So, I have these quail eggs - three of which hatched "early". The birds were fully formed and perfect, but they weren't supposed to be due until 12/23 - they went into the 'bator on 12/7 and were only set by the mother for 1 day.
All the breeding websites said to calculate hatch date from 'bator date. Curious why mine popped early, I did some research into egg germination.
We know to store eggs at 55-65F for long term storage. What wasn't out there is that eggs will begin to germinate at 68F. So my eggs, sitting in the nest in my 70F house, began germination the day they were laid. I waited a week to pull them, and did nothing to them prior to pulling them - no turning, nada, and did not see the button quail hen doing anything either, and they're hatching successfully, with a 75% hatch rate for those eggs thus far. (It may go up, there are two more Button eggs and one Coturnix egg still in the hatcher.)
Other people may know this, but the information wasn't documented anywhere that I could find, and I didn't know it prior to today. Everywhere on quail incubation said to calculate from 'bator date and used that as germination date.
Germination day 1 should be the first day the eggs were in a 68F+ environment - be that your kitchen table or the 'bator. Which should help explain some hatching discrepancies. If the eggs were cold through when they went into the 'bator, it may have taken a day or so for the internal egg temp to reach 68F. Or if they were left to warm up to room temp, they may have begun germinating a day or so before they went into the 'bator.
Found the information on a site that dealt with egg handling procedures and what was required to maintain the "Fresh" label. If I can find the site again when I get home, I'll link it.
-Spooky
All the breeding websites said to calculate hatch date from 'bator date. Curious why mine popped early, I did some research into egg germination.
We know to store eggs at 55-65F for long term storage. What wasn't out there is that eggs will begin to germinate at 68F. So my eggs, sitting in the nest in my 70F house, began germination the day they were laid. I waited a week to pull them, and did nothing to them prior to pulling them - no turning, nada, and did not see the button quail hen doing anything either, and they're hatching successfully, with a 75% hatch rate for those eggs thus far. (It may go up, there are two more Button eggs and one Coturnix egg still in the hatcher.)
Other people may know this, but the information wasn't documented anywhere that I could find, and I didn't know it prior to today. Everywhere on quail incubation said to calculate from 'bator date and used that as germination date.
Germination day 1 should be the first day the eggs were in a 68F+ environment - be that your kitchen table or the 'bator. Which should help explain some hatching discrepancies. If the eggs were cold through when they went into the 'bator, it may have taken a day or so for the internal egg temp to reach 68F. Or if they were left to warm up to room temp, they may have begun germinating a day or so before they went into the 'bator.
Found the information on a site that dealt with egg handling procedures and what was required to maintain the "Fresh" label. If I can find the site again when I get home, I'll link it.
-Spooky
