How long can incubating eggs go without sustainable heat?

[pterry97]

Hi all, just joined and need some emergency advice.

I'm incubating button quail eggs for the first time. Today is day 4 of the incubation process, so very early days. I candled one egg this morning and saw a tiny red speck with little veins inside, but didn't check the rest because it was very cold this morning and I didn't want them to chill (they're the smallest eggs I've ever dealt with).

When I checked and rotated them at 10am, everything was as it should be. Come 2pm for the next rotation, and I noticed the temperature wasn't up to the 38C it was set to. I have one of those cheap manual incubators that you have to turn yourself. When I was first warming it up 5 days ago it had a weird period where the heater was running but no heat was coming out, then after an hour it 'woke up' and started actually giving off heat again. This should have been my first indicator that something was amiss, because it has never done that before.

It's been 2 hours and the incubator was still sitting at a room temperature of 24C, so I've had to scrap the incubator and rather urgently stuff the eggs in my bra (unorthodox, I know, but I have no other viable sources of heat available) while I wait for another incubator to deliver. As you can imagine I'm quite gutted, as these had (at least one confirmed) signs of life. What is the reasonable amount of time that these eggs can go without the necessary heat required? It's been at least 3 hours since this batch had from not having the right temps. Has it been too long already, have I lost any potential for these eggs to have survived? Do I keep at it with them and wait for my new incubator or do I scrap these guys and go buy a new clutch?

 

[Tonyroo]

When will your new incubator arrive? I think 6 hours is max for day 4 eggs if ambient air is at 65 degrees or lower. But keeping it in bra with you they can survive longer make sure you have a coat on so you don't lose your own body heat. And the eggs will be nice and cozy.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Nabiki

 

[pterry97]

When will your new incubator arrive? I think 6 hours is max for day 4 eggs if ambient air is at 65 degrees or lower. But keeping it in bra with you they can survive longer make sure you have a coat on so you don't lose your own body heat. And the eggs will be nice and cozy.

Fingers crossed it should come sometime this week, though my mails tend to be very hit and miss when it comes to timing. So fingers are crossed.

And yes, I have two jackets on because it was snowing this morning, I'm just a little worried because they're still not quite warming up against me even though I'm definitely nice and toasty. I just hope it's enough to get past without them having to die from.

Thank you for the response!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't do quail eggs, just chickens and rarely turkey. But with chicken eggs it's not the air temperature that counts, it's the temperature in the middle of the egg. The material in the egg is so dense it takes a while to cool down. With chicken eggs I would not worry at all at 4 hours with that background temperature.

Quail eggs are smaller so I don't know how long they can go. But I don't see any real alternative than to keep trying. Once you get the new incubator set up and things stabilized you could candle then.

 

[pterry97]

I don't do quail eggs, just chickens and rarely turkey. But with chicken eggs it's not the air temperature that counts, it's the temperature in the middle of the egg. The material in the egg is so dense it takes a while to cool down. With chicken eggs I would not worry at all at 4 hours with that background temperature.

Quail eggs are smaller so I don't know how long they can go. But I don't see any real alternative than to keep trying. Once you get the new incubator set up and things stabilized you could candle then.

Thanks for the response! I candled them tonight as soon as it turned dark and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that 4 are definitely alive and well, while 1 looks like it could be viable, and another empty. I'm honestly surprised the bra method worked haha. Now's just a waiting game until the proper incubator shows up.

 

[Tonyroo]

Thanks for the response! I candled them tonight as soon as it turned dark and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that 4 are definitely alive and well, while 1 looks like it could be viable, and another empty. I'm honestly surprised the bra method worked haha. Now's just a waiting game until the proper incubator shows up.

Some people naturally run at 99.8 all the time which makes it perfect for egg emergencies.

 

[Blueeyesliz]

Hi all, just joined and need some emergency advice.

I'm incubating button quail eggs for the first time. Today is day 4 of the incubation process, so very early days. I candled one egg this morning and saw a tiny red speck with little veins inside, but didn't check the rest because it was very cold this morning and I didn't want them to chill (they're the smallest eggs I've ever dealt with).

When I checked and rotated them at 10am, everything was as it should be. Come 2pm for the next rotation, and I noticed the temperature wasn't up to the 38C it was set to. I have one of those cheap manual incubators that you have to turn yourself. When I was first warming it up 5 days ago it had a weird period where the heater was running but no heat was coming out, then after an hour it 'woke up' and started actually giving off heat again. This should have been my first indicator that something was amiss, because it has never done that before.

It's been 2 hours and the incubator was still sitting at a room temperature of 24C, so I've had to scrap the incubator and rather urgently stuff the eggs in my bra (unorthodox, I know, but I have no other viable sources of heat available) while I wait for another incubator to deliver. As you can imagine I'm quite gutted, as these had (at least one confirmed) signs of life. What is the reasonable amount of time that these eggs can go without the necessary heat required? It's been at least 3 hours since this batch had from not having the right temps. Has it been too long already, have I lost any potential for these eggs to have survived? Do I keep at it with them and wait for my new incubator or do I scrap these guys and go buy a new clutch?

Most people forget they got a electric heating pad as long as you put it on a slap of wood to prevent fire then put your incubator on top should do the trick till you get yours fixed