My Quail Hatching Thread - UPDATED 08/02/10

[Denninmi]

Updated -- unfortunately, no more Coturnix. No pips, so I candled them again, and saw no movement or anything.

Then, I decided to "eggtopsy" them. I had a number that were fully formed and dead in the shell, and others that look like they had died at some point after about maybe day 13/14.

Which is more than a little disappointing.

So, I guess I need to figure out why these hatches aren't turning out well for me.

I think shipping can be ruled out as a factor in late death. Which leads me back to questioning whether or not my Brinsea is working right? Maybe it's not calibrated properly or something. For what I spent on it, I think I should be getting better results. From a technical standpoint, it seems fine, always right on the target with the temp and humidity where they are set according to the readout on the unit.

I have left the temperature at the factory pre-set recommended 99.6. I ran the humidity at 45% until lockdown, when I upped it to 63%. I know Brinsea recommends 65%, but there have been a lot of comments on here by people saying they had better quail hatches at lower humidity, so I dialed it down just a little bit. Not sure if 2% would make a difference one way or the other.

I didn't see any indications that the dead in shell chicks were "shrink wrapped" -- the outer membranes were tough, but still flexible, and the inner membranes were actually free of blood, looked like they were ready to hatch, and still moist and transparent.

So, I wish I knew what the problem was.

On the button quail eggs -- nothing at this point. No sign of pips. I didn't even bother to try to candle them yet. This will be day 18 tonight, so there is still a possibility that some may be good. I'm just uncertain at this time one way or the other.

BUT, BOTTOM LINE -- I have 9 baby coturnix.

I think they'll all be OK, there was one I was concerned about, but he seems to be doing alright, a little less active than some but eating and drinking.

 

[missred871]

Quote:
Try if you can, to candle a tan button egg, the lightest one you have or several if you have them. Either way I would let them be until day 21. i have had several late hatchers before. With my last hatch I set out 20 button and 72 coturnix I had some BAD temp spikes at like 105 and 102 and lost over half of the coturnix eggs but all but 5 of my buttons hatched wierd huh? lol buttons are the easiest to hatch. I think anyway good luck!

 

[Stellar]

I am thinking something just isn't right with the incubator as your coturnix were fully formed and ready to go before they died. Maybe the temperature isn't accurate? Do you have two thermometers in the incubator? One of my incubators is a classroom 7 egg brinsea and I had it next to a window when I had some eggs in it. The temperature inside the incubator was what I wanted it to be BUT the heat coming through the window increased it by several degrees without the machine noticing. I stuck a second thermometer in there and it was 105! Oh dear! I moved the incubator and since then perfect hatches.

At least you have the 9 coturnix to play with

The ones in the pictures look darling!!!

If you want more coturnix eggs, let me know and we can chat

Or button eggs

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I have a giant home made incubator and a few weeks ago I hatched out 3 button quail and 7 baby chicks. I had 2 thermometers in there, one read: 100 the other read 101 the whole time. Out of 6 button eggs 3 hatched and 7 chicken eggs hatched. The chicken eggs hatched early and the quail eggs hatched on a day 17 instead of 16.

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Thanks for all of your kind help and support, Quaillady and everyone. Much appreciated.

I think I need to verify that my incubator is working properly first and foremost. I don't have ANY independent thermometer/hygrometer in there at this time -- I am just taking Brinsea's word for it that their unit is accurate and going by the readout on the display screen.

So, that will be step one -- independent verification of temp and humidity. I've got a couple of cheapy thermometer/hygrometers (like under $15), but I think I'm going to invest in a better one that is a little more accurate, and run some dummy infertile eggs for a few days to see.

The other thing I might resort to if push comes to shove is sending it back to Brinsea for calibration/verification of its accuracy. From looking online and in their manual, it looks like they will do that for you, and don't charge for it during the warranty period (I probably would have to pay shipping fees, though).

Nine babies is ok -- I guess really, how many do I need? I just feel bad about the ones that don't make it, and a little disappointed that I'm not having good results, apparently, from this expensive unit. But I don't know what the exact problem is yet, so I have to reserve judgment as to whether it's a problem with the Brinsea itself (probably not!), or something I'm doing wrong (probably), or just the whole shipped egg issue (don't believe so at this point -- that would explain the clear eggs that never developed, but not the late deaths, IMO).

And, 9 is enough for now --I'm not going to eat them or anything, I just like keeping birds and they sound like a fun addition to the mix. I kind of wanted a number of hens in order to use the excess eggs in the kitchen, but I guess I should still be able to get a few.

And, 9 should be a viable breeding population at least for a while. If I figure out what I'm doing wrong with the dumb incubator or with my techniques and methods, I could probably have some of my own eggs to hatch, which would entirely eliminate the shipping issue question.

I'm going to see how it goes for now, and also see if any of my button quail eggs hatch today (day 18) or tomorrow (day 19) or even a couple of days after that.

I will probably get bitten by the bug to incubate some more after this current batch, I can see that coming since I really want a GOOD hatch from this Brinsea, but I would definitely hold off until at least mid-September to get them, since the worst of the summer heat should break by then, and that may be a factor in this (it was a really HOT July when these eggs were shipped, and they came from Florida and Texas).

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you.

9 quail babies -- whoo hoo!!! They are SO darned cute!!!!

 

[aprophet]

Quote:

 

[Denninmi]

Here's a photo of the babies (7 of 9 visible -- they keep running under the Ecoglow and hiding, 7 in one shot was the best I can do):

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
Awe - They're so cute!
I must have some more baby quail!

 

[Denninmi]

The button quail are hatching now -- three so far. I really have no idea how many may hatch in the end. I see 2 more pipped at the moment. I did discard 4 of the 30 eggs -- the 3 I had dented a week or so back and tried to repair -- not a big surprise there, they all had actually kind of dried up inside, plus another one that had a little crack on it I noticed, and was also dried up inside.

So far, two light colored ones and a medium/dark one.

 

[Stellar]

I agree that in both Texas and Florida had some heat waves in July

Good luck on the buttons