None of my eggs are hatching!

[risingeaglefarm]

I have 40 quail eggs in a still air incubator,along with some chicken and duck eggs. The quail eggs were due to hatch 2 days ago. I just float tested half of them and they were all developed, 2 showed obvious signs of life. But I'm a little concerned-why haven't ANY of them hatched? Do you think my incubator temp might be off? Should I buy another incubator to be safe? My concern is mostly for the other eggs I have in there.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's the most likely problem. If the embryo is still alive, most likely the temperature has been low.
I'd start with a new thermometer (or two).
That will be cheaper than an incubator.
These are my 2 favorites.
http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt301wa.html
https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx

Until you know for sure what the temperature is, you can't progress. The problem is that most thermometers can be off by 2 degrees or more. That includes the one that came with the incubator.
You need a guaranteed accurate thermometer. A couple failed hatches will pay for both of the aforementioned thermometers.
Another thing that varies with thermometers is response time.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

The crazy thing is, I have 5 thermometers, and none of them are agreeing with each other
The one that came with the incubator says 110, the one on the incubator says 90, I have two regular thermometers and one reads around 100 but not precise enough to tell, the other says 95 or so, but the most recent one I just bought for incubators is an acurite and it says 100 degrees and that's the one I'm going by

I'm a little leary of getting another thermometer! My incubator worked perfect last year... Until I spilled water on it:/
Idk if its working correctly

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Spilling water on the electronics may have doomed the incubator.

You just proved my point about thermometers. I always had about 5 that didn't agree with each other as well. I had terrible hatches from a cheap incubator and from a very nice one I built.
Most thermometers are only regulated to be accurate to within + or - 2 F. That's far off enough to doom a hatch. The truth is (as you've observed) that they can be off by much more than that. Way back then I bought a Brinsea spot check and since it didn't agree with any of the others, I didn't trust it either.
Then I bought the Thermoworks pocket digital that's calibratable and guaranteed to be accurate to within 0.9 F. It agreed exactly with the Spot Check so I only trust those now.
I even had an incubator company mercury thermometer that was accurate at room temperature but off by 5F at incubation temperature.
Until you know your temperature, everything else is a crap shoot.
My best advice is to ignore or throw all the others away and buy a good one.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

I think you're right about the thermometers. I went to the feed store today and tey were out of thermometers, so I bought a brand new forced air incubator.... It has a digital thermometer built in that I'm not sure is correct, the other thermometer is lower, but its preset to be the right temp, and at least now I can split the eggs in half to increase the chances at least one of the incubators will work.

 

[RubyNala97]

I think you're right about the thermometers. I went to the feed store today and tey were out of thermometers, so I bought a brand new forced air incubator.... It has a digital thermometer built in that I'm not sure is correct, the other thermometer is lower, but its preset to be the right temp, and at least now I can split the eggs in half to increase the chances at least one of the incubators will work.

What incubator did you buy? Don't trust the digital read out on the incubator. Your best bet is to calibrate one of the thermometer's that you have. Have you calibrated any of them??

 

[Egghead_Jr]

To fine tune incubators I use a medical thermometer that most have already in their medicine cabinet.

The thermometers that are reading 100F are likely accurate. The problem is you have a still air incubator and they need to be run at a higher temp measured at top of eggs. With chicken eggs that's 101.5F measured at top of eggs. This discrepancy is the reason for late hatching.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

I don't know how to calibrate them. I don't know which ones are correct.

 

[WVduckchick]

I don't know how to calibrate them. I don't know which ones are correct.

Google it. There are several simple techniques to test the accuracy of thermometers. Find one that works with your type of meter. Salt test for hygrometers is simple and accurate... And scientific, so you won't have to guess.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

I candled them, every one of my quail eggs died.
Some of the duck eggs still look ok.
Mind you , there's other factors at play too here, I didn't turn any of the quail eggs. But I usually don't and they usually still hatch.
Anyway, I am just hoping that I can save the other eggs... I really don't trust that thermometer. I'm not sure what to do

There are no more thermometers in the stores that I haven't tried so if I wanted a good one I'd have to order it and by then it might be too late...
And I can't calibrate the one that I do have because it's paper.
This is ridiculous. Somebody, help!