility! I thought it'd be higher than that. For those of you hatch your own eggs, what is your hens to roos ratio, and what fertility rate have you found?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

 

[James the Bald]

- Is 14 (or 18?) infertile eggs out of 52 typical for the eggs bought commercially? That's at least 25% infertility! I thought it'd be higher than that. For those of you hatch your own eggs, what is your hens to roos ratio, and what fertility rate have you found?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

Be positive - - you had a 75% hatch rate. A lot of newbys don't achieve this, and you did it with a home made incubator. If you do an advanced search, you will find that 50% is the average for shipped eggs.
James

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

I am very curious about your results and feedback since we are almost in the same boat stats-wise. I ordered the same amount of eggs from JMF and incubated at the same time. I have 3 chicks hatched from my batch but have had trouble with humidity and temps throughout the process. Hoping to get good hatch rate.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Be positive - - you had a 75% hatch rate. A lot of newbys don't achieve this, and you did it with a home made incubator. If you do an advanced search, you will find that 50% is the average for shipped eggs.
James

I am very happy with the result and feel fortunate to have my own flock of JMF quails running around in the brooder. I did read a lot on this forum trying to get some statistic of hatching rate of shipped eggs but did not find much. That's why I post my report just to contribute one data point to the community. Thanks for letting me know 50% average hatching rate for shipped eggs - then I know I've done everything I could.

So can I expect a better hatch rate with eggs from my own backyard? What hens / roos ratio do you use and what is your typical fertility rate?

 

[cookiesdaddy]

I am very curious about your results and feedback since we are almost in the same boat stats-wise. I ordered the same amount of eggs from JMF and incubated at the same time. I have 3 chicks hatched from my batch but have had trouble with humidity and temps throughout the process. Hoping to get good hatch rate.

Chikety I had a lot of humidity problem in my first experimental run a month ago and since then tied up some holes. Basically my "door" wasn't well sealed and my ventilation holes were too big and too many. Also the position of my water tray wasn't ideal, so I could not keep the humidity up. Thirdly I took too long opening to repair some other issues during hatching time so I think some eggs got dried up. Fixed all that before the last round of eggs.

I use the digital thermostat and also a ceramic tile so my temperature was rock steady. What do you use for temperature control?

 

[dc3085]

I got exactly 50% out my half. Several damaged air sacks so I'm thinking my box got tossed around a little harder. I only had 8 infertile eggs, which means total fertility was about 80%(thats not that great)

With your own eggs that don't have to be shipped you should be able to get closer to or more than a 90% hatch rate.

Like James suggested though anything 50% and above is good on shipped eggs, considering all the factors like changing temps, being tossed around, x-ray machines, etc.

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

Ceramic tile? To absorb and give off heat?

I use the Hovabator 1602N and it came with a digital thermometer/hygrometer as well as a bulb thermometer. From what I gather in these forums, both can be rather inaccurate. I didn't have time to check or calibrate them before setting eggs so I just took an average between both temp readings. The hovabator uses a wafer thermostat to adjust the temp- that took a week's worth of prep to get it into range. While the eggs were incubating the temps ranged from 98.6-101 but stayed mostly between 99.3-100 with 99.5 on the digital being the number I saw most. The bulb thermometer always had a higher reading than the digital. That was the best I could do.

My humidity dropped to 27% during lockdown and I raised it to 75% yesterday when i took the first 5 chicks out. There are more pipping but most eggs are still and silent at day 18.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

I got exactly 50% out my half. Several damaged air sacks so I'm thinking my box got tossed around a little harder. I only had 8 infertile eggs, which means total fertility was about 80%(thats not that great)

With your own eggs that don't have to be shipped you should be able to get closer to or more than a 90% hatch rate.

Like James suggested though anything 50% and above is good on shipped eggs, considering all the factors like changing temps, being tossed around, x-ray machines, etc.

That's surprising since they all came in the same box, with two layers of foam eggs holders. I just took out the top layer and you got the box with the bottom layer. I tried candling at the beginning but could not tell whether there were damaged air sacks, mainly because I'm new at this and don't know what to look for. Surprising you get more air sack issue and I get more infertile eggs. It's probably me making a wrong diagnostic, that my "infertile" eggs were actually damaged air sacks.

But overall I'm very happy with the result and so glad to have some healthy and active chicks from JMF. Very active

 

[dc3085]

Any ceramic or concrete object can provide additional thermal resistance to the incubator. A lot of people use red bricks.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Ceramic tile? To absorb and give off heat?

I use the Hovabator 1602N and it came with a digital thermometer/hygrometer as well as a bulb thermometer. From what I gather in these forums, both can be rather inaccurate. I didn't have time to check or calibrate them before setting eggs so I just took an average between both temp readings. The hovabator uses a wafer thermostat to adjust the temp- that took a week's worth of prep to get it into range. While the eggs were incubating the temps ranged from 98.6-101 but stayed mostly between 99.3-100 with 99.5 on the digital being the number I saw most. The bulb thermometer always had a higher reading than the digital. That was the best I could do.

My humidity dropped to 27% during lockdown and I raised it to 75% yesterday when i took the first 5 chicks out. There are more pipping but most eggs are still and silent at day 18.

I saw some people put in jars of water in the incubator to add "thermal mass" which helped keeping temperature constant. It should help bring temperature back to the desire range faster after you open up the incubator, or adding eggs, water, etc. So instead of using water jars I used a 12 x 12 ceramic tile laying about an inch below my eggs. It took longer for my incubator to come up to temperature but once there it's stayed stable.

I used a digital thermostat that switches on and off at 0.5 degree Celsius. The air temperature always overshot about 0.3 degree (from the time the light turns off to the time the heat stops rising), but thanks to the ceramic tile and the actual thermal mass of the eggs themselves, the eggs temperature should not fluctuate that much.

I bought an Accurite thermometer / hygrometer but its temperature resolution is terrible. I think I'm going to return it. I bought 2 more cheap ones on eBay and they're better, although one reads 1 degree higher and the other one 1 degree lower than a scientific digital thermometer that I have. My most reliable thermometers have been the 2 cheap aquarium thermometers that I bought for about $1. But I still need a digital unit to monitor humidity and any quick change in air temperature.

Again I'm still new at this, but as I understand it if your humidity dropped that much while some eggs were pipping then their membranes might have dried up (shrink wrap) and they would have a much harder time making it out. I had this problem during my first batch. If I knew this then I might intervene and give them a little "help". Live and learn

Good luck with the rest of you hatch!