My God -- they're SO TINY -- how am I going to work with these eggs?

Denninmi

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10 Years
Jul 26, 2009
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My 25 button quail eggs arrived today right on schedule -- they were shipped tuesday AM from Louisiana, were delivered just before 2:00 PM today in SE Michigan.

I unwrapped them after I got home from work tonight. I knew they'd be small, but I had no idea they'd be THAT SMALL.

I'm really afraid to work with these things -- a chicken, duck, or turkey egg is one thing, but these look like they would be so fragile they'll break if you just look at them wrong.

I guess I'm just like the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz -- I need some courage.


PS - one of them has the smallest little dent on the top of the air sac at the wide end. Do you think it would be alright to put a tiny piece of waterproof tape over it or drip a drop of candle wax on it and try to incubate it anyway?
 
Yeah they are small like M&M,s lol
Just incubate them like reg quail and you'll be fine
By the way who in Louisiana did you get them from?
 
We got our first button quail eggs a couple months ago, and they seemed so fragile we were afraid to leave them on the bare wire after a couple of them got little dents.

Hubby got some of the rubberized shelf liner at the local store, and we've been using it since the for everything.

There is plenty of ventilation for air circulation, it cushions and protects the eggs, and gives us more control when we turn them, because sometimes when we rolled them on the bare wire, they would roll right back, and they seem to stay put better on the liner.

Then when the chicks hatch, they have a lot more safety and stability on the textured liner. (A few of the tiny quail toes went through the bare wire on the small exposed space, so now we make sure the entire bottom is covered.)

AND it makes cleanup easier for the next round.

So it was a big win for us.

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Garrie has some interesting colors. I hope you get a great hatch. I don't think the cracked egg will hatch but it's always worth a try. They are so tiny they don't make a very big stink bomb
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Others have had some success with the wax, I don;t think tpe would stick.

Like diggypaws says use rubber self liner on the bottom of your bator, or some have used window screen wire if you have some extra laying around.

Good luck with your hatch. Then of course we need pictures.
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Thanks, all, for the words of encouragement.

The dented egg isn't an issue - I was fooling around with it trying to remove some excess wax that dripped down the side and I cracked it all the way, so that one's gone.

I am putting the rest of them in the incubator tonight. I have a Brinsea Octagon Advanced, it doesn't have a wire bottom, it has a plastic mesh tray with a foam overlay. I think this should be OK.

My plan is to not candle them (they all seem like pretty dark colors, it would be too hard), not mess with them, not touch them, etc., just put them in the incubator, close the lid, and not open it again until it's time to remove them from the racks at lockdown.

Thank you.

I will see if I can post a picture at some time -- I have very bad luck with this, I'm really bad with the camera, files are too large and I'm on dial-up connection at home.
 
Yep, they are pretty tiny! lol Don't worry about breaking them! They're pretty tough! lol
I'm waiting for 5 buttons to hatch and I stuck 6 more button eggs in the bator yesterday! I'm telling you, once you start getting button eggs you get SO addicted! Every time you see a button egg you stick it in the incubator! lol pretty soon you have 100 buttons running around and you don't know how they go there! LOL Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !
 

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