Matching chicks to shells, ideas for quail?

[Susan Skylark]

Anybody know how to keep track of which chick came out of which egg? I have 9 quail eggs that just went into lockdown, 2 from an old hen I’m going to cull but if I can get a male out of her he’ll carry the sex linked recessive color gene I’m trying to keep in my flock. I’ve labeled the eggs (and separated the hen to collect her eggs) but am not sure how to keep track of which chicks come from those eggs. Ideas?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hatching bags would keep them separated in the bator. You can order them, but basically they look like netted produce bags that garlic or perhaps oranges come in. I have used them before for chicken chicks.

Ahh!! I just found a video where Terry is using small laundry bags! I'll post that below. I *think* you may be able to find smaller ones than he shows, not sure.

Depending on your bator, you could put some dividers. Those can also be purchased for bators like NR360, but I think you could probably fashion something out of something like those plastic canvas sheets.

I've also seen some use small separate bowls lined with a bit of shelf liner placed into the incubator.

It all depends on your bator really, how much room and what you can put together. Let me know if you come up with something.

Once hatched, band the little buggers so you know who's who.

https://floridabuttonquail.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/separating-eggs-during-hatching/

A few photos I found dividing

 

[Susan Skylark]

Eggs are pipping now, my dinky little incubator and my popcorn babies make several options difficult but I do have a spare incubator that I’m not sure maintains temp, but I ran it for twenty four hours and did fine. I put my special eggs in there and it is holding steady, so win, win, I get to test my questionable incubator (was having trouble getting above 98, now it is fine!?) and I can separate my chicks.

 

[Susan Skylark]

So apparently I didn’t need to worry about separating the eggs, but at least I know for sure (and apparently my old incubator still works too!). Got two little yellow chicks that look just like mom, the others all came out black. The weird thing is this color is sex linked recessive, I didn’t think I had any carriers (I was trying to breed a carrier male), but apparently one of my new home bred males is a son of this very bird, guess I accidentally skipped a generation!