quail: help, day 19 and not hatched

[mandarin1]

Hi everyone, this is my first time hatching quail. They are texas a and m, on day 19 and have not hatched. I put them in lockdown on day 14 like you're supposed to and I incubated them with a temp of 99.5 and humidity just like my chickens at 45-50% in a forced air incubator. I was getting worried, so I picked up the egg and placed it back down without rotating it or candling, literally just picked it up and placed it down. When I placed them back down they started rocking the egg, so they're still alive, what should I do? I don't want to lose them obviously, but when I candled them at lockdown I couldn't see if the air cell is large enough since they are hard to see inside with all the spots on the eggs, so I don't know if they're having trouble? I know everywhere you read says you should not help, but I'm getting worried and desperate, any help/advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[DK newbie]

People say they sometimes hatch at day 20-21. Usually when the temp has been a little low. What's your humidity now? If they haven't even begun to pip, I at least wouldn't help them.

 

[mandarin1]

My temp., as long as my three thermometers are correct, was between 99.5 and 100.0 the entire incubation. Since they've been on lockdown at day 14 my humidity has been between 60-65%. I did have one day that we had some rain and our house windows were open and the humidity got up to 70%, but again, that was during lockdown. I tried tapping on egg, again picking it up without rotating it at all, and heard no chirping, so I don't believe they've internally pipped either. I guess I will continue to cross my fingers and hope they hatch

I really appreciate your input, it puts me a little more at ease in thinking there might still be a chance for them. Thank you!!!

 

[raisingdaisies]

this seems to be fairly common in quail I've found lately. Have you been able to candle at all?

 

[Finnisher]

You're not going to be able to candle them after lockdown. If none of them hatched don't worry as they will hatch together, I'd be more concerned if 1 or 2 hatched but the rest haven't pipped. You really, really shouldn't open the incubator to check on them as they are in a very fragile do or die sort of state.

Are you at a high elevation?

 

[mandarin1]

No, I am not at high elevation. They actually all died, I opened up the eggs to see what happened and they were all at the pointy end of the egg even though I had them in the egg turners pointy end down, just like my chicken eggs. Could this have been a result of the person I got them from not storing them correctly?