Mistakes we're made...

[Ganks]

So as some of you may know I am new to the entire process of hatching and raising Quail. I got my wife a incubator and some fertile eggs off ebay a while back and we have been working on incubating our eggs ever since. When we first started we looked up some tutorials and how to videos explaining everything that needs to be done and from everything we read or watched it said that we should put our eggs into lock down on day 14. So that is what we did.

The problem is I have since discovered that you should put Cotornix quail eggs in lock down on day 14 but bobwhite quail should go into lock down on day 20. So we ended up putting them into lock down way too early. We are now around day 20 into our hatching process so we are gonna let it ride out and see what happens. I had already ordered more quail eggs off ebay and they should be in later this week so we will have another batch of eggs ready to go for round two. Luckily we found someone on craigslist offering to sell chicks of the same breed I was hoping to get out of the first batch but we are going to wait until day 24 before we give up on our eggs and just buy the chicks.

So my question is do you think there is any chance some of them hatch or not?

 

[Chickinie]

Just think... If they were in the wild and it rained for a week, they wouldn't be any worse off! Incubation humidity in incubators is ideal, in the wild it changes all of the time - they shouldn't be harmed by the period of higher humidity.

Don't give up on day 24 - they take 23-24 day to hatch - wait till day 27 or 28 to be sure. Or at least till day 26.

 

[Ganks]

Yea I did not think of it like that. The thing I am concerned about was we took the eggs off the automatic rollers on day 14 instead of day 20.

 

[Chickinie]

Yea I did not think of it like that. The thing I am concerned about was we took the eggs off the automatic rollers on day 14 instead of day 20.

I don't reckon the not turning for a few days would have done much, if any, damage. The chicks would have been wriggling around quite a bit each day, moving themselves and the yolk, lessening their chances of getting stuck to the side. Birds aren't the best egg turners themselves. Don't lose all hope for them!

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Yes ... I also guess you will have hatches. Maybe the hatch rate will not be super, but some should hatch.

 

[Ganks]

Appreciate all the positive comments. You have helped rekindle a little hope. I will update you all and let you know how it goes.

 

[Chickinie]

Keep that hope alive! And yes please, update us.

 

[Quailobsessed]

If I recall, turning eggs is particularly crucial early on. Hopefully you will have some fluff balls

 

[NY Coturnix]

JMF posted a video on youtube recently where they had 1200 eggs and some how they had them in the wrong barn so they didn't have an incubator with a turner. They had no way to get them moved or an available incubator with a turner. They decided to do a test and ended up with I think over 700 of the eggs hatching without turning them the entire hatch. Per the video they were very surprised so I think you still have a chance. Good luck and keep us informed.

 

[Ganks]

Update: Day 27 and still no hatching going on. We went ahead and made a trip to pick up 10 Georgia Giant chicks that we're born just a few days ago so we did end up with some fluffs after all. My Butler eggs arrived yesterday and the snowflake eggs are due to come in this afternoon. We plan to give the eggs 12 to 24 hrs to rest pointy side down rotating them every few hours before we throw them in the incubator hopefully tomorrow. We are going to move our incubator into a empty walk in closet that we have the Brooder Box in so that it stays a better temp then our Garage. We also have 2 Hygrometers showing up today as well. We know now that bobwhite eggs do not go into lock down until day 20 so hopefully the 2nd time is a charm.