Poor hatch rate due to refrigerated eggs?

[Lobzi]

Hi all quail enthusiast. Im new to owning and especially hatching quail. I got 24 fertile Texas A&M quail eggs to incubate. The young man who sold them to me brought them out and they were very cold. He said yes he had refrigerated them. I have read that chicken eggs should be stored at room temp prior to incubation. I only got one hatchling from the 24 eggs. Im going to try again and I have asked him not to refrigerate the eggs. Do you think the poor hatch rate was due to refrigeration or another problem, perhaps the incubation process? Can someone advise me on temp requirements as well as anything else that might increase the chance of my having a successful hatch this next time around. By the way, the young man is giving me the next 24 eggs for free which I thought was very generous.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Hi all quail enthusiast. Im new to owning and especially hatching quail. I got 24 fertile Texas A&M quail eggs to incubate. The young man who sold them to me brought them out and they were very cold. He said yes he had refrigerated them. I have read that chicken eggs should be stored at room temp prior to incubation. I only got one hatchling from the 24 eggs. Im going to try again and I have asked him not to refrigerate the eggs. Do you think the poor hatch rate was due to refrigeration or another problem, perhaps the incubation process? Can someone advise me on temp requirements as well as anything else that might increase the chance of my having a successful hatch this next time around. By the way, the young man is giving me the next 24 eggs for free which I thought was very generous.

Refrigeration can have an effect on hatch rate for eggs, yes, depending on the specifics of the refrigeration (temperature, duration, etc.) - however, you won't know until this next set if that was the cause of the hatch rate you saw as there are many other factors that can go into a failed incubation. I see you are new to this - was this your first incubation? What was your incubation process? Did you egg-topsy any of the failed eggs to determine if development had started and, if so, when it arrested?

 

[Lobzi]

Hi and thanks for helping me get this right for next hopeful hatch. So Im using an automatic turner in and hova-bator that did a really good job with chicken eggs.
This was my first serious attempt with a mass of quail eggs. I have a dribbling in of quail eggs from my two coturnix pharaoh mating pair and did pretty well getting the eggs to hatch but survival is poor as the babies dont seem to do so well in small groups. My one survivor from the failed hatch is with a survivor from the pharaoh eggs and a just hatched bantam chick who they love. The quail are about a week old and again the bantam chick just hatched yesterday.
Up until it was introduced into the pair they were constantly calling for me to hold them. Now they are snuggling with this day old chick. It has been really nice and a break of holding them for me.

The temp that worked well for the chickens was about 100 degrees F. Is that good for quail eggs too?
I did candle the Texas A&M eggs that mostly failed to hatch and about 50% started to develop, so it seemed. I broke open the non-developers and it was true, they had not started to develop. When I picked up the eggs they were really cold. I wasnt expecting that but he was offering the eggs for eating on Craigs List. He did say they could be used for hatching since he had males and females together so most likely fertile eggs. He had never tried hatching any and had heard that the eggs could be refrigerated without consequence to hatch rate. I was just wondering if chicken and quail eggs are different that way.
So I need to know about the temp mainly. Was that temp too low?