Late Button Quails (Day 19)

[Schwaddles]

Hey all, I need some advice here. I'll give as much information as possible to see if any of you experts can help me (or alleviate my fears).

I have never hatched anything before. Story is my daughter's kindergarten teacher owns button quails. My daughter expressed interest in birds, so she's been telling us about her quails. A couple months ago she was telling me that she got surprise chicks. She usually takes the eggs away, but they had hidden them and chicks started to hatch. She was not prepared for them and sadly they passed quite soon after. Then her birds kept trying to hatch more. I acquired an incubator, but I don't think it's super high quality (still, working with what I got) and told her I would try incubating the eggs so she doesn't have the direct stress since losing the birds really upset her.

I've been reading absolutely everything I can, so here's some information on where I'm at.

Today I believe is Day 19 and there's no hatch yet. I placed them in the incubator at noon on May 29. I took the turning tray out a bit early I think because I didn't realize until after that the first 24 hours in the incubator is "Day 0" and that I should have started counting "Day 1" as of May 30. The turning tray was taken out June 12 as I was expecting them to hatch on June 14 or 15. Realized my mistake in counting when I started to look up why they were late.

Another point is I think the temperature was a bit too low. I didn't realize the incubator might be vastly inaccurate. I only discovered this when I found my husband's thermometer and hydrometer for his guitar and placed it into the incubator when I took the turning tray out. It was putting the temperature at about 36C (96.8F) and I panicked since the incubator had been set at 38C (100.4F) and everything seemed to be developing fine whenever I candled. Humidity was about right at 50% and I was going to increase it for the hatch. I placed a reptile thermometer in there as well and it confirmed the guitar thermometor's temp so I increased the incubator's setting to 41. It's still on the low side, but averaging 37.5C (99.5F) now.

So now the hatch is late. We're currently at that 37.5C mark, and 75% humidity. I had 4 eggs. One quit in the first week as when I candled I saw the blood ring. I removed it just in case. Another one had a small pocket of air and a thicker shell so I couldn't really tell what was going on. I think that one might have died as the egg itself is very light compared to the others. The remaining two are question marks. One of those two, the egg looked a little strange when I candled for the last time and it appeared that either the air pocket was larger and extending down the side or the shell was thinner over there. I saw lots of movement though. The last, ironically, seems to have the best chance. It's ironic because this egg had a crack in in. I immediately sealed it with candle wax. When I candled before lockdown it had a good-sized pocket and a lot of movement. Currently, it's the only one I've seen wiggling. It was wiggling this morning, reacting to the lights when I turned them on. Been seeing small movements off and on, but no pips.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my novel. Right now I want to know what I should do. Should I wait a few more days? If I should intervene, when should I intervene? Any recommendations? I'm just obsessing over this now.

The incubator I have is called an "Oifecsie." If I ever do this again I'm going for a Brinsea instead -_-

 

[GodLovesU]

Any updates on the eggs?

 

[Schwaddles]

Any updates on the eggs?

None hatched yet. One egg I can see a little triangle shape that I think could be a pip. I can only really see it when I shine a light and it catches what looks like wet hairline cracks. Another one had something similar but no major movement.

I caved and took the one I was on the fence about out (I actually draped a blanket over me and the incubator to slow heat and humidity loss and didn’t seem to have any drop). I can’t see in the egg while candling, but I held it up to my ear and I heard two sharp taps. I put it back the direction it was in and I swear I heard two peeps.

 

[Schwaddles]

Pretty sure I lost them all. Did a candle just now while it was still really dark and I saw the air cells on all of them. No sign of a chick or beak in any. The one egg might have still had movement in it so I made a small hole in the air cell end…though probably pointless. Later today I might open up and see what went wrong.

Definitely not a fun feeling but at least I have some certainty now. It was the wondering that was the worst.

 

[Schwaddles]

Last update on this. I opened them up to see what happened.

Egg 1 was long deceased and I think stopped developing after day 8-10 or so. I couldn't really see a defined chick.

Egg 2 (the cracked one) was the most developed and I think failed around lockdown. It hadn't turned toward the air cell, though it looked like it was more or less fully formed. Had little pinpricks where the down was starting to form/emerge.

Egg 3 also failed to turn but had a long, white something along the side of the egg that looked like it was crowding out the embryo. I don't know enough to understand what it was, but I might do some research. It too had little dots that looked like down forming.

I assume the issue was temperature and stopping the egg turning a little too soon. Could also be that the incubator was just not great quality.

Anyway thanks again if you stopped by. Sad and disappointed but I learned a lot for if or when I try again. For now, I'll live vicariously through all the experiences and photos here <3