Quail eggs not hatching - sigh

[SuburbanMomof4]

Well, our first try at hatching eggs has not been successful - they were supposed to hatch yesterday... by now it's pretty much a wash, right?

I think we have learned alot. I just read Harvey Ussery's book and he recommends letting eggs sit for a day before putting them int he incubator (after getting them through the mail) and candling them at 10 days. We discovered that on our mini-incubator (the yellow plastic one) we couldn't tell as well as we thought how much water was in the incubator to provide humidity... now we know! And we had problems with our A/C and impossibly hot weather the first week of incubation - no thermostat on the incubator, we may have toasted them (we toasted *us*!).

I have a question for all - we haven't hatched chicks before and only had a few Ameracauna day-old chicks a few years ago. This is partly a homesteading project and partly a homeschool project for my 6yo son.

Should we be hatching quail?

Is there an easier egg to hatch/baby to brood?
(We're also going to be getting the Happy Cackle mix to brood from Cackle Hatchery. With a few supplements.)

We got these eggs and incubator as a kit from Home Science Tools (http://www.hometrainingtools.com/incubator-with-four-quail-eggs/p/LD-INCUBAT/).
The incubator has a capacity of 2 Duck, 3 Chicken or 8 Quail eggs. They sell a "refill" pack of 8 coturnix quail eggs (the first set were bobwhites).

My son is up for hatching anything but he really likes the Gambel and California Valley Quail with the crests... but I can't find a moderate number of eggs sold anywhere (yet)! I don't want to order 30 and only be able to brood 8 (eat the rest? we have a hen that went broody in the spring...) My oldest daughter wants Blue Swedish Ducks...



Thoughts anyone?

What would you try to hatch with your kids/grandkids?

Thanks!
Kerridwen
*now with 5 kids and on our own mini-farm*

 

[chicmom]

I think the problem was your incubator. Does it have a yellow base and a clear dome on top? Costing around $17 to $29? (Your link is broken.) That incubator is pretty much junk. And I hate to say that, but keeping one of those tiny incubators regulated for temp and humidity is almost impossible. I had one myself.

If you can, borrow or buy better model. Chicken eggs are always a fun egg to hatch first. Quail, in my opinion are not as fun, because they are more like a wild bird, where chicks are more people friendly, and your kids will enjoy them more.

Take care and I hope you eventually get to hatch some eggs for the kids,
Sharon

 

[cmfarm]

I would try looking of craigslist for local eggs. Shipped eggs are so hard to hatch and even harder if you are just getting started.

 

[SuburbanMomof4]

Chicmom,

I knew the incubator (yeah, it's the one you are thinking of) is pretty bad. The price alone told me that! However I don't have much cash right now. I looked on eBay and craiglist and couldn't find anything I could afford. I asked on my homeschool yahoogroup - no replies.

And right *now* is when my son is inspired and interested. We were visiting the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last Thanksgiving and had to leave before he could watch a chick hatch. He was VERY unhappy and I promised we'd find a way to hatch a chick... I thought I could borrow or buy a used incubator!

Thanks for the suggestion about chicken eggs. He loves our chickens...

CMFarm,
I'll look... craigslist maybe? I don't have enough BYC posts yet to try out the Buy/Trade forum here ;-(


Kerridwen
*5* kids and *on a farm* now

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Quail are pretty easy and not a bad first choice for children. We get a great hatch rate using the standard styrofoam forced air type of incubator - we have a couple. One of the big problems with Coturnix Quail is that it dries out quick due to how much surface area relative to volume it has. So you can hosed in shipping or if you don't watch the humidity.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

One of the incubators I use is http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/farm-innovators-circulated-air-incubator---2200.html

Not as good as the Hovabator IMHO but it seems to get the job done. Their still air is $50 but I'd go forced air if you can.

I got mine from geekbro.com http://www.geekbro.com/index.cfm/g/s?searchtext=incubator

 

[SuburbanMomof4]

THEY HATCHED!

They were supposed to hatch on Sunday... nothing.
Monday... nothing.
Tuesday I forgot to tell my son to turn off the incubator.

Wednesday morning - one chick and another one working on it!

We were so excited. My son was calling himself a "Quail daddy."

Then we took the older girls to their gymnastics lesson, the cat must have snuck into the house and gotten interested in the peeping, moving chicks... and batted the incubator over. We got home to TWO hatched - but quite cold chicks. We all cried. I was mad at the cat... but he was just being a cat.

At least now we know that we *can* hatch with this incubator... I'm going to be ordering eggs from www.gamebirdfarm.net. My son wanted California or Gambel quail anyways (those cute crowns)...

Kerridwen
now *5* kids and *on the farm*

 

[chickenlover237]

Googood for you!

 

[Nsampsel]

If you can't get eggs reasonably priced I would be willing to send you some from my 2 banties that are laying just for cost of shipping. They are OEG Banty mix. My roo & 1 hen look to be mixed with Black Copper Marans & the other hen is white. I can probably fix 6-8 in a small flat rate box that costs less than $6 to ship. Let me know if you need them. It will take me a couple days to gather them as there are only 2 laying so far.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Congrats on the chicks 2 babies is a good start . If youdo have a chic chic bator dome thing props on getting anything to hatch at all. Make shure you find a place thats cat safe next time you hatch. my cat pretty much ignores my bator till the eggs start hatching then he is a big pain in the tail . Did you check the section in the learning center that has a bunch of planes and stuff for home made bators. they can get to be just as expensisve if you go buy lots of stuff but if you keep it simple and have stuff laying around you can make a ok bator for 20 or so dollers .