Incubating quail eggs for the first time : )

[LindsayB]

I'm new to quail and incubating eggs so this is going to be a fun and stressful time for me! I recently ordered 24 tuxedo eggs but they're not supposed to be here until mid feb. so...I have absolutely zero patience and ordered 10 texas a&m eggs off ebay. The seller was super fast shipping them and they arrived yesterday. Not a single egg was broken and they even added 5 extras. Pretty perfect first time with shipped eggs. I put them in the incubator early this morning and so far so good. I had the incubator going for 5 days before they got here so my temps have been pretty stable, around 99.5-100.5. humidity is at 40%. I don't have a automatic egg turner so I plan on turning them 3-4 times a day. Does all of this sound okay? I'm really nervous as this is my time trying to hatch eggs, I want to make sure I do everything possible to have a good hatch.

 

[dc3085]

I'm new to quail and incubating eggs so this is going to be a fun and stressful time for me! I recently ordered 24 tuxedo eggs but they're not supposed to be here until mid feb. so...I have absolutely zero patience and ordered 10 texas a&m eggs off ebay. The seller was super fast shipping them and they arrived yesterday. Not a single egg was broken and they even added 5 extras. Pretty perfect first time with shipped eggs. I put them in the incubator early this morning and so far so good. I had the incubator going for 5 days before they got here so my temps have been pretty stable, around 99.5-100.5. humidity is at 40%. I don't have a automatic egg turner so I plan on turning them 3-4 times a day. Does all of this sound okay? I'm really nervous as this is my time trying to hatch eggs, I want to make sure I do everything possible to have a good hatch.

Sounds good. You might try to get your humidity higher like up around 50% it will help your hatch rate a little. I run all my coturnix eggs as close to 55% as I can keep the incubator. At lockdown (day 14) I run the humidity up to 70%. Make sure with shipped eggs you set them out in the room with the incubator for 24 hours if you can. It helps the yolk temp slowly acclimate to room temperature before being put in the incubator.

 

[LindsayB]

Thank you for the advice! I will up the humidity to 50. I bought a package of sponges, so I can add one in to up the humidity before lockdown. What day of incubation do you stop turning, day 14 right?

 

[dc3085]

Sometimes you will reach a point where the incubator build anymore humidity if that happens you will need to increase the surface area of the exposed water in the incubator. The more surface area the more potential evaporative you have.

stop turning on day 14 and try not to open the lid again until its time to take out chicks. If you have to open the lid add a couple teaspoons of hot water the bator it will replace the humidity you lost by opening the door.

 

[teradragon]

I hand turned mine every 8 hours, so 3 times a day. When I got up, when I got home from work and just before I went to bed.

I got 10 out of 13 hatch. Mine were also Texas A&M, but I picked mine up from the breeder, so they weren't shipped as such... just had to put up with my driving for an hour!!

Good luck! Don't think about it too much and it won't be stressful

 

[LindsayB]

So far everything is going good. the incubator has been at a steady 100 degress. humidity at 47%. Do y'all candle your eggs before lockdown? I've heard about eggs leaking and blowing up, don't really want that to happen...lol gross. I know it seems like I'm asking a bunch of questions...sorry!

 

[teradragon]

I asked the same question too. I couldn't candle, I just couldn't see through the shells. I didn't want to risk the float test because I don't have a thermometer I could use in water. I had no explosions... I read on another thread that some people leave eggs until day 20 in the incubator for late hatchers. What sort of incubator do you have? Could you quickly and easily clean it if the worst did happen?

 

[LindsayB]

I have the little giant still air...I know I know, not the best. But so far its working great for me. I have it in our bedroom closet so its completely out of drafts. I have 2 thermometers inside, one directly under the heating element and one in the center with the eggs. the one directly under say 100.5 and the one in the middle is at 100. When I first got the eggs I tried to candle them and I could see through them really good, just had to look around the spots. So I guess I'll candle before lockdown and any that are completely see through yellow I'll take out.

 

[teradragon]

looks like it's clean easily if anything really bad did happen.

You will probably be find candling yours then. Mine were completely opaque. At first I thought it was the light, but then I grabbed a chicken egg... you can see here the issue I had..

 

[LindsayB]

Woohoo! I just candled the eggs for the heck of it and 10 out of the 15 have little tiny red heartbeats. So cool!! I'll check them again on day 7 or 8 and see if the other 5 grow anything, I know its still early. But it was pretty neat seeing those little heartbeats, gave me a boost of confidence. Must be doing something right now!