HELP! incubatING JAPANESE QUAILS

[zayn]

Kingmt will see if I can upload to photo bucket. The problem is you can only barely see it even when brightness is turned up 100% on the phone as the lighting wasn't the bes and I wasn't using flash. But anyway we'll see if I can either way. So I have a new question so out of my 10 eggs from my own quails 8 hatched one was infertile and the other one had a baby chick inside when I opened it ( 25-48) hours after first hatch. Which was unfortunately dead in the shell? So what happened there? Should I have left the incubator on? There was no sign of a pop yet the chick was fully formed with feathers bit was covered in a sticky brown liquid. . . So what happened with the 10th egg??

 

[kingmt]

Sorry that in not knowledgeable enough to guess at that one. That long of a hatch I'd say 80%was great.

 

[zayn]

Kingmt thanks I know, it was a hell of a long hatch and I was surprised as this is my first time and I had lots of schoolwork at the same time so am still over the moon with 8. Just want to know what happened so it doesn't get repeated

 

[richardwhite]

Temp sounds completely fine. You can fluctuate from roughly 97f-101farenheight my incubator will typically have a fluctuation of 2degrees farenheight and i have it set at 98 sometimes hits 100. This is my first pip tonight out of 108 coturnix set. All set in the hatch box ready to go. With any luck ill have 60-80 quail in the next 24-36 hours. Best of lick with the hatchig you will do fine! And congratulations on your quail babies!

 

[zayn]

Thanks Richardewhiye I'll do a bit of experimenting with a little higher temp. And congratulations to you too on your first pip!good luck hatching your batch!

 

[zayn]

Does anyone know if the last quail should have been kept for longer or was it already a late death? If so why?

 

[richardwhite]

Zayne typically i go 72 hours from pip to the time i shut the incubator off. Typically if they havnt hatched by day 19-20 they will be very weak and most of the time dont make it through the first week. Just my experience though, i keep all my hatchlings in the same brooder and natural selection takes the weekest stinks but that the nature of the beast. Just to let you know a 70% hatch rate is kinda the benchmark you nailed the incubation. Congrats on such a great hatch. You didnt stop the incubation too soon by any means. If you have the ability to care for weak chicks individually you can keave the incubator running till day 21 and still get birds. Just they will probably need attention. But great job your going to be an addict haha. I started with 15 now ill set 100-150 every 2 weeks. Welcome to hatchsholics anonymous lol!

 

[richardwhite]

One quick note sorry for loading your post! If you are curious about the death it could be any number of reasons like the shell may have had a slight crack causing the membrane to be to dry and tough to pip. The other chicks could have easily turned the egg. Seems alot of people say that humidity has a big factor in late deaths. And if you are curious about an egg i found water candleing helped me a lot i was clueless about it but this website has helped me greatly. Any eggs im curious about before "pulling the plug" i water candle. Float them in warm-hot water i make mine about 90 degrees. Float the egg wait till is stableizes and watch for movement. Helped me bigtime to not loose possible chicks. Best of luck to you in future hatches!

 

[dc3085]

Water candling is not a very accurate way to check for signs of life. All it can tell you for sure is that the egg is fresh or not.

Chicks dont die in the egg because just because the egg got moved. It happens sometimes sure, but they can move around inside the egg alot more than people think, hence the birds that still hatch hours after the other chicks have been kicking their eggs around like a soccer ball. I know people that hatch without ever turning their auto turner off and they still get good hatches.

 

[kingmt]

I know people that hatch without ever turning their auto turner off

Yeah I've done that a few times. I find out when I hear the peep & have to unhook a head. Tough little guys.