Help me incubate!

[Alwaysfowlplay]

Hello everyone, I am new to hatching and quail. My eggs are out for delivery today, I am praying they were handled well and all get here in one piece. I’ve been researching but I do have a few questions.

Should I let them rest for 24 hours, and could it be longer if needed? They are supposed to be delivered by 4pm, but I work a 12 hour shift tomorrow so I wouldn’t be able to put them in the incubator until around 8pm. Would it be better to let them rest a shorter period, or longer? They spent 2 days in the mail and traveled 4 states and went through 2 processing sites, they were collected Tuesday.

I have a magicfly, which is forced air. So my understanding is I should set it at 99.5 and around 40-50% humidity until lockdown. Then reduce temp to 98.5 and increase humidity to say 60%? Anyone have better suggestions for numbers or does that soundcorrect?

When do you candle? The incubator has a turner so I won’t be handling them regularly. Is it a good idea to candle when you go into lockdown?

How long can you leave hatchlings in while the others hatch? I know I don’t want to remove them as they hatch, which would put the other eggs at risk for shrink wrapping. But I’ve read different advice like that quail can only last 12 hours in the incubator without food, then I’ve read 24, and 48. Do you just wait until you have a few and no other eggs appear to be pipping and scoop them out as quick as possible? Wait until a certain day and then consider the rest lost?

Thank you for taking the time to help! I look forward to joining in on the hatch a longs!

 

[mdees88]

Where did you order eggs from? How many and what kind?

I have never "rested" mine. I usually put them in within 4 hours of getting them. I would put them in when you get home from work. I used to do 50% but I just did 38-40 on my last hatch and had no splayed legs or curled toes. Seems like I always had a 1 or 2 in every hatch when I was at 50%. Even at 40% the air sacs seemed to be just a tad on the small side so I am going to try 35% on my next hatch. During lockdown I run it between 55 and 60%. I don't drop my temp much during lock down, maybe a half of a degree but that just me.

I candle at lockdown. You need a very bright flashlight or a candling flashlight. There's really no point in candling any sooner than lockdown unless you just want to try and see some development stages. Quail eggs are hard to see through so you need a very bright flashlight. I use a 1000 lumen light.

I wait 24 hours after the first chick hatches to remove the chicks. You can wait longer than that. It is ideal to get them out when no other eggs have pipped or are zipping but I'm usually hatching 100 or more and there's always one zipping or pipping and you can't see all the eggs. Just make sure they're fluffed up and not wet when you take them out.

The only real issue I've had with hatching is some shrink wrapping after I remove the first round of chicks. On my last hatch, out of 90 eggs at lockdown I hatched 85 quail. The other 5 were fully formed chicks, 2 had pipped and one just started to zip but were shrink wrapped. Some people spritz water inside the incubator when removing chicks. My problem is I remove an entire shelf out of the incubator to get the chicks out so those eggs aren't even inside the incubator for the 1 minute it takes me to get the chicks out. On my next hatch I'm going to set the incubator up in the bathroom and I'll get the shower going to add humidity to the room, then opening the incubator shouldn't be a problem. You really shouldn't have to do any of that. Just grab the chicks out fast when you don't see any pips and zips...

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

Where did you order eggs from? How many and what kind?

I have never "rested" mine. I usually put them in within 4 hours of getting them. I would put them in when you get home from work. I used to do 50% but I just did 38-40 on my last hatch and had no splayed legs or curled toes. Seems like I always had a 1 or 2 in every hatch when I was at 50%. I am going to try 35% on my next hatch. During lockdown I run it between 55 and 60%.

I candle at lockdown. You need a very bright flashlight or a candling flashlight. There's really no point in candling any sooner than that unless you just want to try and see some development stages. Quail eggs are hard to see through so you need a very bright flashlight. I use a 1000 lumen light.

I wait 24 hours after the first chick hatches to remove the chicks. Honestly you can wait longer than that. It is ideal to get them out when no other eggs have pipped or are zipping but I'm usually hatching 100 or more and there's always one zipping or pipping.

The only real issue I've had with hatching is some shrink wrapping after I remove the first round of chicks. Some people spritz water inside the incubator when removing chicks. My problem is I remove an entire shelf out of the incubator to get the chicks out so those eggs aren't even inside the incubator for the 1 minute it takes me to get the chicks out. Next batch I'm going to set the incubator up in the bathroom and I'll get the shower going to add humidity to the room, then opening the incubator won't be a problem. You really shouldn't have to do any of that. Just grab the chicks out fast when you don't see any pips and zips...

Thank you for your reply!

I ordered 15 eggs from Kansas City Quail Farm. They are JMF Pharaoh Jumbo Eggs. I plan to continue breeding and hatching them and also to get some Jumbo meat makers after I have this first round handled. Then maybe I’ll try something like celadon eggs.

 

[mdees88]

Cool, I haven't ordered from them before. The JMF birds come from good stock. Hopefully you have a good hatch. Most people say a 50% hatch rate on shipped eggs is good/acceptable.

Do you already have the incubator? If so I would turn it on right now and let it settle out. It is always recommended to check the temp and humidity with a calibrated thermometer/hygromter. Many incubator thermometers are not very accurate.... you can stick a medical thermometer in it to check.

 

[Mvan42]

This link will help


https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-shipped-eggs.75470/

 

[Nabiki]

Some of the best advice I've gotten here is to have 3 calibrated thermometers (you can find warmer and cooler spots in your incubator), and a salt tested hygrometer. Don't trust your incubator's temperature and humidity readings.

My first two hatches I did at the 50-60% humidity and I had a fair number of curly toed chicks. After that I lowered humidity to 30% and have had a much better hatch rate and no curly toed chicks. My first couple of hatches were around 50% hatch rate, my last one was around 85% (with shipped eggs!).

Keep a very close eye on the temperature and humidity readings until you really know your incubator. They can fluctuate. Try to keep your incubator in a place that has a steady temperature. If the temperature outside of the incubator varies a lot, you'll get temp changes inside of it too.

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

Cool, I haven't ordered from them before. The JMF birds come from good stock. Hopefully you have a good hatch. Most people say a 50% hatch rate on shipped eggs is good/acceptable.

Do you already have the incubator? If so I would turn it on right now and let it settle out. It is always recommended to check the temp and humidity with a calibrated thermometer/hygromter. Many incubator thermometers are not very accurate.... you can stick a medical thermometer in it to check.

I do have the incubator and I have it set up. My eggs were just delivered! No cracks or damage I can see. I have them all pointy end down. I have 3 temperature/humidity readers in it currently although 2 are the same brand. The temp on the incubator is reading about 1 degree lower than the other readers. So I adjusted the temp up to see if it corrects. I plan to check periodically over the next few hours.

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

Some of the best advice I've gotten here is to have 3 calibrated thermometers (you can find warmer and cooler spots in your incubator), and a salt tested hygrometer. Don't trust your incubator's temperature and humidity readings.

My first two hatches I did at the 50-60% humidity and I had a fair number of curly toed chicks. After that I lowered humidity to 30% and have had a much better hatch rate and no curly toed chicks. My first couple of hatches were around 50% hatch rate, my last one was around 85% (with shipped eggs!).

Keep a very close eye on the temperature and humidity readings until you really know your incubator. They can fluctuate. Try to keep your incubator in a place that has a steady temperature. If the temperature outside of the incubator varies a lot, you'll get temp changes inside of it too.

I’ve seen some people recommend wrapping in a towel. Currently I have it in my room away from the heat vents. Thanks for the advice on humidity. Do you think a small cup for water or sponges would be a better way to control humidity level? Humidity is reading about 25% as is with no water in it.

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

This link will help


https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-shipped-eggs.75470/

Thank you! I didn’t even see this!

 

[Nabiki]

I’ve seen some people recommend wrapping in a towel. Currently I have it in my room away from the heat vents. Thanks for the advice on humidity. Do you think a small cup for water or sponges would be a better way to control humidity level? Humidity is reading about 25% as is with no water in it.

I usually use a small jar (about the size of a baby food jar, but twice as tall) in mine. Sometimes I have to partially cover the opening to get the humidity right. The jar doesn't have to be replaced as often as a sponge and it has a small enough opening that it doesn't over humidify. You'll have to play with it to find out what works for you and your incubator.