Okay, which one of you was it?

[Prettiest Frog]

I went this morning and checked my quail eggs in the incubator. Since I wasn't expecting any of these to hatch (stupid post man), I was delighted to see an obviously cracked and empty egg. Right up into I proceeded to search the incubator for the chick. No sign. Zip. Zilch.

What the hell? Who stole my quail?

 

[AHappychick]

I would look again sometimes they get stuck and are hard to see. they are really small and I found one stuch almost under the metal grate once.

 

[jameskchandler]

The little guy may have popped out, over the top edge, and landed outside the incubator. Some incubators have sides low enough for this to occur, and others do not. Check around down below, just in case.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

If it got out of the incubator, it was food for the cat, sorry to say. The incubator is up on a shelf, so on two sides of the incubator the chick would have about a 4' fall, the rear backs up to a wall, and the cat likes to sleep on the other side of the shelf to get some residual warmth from the incubator itself. But I really don't see how it could have escaped.

 

[usschicago1]

Goodluck! Hope he turns up

 

[CoopCrazy]

any yolk in the bator .. Maybe it wa a dud an exploded....

 

[Prettiest Frog]

Nope, clean hatch. I'm eyeing the cat now, wondering if she could have snuck a paw under the lid and snagged it? I'll have to move the incubator somewhere she can't get to it, just to be safe.

 

[saddina]

Quote:
A picture is worth a thousand words. you look in the water trays, under the other eggs and under the bulb? some of my quails would slide around on the other eggs like a ball pit.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

Water dishes are under the grate, no way for her to be there. No way to get to the bulb, it's on top. I'm not quite giving up hope, I look again every few minutes and listen for peeping noises.

 

[AHappychick]

very strange.

I used a plastic bin in my basement to raise chicks. One of them had a hole in the corner that I used paper towel as a quick plug and went about my day cause I was being lazy and it was the only clean bin available at the time. Well somewhere throughout the night the little quail managed to dislodge the paper towel plug and one by one fell out. My cat gobbled them all up leaving next to nothing. That was one mistake I never made again I think I lost 10 quail that way before I woke up and saw what was happening. So if yours escaped I am sure it met the same fate but how could it get out of the bator?