Incubator loaded for First Time

A little bit of a long haul, plus I think the tolls would make them some expensive birds lol. What is the final count on your hatch looking like? I was wondering what humidity you used. I was thinking this morning I should have written down how I had everything set for the incubation. So that I could easily compare it to future hatches.
I did have to turn up the thermostat to the highest setting but it looks like the new incubator is holding pretty steady, now to find some quail rails where I'm not killed on shipping.
 
A little bit of a long haul, plus I think the tolls would make them some expensive birds lol. What is the final count on your hatch looking like? I was wondering what humidity you used. I was thinking this morning I should have written down how I had everything set for the incubation. So that I could easily compare it to future hatches.
I did have to turn up the thermostat to the highest setting but it looks like the new incubator is holding pretty steady, now to find some quail rails where I'm not killed on shipping.
It looks like 31 healthy normal chicks, and one stargazer with baby legs and feet. I checked the rest of the eggs, 2 had no development so we must have missed them or been unsure when we candled at 6 or 7 days. The rest looked like they quit close to hatch and never pipped. Every egg that pipped, hatched. I helped 2 because they were pretty strongly glued to the inside of the shell. Baby legs hatched on his own, I noticed him star gazing, having shakes or convulsions when he would lean his head up back and over to the side long after he hatched. The good news is the shaking has stopped, but I’m not even sure he has nerve function in his tiny feet, they are half the size of the feet of the last one who hatched this morning, but their body is the same size, very weird. He’s wearing corrective shoes for his curled toes, and I’m giving him food and water with a straw. I think he will be ok, but probably a bit special for life.

My humidity was about 42-45 until lockdown, then I try to keep it about 64-67. It’s hard tho because it’s very humid here, so it spikes to 70 a lot. All in all it was about 82% hatch rate. I think 4 or 5 definitely died from the turner, they couldn’t turn to pip right I think. So far none sold, looks like we will be eating them haha.
 
I culled baby legs last night. I took his shoes off that morning and the toes were spread, but curled back up loosely pretty fast. It looked like he had no nerve response there or something but I gave him the day to either start getting around in a gimpy way or for his feet to show some sign of life, but no improvement, so I decided to cull him.

I spoke to 2 people from CL and they are each buying 12, which leaves me 7. One is the last hatch and he isn’t thriving so we will see how he does, I’m not gonna give him to a stranger to have him die so he will stay. I’m excited that these guys are earning $35, which is basically a bag of feed. My husband is not complaining, but I can tell he’s feeling like he would give me $35 just to not have to deal with selling them haha.
 
82% seems to be pretty decent rate and 31 is quite a few chicks. I'm hoping for a larger hatch next time myself. I've been messing with the new incubator and seem to have my temp and humidity dialed in. I got the quail egg holders ordered and am just figuring out how to space the hatches for my brooder to be open. Very sorry to hear you had to cull the one chick I'm really glad to hear that you've been able to sell a few. I know what you mean about the amount of trouble for money. What kind of food are you feeding? I'm using both the Southern States stuff and Harvest Homestead. Trying to see if I can notice a difference in the birds and eggs fed the expensive stuff lol
 
82% seems to be pretty decent rate and 31 is quite a few chicks. I'm hoping for a larger hatch next time myself. I've been messing with the new incubator and seem to have my temp and humidity dialed in. I got the quail egg holders ordered and am just figuring out how to space the hatches for my brooder to be open. Very sorry to hear you had to cull the one chick I'm really glad to hear that you've been able to sell a few. I know what you mean about the amount of trouble for money. What kind of food are you feeding? I'm using both the Southern States stuff and Harvest Homestead. Trying to see if I can notice a difference in the birds and eggs fed the expensive stuff lol
I use Hudson feed gamebird food ( not their quail formula) for the adults. It’s like $35 for 50 lbs from chewy. I use H&H feed from amazon for the chicks, but it breaks the bank lol. I have tried homestead harvest and I wasn’t a fan. The Hudson feed is pellets and they’re nice and clean and easy to fill, they don’t clog the feeder. When they knock dust out onto the ground it’s just gone, pellets will be picked up as others pass by, so less waste.
 
I didn't even think about checking for their food on chewy. I'm not sure how I feel about the Homestead Harvest food lol. The birds seem to eat it just fine, it's made locally and I buy it at a farm just up the street. With that being said if I don't mix it with other feed it clogs up my feeder and I have to manually move food forward each morning. I'm going to eventually try a bag of their layer feed and see if that stop the clogging . I also don't notice a difference between the eggs of the birds that I feed the cheaper Southern States specialty flock food to. The chicks I'm raising are on the Homestead Harvest and I'm going to see if I notice a difference in the meat. If I don't notice a difference in the meat or eggs I'm not to sure what I'm going to keep feeding them.
The Southern states Layer feed is $14.75 and the Starter is $16.98, they come in 50lbs bags. Compared to the Homestead Harvest Layer $22.49 or $20.99 for 40lbs. I like the idea of feeding them a local non-gmo no by product feed, but will admit it can be a little difficult for me to justify such a difference if i can't tell one. I think in the end I will probably end up giving a blend of the two.
 
I read an article about a class chick project, they left on Friday, and on Monday had chicks. But they had at least 2 extra chicks! More than 1 was double yolk and they hatched and thrived, shockingly high odds against it.
have some issue should i post here or start. anew thread for the same? . .
 
What are your issues, involving a double yolk egg or coming back to more chicks then eggs? I'm not sure how many people read this thread but you can post it up and if you don't get help try a new topic or post in the quail hatching thread by kiki (don't know how to link but usaully towards the top of the list). I hope thst helps.
 
I've got another load of eggs back in! This time with a new incubator, hoping for a higher hatch rate.
 

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I just had to toss 21 Serama eggs. They started to develop then stopped. Candled at 21 days and just a black dot no chick... Seramas usually take 19 days...I have no idea what happened. This isn’t my first time either... I’ve been having bad turn outs the last couple of times...just never zero... 😢
 

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