I recently acquired some button quail, which I didn't even know existed and am now completely in love, and I'm curious about their hatching process.
I had 8 eggs in the incubator, collected over a week and a half's time. 4 days ago, 3 chicks hatched & were dry so, being new to this, I removed them from the incubator and placed them in my brooder. While doing this I heard chirps coming from 2 of the other eggs but didn't see any pips so I put them back in the incubator. I've checked on them multiple times and don't hear any chirping anymore. I thought maybe putting the eggs in the brooder, under the heat lamp running the same temp as the incubator, with the chicks would entice the ones in the eggs to break out, but there's still no sign of pipping. I am not able to candle because I can't see ANYTHING thru their dark shell so now, at day 18 I feel it is time to assist with just one pip to see if they can do it.
Should I have left them in the incubator? Are they going to suffocate if I don't intervene? Or is it already too late? I'm so scared of hurting them, it would break my heart to know I caused their death.
I had 8 eggs in the incubator, collected over a week and a half's time. 4 days ago, 3 chicks hatched & were dry so, being new to this, I removed them from the incubator and placed them in my brooder. While doing this I heard chirps coming from 2 of the other eggs but didn't see any pips so I put them back in the incubator. I've checked on them multiple times and don't hear any chirping anymore. I thought maybe putting the eggs in the brooder, under the heat lamp running the same temp as the incubator, with the chicks would entice the ones in the eggs to break out, but there's still no sign of pipping. I am not able to candle because I can't see ANYTHING thru their dark shell so now, at day 18 I feel it is time to assist with just one pip to see if they can do it.
Should I have left them in the incubator? Are they going to suffocate if I don't intervene? Or is it already too late? I'm so scared of hurting them, it would break my heart to know I caused their death.
Glad you joined.
