Incubating Quail Eggs

[2 E's farm]

Good morning. I started my very first batch of quail eggs yesterday. I have a forced air incubator with egg turner. The temperature is maintaining at 100 degrees and the humidity varies between 50% and 60%. Here is the question, my home temperature is only around 60 degrees, can that affect my eggs?

 

[naf_appaz]

As long as your incubator is holding steady 100 no it will not affect your hatch....humidity maybe a bit to high for first 15 days. I have best hatch rate if I keep it between 30 and 40%. At lockdown day 15 to hatch 70 to 80%. If you have to high humidity first 15 days the air cell will not enlarge enough for the chicks to breath during hatch.... I would suggest running dry and get your humidity at least down to 40% for those first 15 days. Good luck

 

[007Sean]

Room temperature should not affect the temp of the bator if it's a properly insulated unit. Sun shining on the bator will affect the temp of the bator, far more than a warm ambient room temperature. Also, an A.C. duct blowing on the bator will affect the ability to stabilize the bator to incubation temperature.
Typically, the Styrofoam bators are affected by room temperatures. A warm ambient room temperature tends to raise the temperature inside the bator.
The reverse is true of cold ambient temps, the thermostat struggles to keep an even temperature inside the bator, or even to reach incubation temps.
The ideal room temperature is 72°F to 74°F for consistent incubator temperature.

 

[Danny C.]

What breed of quail are they? Read recently that bobwhites should be at 60% for first 20 days then 75% for last 3. Sure different species run different humidity temps and durations.
Experts please correct me if wrong since I am starting incubation in 2 days for my bobwhites.

 

[007Sean]

Humidity should be between 45% to 50% until lockdown. I typically run my humidity at 43% Rh, seems to work best for me. Your experince may differ depending on your location.

 

[Danny C.]

Humidity should be between 45% to 50% until lockdown. I typically run my humidity at 43% Rh, seems to work best for me. Your experince may differ depending on your location.

007Sean, is this the same for most species including bobwhite? I also live in Texas, north central.

 

[007Sean]

007Sean, is this the same for most species including bobwhite? I also live in Texas, north central.

Yes, the only species I use a little higher % Rh is Mountain quail. Then I try for 47%Rh, the reason being their incubation period is 26 to 28 days.
It may sound like I'm contradicting myself but if you run your humidity between 45 to 50% Rh, your hatch well be ok....the air cell will develop nicely and shouldn't have problems with "mushy" chicks or air cell being too large. As I said before these are the percentages I shoot for....your situation may and probably will differ.
Oh, almost forgot, some peeps run humidity higher with Button quail, due to their shells are sometimes thicker but I haven't experienced any problems with the embryos developing or hatching at 45% to 50% Rh. HTH

 

[naf_appaz]

very humid where I am...only experience is coturnix. So that very well should be considered. I had very low hatchrates and mushy chicks anything over 40%. Started running dry incubator and room dehumidifier hatch rate went to 90%. My experience could be due to up o and over 80 humidity in the environent outside the incubator

 

[007Sean]

very humid where I am...only experience is coturnix. So that very well should be considered. I had very low hatchrates and mushy chicks anything over 40%. Started running dry incubator and room dehumidifier hatch rate went to 90%. My experience could be due to up o and over 80 humidity in the environent outside the incubator

You are correct, sir! The higher the ambient humidity, the less water will have to be added to maintain the %Rh your shooting for....unfortunately, this is the reality of small incubators and Styrofoam in particularly. The opposite is true for arid locations.

 

[Danny C.]

Yes, the only species I use a little higher % Rh is Mountain quail. Then I try for 47%Rh, the reason being their incubation period is 26 to 28 days.
It may sound like I'm contradicting myself but if you run your humidity between 45 to 50% Rh, your hatch well be ok....the air cell will develop nicely and shouldn't have problems with "mushy" chicks or air cell being too large. As I said before these are the percentages I shoot for....your situation may and probably will differ.
Oh, almost forgot, some peeps run humidity higher with Button quail, due to their shells are sometimes thicker but I haven't experienced any problems with the embryos developing or hatching at 45% to 50% Rh. HTH

Got it thanks! Makes sense.