As some of you may have read in other threads we had a chicken sitting on 4 coturnix quail eggs until we thought she abandon them day 6 and my daughter quickly put them in our mini bator. This bator tends to 'cook' a bit slower than our big auto one due to temp fluctuations, but we forgot about this and as our last few hatches has ended day 19, and we didn't have much hope for these anyway, we cracked one carefully to find a we developed life chick. Quickly put it back in the bator and noticed a pip the opposite side. Not sure if that was already there or it got a fright and pipped early, because despite keeping a close eye on it it died in the shell. We cracked it open carefully straight away, but of course it was too late. Veins were all still bright red and full, but there wasn't any bleeding, slight bit of yolk and membrane looked like it was starting to shrink but no around head or neck so didn't appear to be shrink wrapped. Anyway, obviously it wasn't ready and we may have accidently killed it.
Did float test on remaining 3 yesterday with one wobbler. Put all 3 back in the bator though. Tomorrow will be day 22 which is the longest we've ever left them, I think.
Interested in knowing how long everyone else gives theirs before ending incubation. And do you always crack them open to assess why they didn't hatch? We don't candle as tried that and found them impossible to see through, so almost always crack remaining eggs open to check fertility etc.
Did float test on remaining 3 yesterday with one wobbler. Put all 3 back in the bator though. Tomorrow will be day 22 which is the longest we've ever left them, I think.
Interested in knowing how long everyone else gives theirs before ending incubation. And do you always crack them open to assess why they didn't hatch? We don't candle as tried that and found them impossible to see through, so almost always crack remaining eggs open to check fertility etc.
