'New Eggs'

[spur0303]

I am new at this quail thing. What are you folks ideas on hatching eggs from quail that just started laying. The quail I have are around 9 or 10 weeks old and just now starting to lay consistently. What I was wondering, is it okay to try to hatch these 'new' eggs or would it be better to wait till they have been laying a while? I currently have 2 roosters with 8 hens. I had 4 roosters in with the 8 hens but the roosters were doing a lot of fighting each other and running the dickens out of the hens. I put two of the roosters in another pen to see if things calm down a little.

 

[Nabiki]

It's better to wait a couple of weeks. The first eggs can be a bit off while the productive system gets going.

 

[Tonyroo]

If you need to know, grab 1 egg from each hen, grab a small white plate Crack the egg on to the plate and check the fertility of each egg. Might need a magnifying glass to see it.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Out of curiosity, I hatched the first seven eggs out of a hen. The first two were clear, the other five hatched but one had to be culled because it developed a deformity. Another died after getting its leg stuck in a fan, but that has nothing to do with the eggs themselves.

The chicks are fine, although to begin with they were smaller than the ones that came out of my older hens. One has a weird neck affliction. It doesn't affect its daily activities, but it seems like it always wants to look up. (It isn't severe enough to be wry neck, but it is a bit weird.)

All told, knowing what I know now, I'd wait at least a week or so before choosing eggs to set.

Update: I went out to look at the one with the weird neck, and it seems like it is growing out of it now that it's in a real coop and not in the brooder. Still, I think waiting at least a week before setting eggs is a good idea.