quail hatching

[skyape38]

they are button quail no more eggs hatched yet I really think that I will only get 2 babies this time. Ill try again in the spring/summer.
ill leave the eggs in the incubator until after the new year that should be more then enough time for them to hatch if they are going too.
Im hoping that one of the babies is a male since i have 2 hens already.

 

[ksukristin]

I didn't have very much success with my first hatch either- 2 birds made it. but the 2nd hatch I had a 66% hatch rate and got 16 birds and just last night I came home to 9 more in the bator! So don't worry- it gets easier!

If they are developing with their heads in the pointy end I think that has something to do with how you are storing the eggs prior to incubation, and how you have them in the bator. My first hatch I didn't have my eggs in any racks, they just laid on their side and I rolled them. My 2nd hatch and 3rd hatch I had them big side- up in a homemade rack and I had a much higher success rate. Not sure if that translates to Bobs.

I know it's hard and you want to help them out of their shells, but they need to be strong enough to hatch if they are going to be strong enough to survive...every single bird I ever helped out of the shell didn't make it. I learned my lesson and I didn't help any in the 2nd and 3rd hatch and my success rate was much higher. I've had birds that took 2-3 days to hatch, and I've had birds that took 30 seconds to bust out once they had zipped. Every bird is different which is part of what makes it so much fun to incubate! The first time is always tough so don't beat yourself up!

Congrats on your 2 new babies and I hope you have many more!

 

[darkfur]

not sure if this works for button quail but coturnix I get much better hatch rates from if I set the eggs upright in their turners (which are on the floor of the incubator at this point not in the turning mechanism). You can also use quail egg trays, preferably plastic ones, with a hole cut in the bottom of each egg-hole to allow air and humidity to circulate. I'm pretty sure I got this tip from someone on here and it made all the difference to my hatch rate
WRT helping, something you can do is candle the egg and look for the airspace then use tweezers to open the eggshell *gingerly* at that part - just a little hole - and you can look in and see if it needs help or is dead. If you see blood vessels in the membrane, you can't do anything or you will cause a bleed. If the beak is through the membrane and the membrane is dry and leathery you can cautiously remove the dry leathery bits but if any bleeding starts, stop what you are doing immediately and return the chick to the incubator. I had one hatch of 50 coturnix where for some reason 10 chicks didn't hatch on their own and were all sitting in their eggs with their yolks retracted and ready to be let out when I opened the eggs. No idea what caused that. I was post-morteming the eggs 2 days after the first hatched when I nearly bashed a chick on the head opening an egg and realised I still had unhatched babies!