Quail Chicks are hatching but are very bloody.

[tumra]

Hey guys question for you....

I have been hatching quails for almost a year now, but everytime i hatch a batch of eggs the chicks are very bloody. So when the egg first pips, the chick inside is unable to move around in the egg to complete the hatching process and instead gets stuck. When this happens, we tend to help them hatch by gently removing the shell. They eventually do come out of the egg and most do survive. Out of 20 eggs in a batch, 2 will completely hatch on their own and the remainder will need to be assisted as they are bloody. Does anyone have any suggestions as what i am doing wrong?

Im using a R-com digital incubator which has and auto turner and digital humidifier. The temperature sits at a constant 37.5 degrees celcius, though in most cases i can only get the humidity up to 50-60%. COuld it be the humidity, or am i missing something in the whole incubation process?

Thanks

Anthony

 

[SamG347]

Anthony it could be many things. But the first thing I think of is do you clean and disenfect your incubator after every hatch? That is the only time I noticed problems with my hatch. Even if the bator was new the hatch always seemed to do worse than it did with a clean bator.
Good Luck I hope they make it out okay!

 

[monarc23]

so they are bloody before you assist them? If so that's a new one for me if you are ever able to allow a hatch to just try to hatch themselves I would and see if those bloody ones deffiantly cannot hatch themselves? It almost sounds like too low of humidity but i dont have a clue! LOL!

 

[Boyd]

? Not sure, but hope it works out better 4 u


Quote:

 

[Bettacreek]

If they're bloody when you help them, then I have a tip. When you help, peel the egg away (shell AND the thick membrane) down to the chick and the second, thin membrane with the blood vessels. Do not pull it down past where the air cell would be (it's obvious, basically don't pull it away from the chick/second membrane). Then, PUSH the second membrane away from the beak, towards the eye and the wing. Pull GENTLY on the wing feathers until the wing comes out, then gently pull on the beak and work the beak out until you get the head out. Every egg will have two blood vessels over the face, one right over the beak, which will be empty, but still tough, the second one, you must not break, you have to push it back or the chick will bleed. Anyways, after the head is out, I run the egg and body under warm water (about incubator temp) and let some water in there if any gets in. I then put them back in the incubator for a few hours. If they do not come out on their own, make sure that the membrane is nice and moist still, and then chip away the shell and pull the white membrane (thick one) away, and leave the bottom part of the shell there (this is where it connects to their belly button).

I have always had the same problem as you, only 1-4 will hatch, the rest need to be helped or will die. I lost many batches of eggs who pipped and died, because they needed help. The dozen 5 weekers, there were only 3 or 4 that were out on their own, the rest were all hatched "manually". One of those hens is actually with my adult coturnix, because she's the same size already. The rest are just as healthy and doing well.

 

[tumra]

Yeah the chicks are bloody before i assist them. I will need to take a photo of it and post it. I have a next batch hatching on Wednesday.

 

[tumra]

Thanks for the advice bettacreek... we always pull back the egg and the thick white membrane when we assist.... i will make sure i try out your suggestions....

Have you been able to figure out why it happens in the first place?

 

[Bettacreek]

I haven't been able to figure it out, I just know that if I don't help, I'll loose a good 50-75% of my developed eggs. In the incubator, my humidity runs at 55%, and the temps are 99.5-100.2. I tried moving them to the hatcher with 65-75% humidity and 99.5-100.5 when they had five days left, but still nothing. I had even tried it at 80%, again, nothing. I still move them at five days instead of three, simply because it doesn't seem to hurt them, and it gives me room in the incubator faster, lol. I usually wait about 4-8 hours, and if they don't progress any further, I start opening the pips, then move on to ones that aren't pipped. It's slow going, but it has certainly saved a lot of my birds.

 

[tumra]

Quote:
Thats exactly what i do as well... if they havent hatched within 8 hours we begin saving them.... after reading stories on this forum of people hatching dozens of chicks with no assistance i figured that i was doing something wrong...out of a batch of 20 eggs i had to hatch 15 by hand and 2 unassisted...

The funny thing is is that besides being bloody in the egg they are actually quite healthy birds and they grow up with no problems at all...

 

[Bettacreek]

That's how mine are. Though, out of the dozen, the last two (they weren't pipped) took awhile to get their legs. The last out of those two, I thought wasn't going to make it, it was down for a few hours (maybe it was a day?) and could only spin circles on its side. They are all healthy now though, and should soon be breeding.

Granted, mine are not bloody. I'm not sure if your's are maybe trying to hatch out before the blood vessel over the beak dries up or what, but I'm going to guess that this is where they're bleeding from.
Have you checked your thermometer against several others? I checked mine against two tube thermometers and one other digital. I don't trust the ice cube water trick or the clay trick or anything like that, I just test my thermometer against a bunch of others, then trust it.