Quail eggs pipping then dying?

[MRquail]

I'm new to this forum and quail raising and have been incubating Snowflake bobwhite quail eggs with no success so far. I had several that weren't fertilized and others that died early on. The few that made it to lockdown pipped at the side of the egg and after 4 days ( just to be absolutely sure they didn't have a chance) I finally threw three out after candeling and not seeing movement and opened up the fourth one( very carefully just in case he was ok) to see what went wrong. The little guy was fully developed and already dead and appeared to be facing the pointy side of the egg. Temp has been a steady 101.5-102 (still air incubator, just a cheap styrofoam) and I had a few issues with humidity at first, but it stayed at about 55% then raised to 65% after lockdown. I hand turned twice a day and didn't open the lid during lockdown. Before lockdown I placed them air sac up because I have read that is the best way to get the chicks to hatch correctly. I thought I was doing everything right so I'm not really sure where I'm going wrong. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! I have a new clutch in there now so hopefully I'll have better luck. Also one last thing! I have an 18 day old egg that appears to have a saddle shaped air sac but he's moving around. Will he be ok to hatch on his own or is there no hope for him either? Thanks again!

 

[007Sean]

Have you disinfected the bator before the first time you put eggs in the bator? You need to sanitize your bator after each hatch. Bacteria can get in and proliferative in a moist environment of an incubator.
If they were shipped eggs the normal hatch rate will be around 50%, sometimes higher.

I would recommend running the humidity around 43 to 45% for the first 21 days then increasing to 60 - 65% for lockdown.
Do you have a independent hygrometer that has been salt test calibrated? If not you should look into getting 1 or 2, the humidity sensors and thermometers on most foam incubators are highly inaccurate. A separate thermometer that is accurate is also recommended.

Saddled air cell eggs are a result of rough handling, usually during shipping. It's a 'toss up' if it will hatch or not...you may have to assist it.
I have never had a 'saddled' air cell egg hatch...but have read others have had success with them hatching.
Turning the eggs more frequently in the early stage of incubation will help keep the embryo from sticking to one side of the membrane. You might want to look into getting an automatic turner, too! HTH
Good luck with your hatches!

 

[MRquail]

Thank you that explains a lot! I did disinfect right before placing them in there but on day 4 the incubator was knocked into and we had one egg crack and start leaking. That explains both the bacteria growing and the saddle shapped air sac in the other egg.That one pipped this morning and started to hatch but didn't make it I have another one that just pipped not 10 Minutes ago and I can hear it peeping so I'm really really hoping this one makes it. And I'm getting my eggs from my own birds but I had a lot of issues with them as chicks as well. They were shipped from Kansas City Quail farm and several arrived dead and then we lost even more for the first few hours.Maybe they just don't have very good genetics? I was told that the snowflakes are a rare genetic breed so maybe that has something to do with having such low hatch rates too. But thanks again for the info, I really appreciate it!

 

[Kiki]

I think you are running your humidity too high.

Have you opened up any of the ones that quit to see if there is a lot of juice in them?

I incubate my quail eggs at 30-35% humidity and only bump it to 50ish for hatching.

I run a still air bator and I keep my temp right at 100.5 ish .. I've never let it get to 102 because I'm scared to over heat them.

 

[MRquail]

I did open two of them and they did seem pretty wet inside. This is my first time hatching so I'm not really sure if it was more than a normal amount of moisture. One chick did seem to be almost mushy, like it's bones weren't completely hardened or something. Does high humidity cause this as well?

 

[007Sean]

I did open two of them and they did seem pretty wet inside. This is my first time hatching so I'm not really sure if it was more than a normal amount of moisture. One chick did seem to be almost mushy, like it's bones weren't completely hardened or something. Does high humidity cause this as well?

When the humidity is high throughout the incubation period it can cause 'mushy' chicks. Not enough moisture is loss and the air cell will be too small for the chick to internally pip, if it does hatch it will look 'pot bellied' in appearance, on the other hand, too little moisture will cause a large air cell and possibly squeeze the chick/embryo to a point it can not move within the egg, resulting in a (DIS) embryo/chick.

There is no preset % RH for every incubator nor for every location. You must take into consideration the ambient humidity at your location, where it is setup in a room, is AC or heat being used in the setup room, to determine how much water needs to be add to the incubator to reach your desired % RH you want to hatch your eggs.

 

[MRquail]

Good to know. I had read several sources online saying 50-55% for the first 21 days and then 65-70 during lockdown, I should have checked here sooner . I already lowered the humidity so hopefully that will help and I'll have to purchase a few hydrometers to figure out outside humidity and an accurate inside humidity. Thanks!

 

[pinoyathletics]

Texas Kiki is right. Too high humidity can cause drowning. Since then i have done a dry hatch no water first 14 days. Then humidity to 55-65% at lockdown. Before i was getting a lot of pipped drown chicks. What happens is a lot of water floods the air sack. And when they internally pip they get drowned.

 

[MRquail]

Thank you! After that batch of eggs I switched to a dry hatch method and had two chicks hatch successfully and three more pipped and working their way out!

 

[007Sean]

Thank you! After that batch of eggs I switched to a dry hatch method and had two chicks hatch successfully and three more pipped and working their way out!

Glad you had a more successful hatch.