Refrigerated quail eggs hatched!

[DNemeth]

This is my first post about something I found amazing! I live in the USVI and was interested in raising some quail, but not ready to commit to some of the large minimum orders some hatcheries require. So after seeing that some folks had been successful hatching eggs from the grocery store, I figured I had little to lose putting 22 quail eggs in my NurtureRight360 incubator. They came originally from a producer in FL, and our local store told me the eggs would have been at 36degF for at least 10-14d by the time I got them. After about a week I candled them and saw that 11 of the 22 I set were developing--and all 11 hatched! The photos are day of hatch and at 3d old, they are 10d old now and already able to fly up and out of the 15" deep brooder if I remove the screen cover.
I searched the website and confirmed they are Coturnix quail, but was surprised that the company claims that their eggs are NOT fertilized and they do NOT keep males with their female quail!! So I guess I have some miracle birds here. Wondering if they claim they are infertile eggs because they think they separated male and female before they were reproductively mature (do quail egg producers try to vent-sex their newly hatched birds, or wait until feather colors distinguish them?)
Do they need to claim that in order to be able to import the eggs (for consumption) to all states? The store was actually quite upset, as they had done their research and thought they were buying un-fertilized eggs. (they are vegans and they did NOT want to sell eggs that could potentially contain an embryo). Which got me thinking.....are the eggs sold for consumption that are labelled "free-range" or "from small farms" likely to be fertilized? or do most egg companies keep males out of the area where the layers are?
Just some random questions for those more experienced out there! The birds are doing great and I'm delighted to add them to my little farm (I have ducks, chickens, 2 goats).

 

[yakitori]

That’s pretty cool! Congrats on your new additions!

 

[BelovedBirds]

This is my first post about something I found amazing! I live in the USVI and was interested in raising some quail, but not ready to commit to some of the large minimum orders some hatcheries require. So after seeing that some folks had been successful hatching eggs from the grocery store, I figured I had little to lose putting 22 quail eggs in my NurtureRight360 incubator. They came originally from a producer in FL, and our local store told me the eggs would have been at 36degF for at least 10-14d by the time I got them. After about a week I candled them and saw that 11 of the 22 I set were developing--and all 11 hatched! The photos are day of hatch and at 3d old, they are 10d old now and already able to fly up and out of the 15" deep brooder if I remove the screen cover.
I searched the website and confirmed they are Coturnix quail, but was surprised that the company claims that their eggs are NOT fertilized and they do NOT keep males with their female quail!! So I guess I have some miracle birds here. Wondering if they claim they are infertile eggs because they think they separated male and female before they were reproductively mature (do quail egg producers try to vent-sex their newly hatched birds, or wait until feather colors distinguish them?)
Do they need to claim that in order to be able to import the eggs (for consumption) to all states? The store was actually quite upset, as they had done their research and thought they were buying un-fertilized eggs. (they are vegans and they did NOT want to sell eggs that could potentially contain an embryo). Which got me thinking.....are the eggs sold for consumption that are labelled "free-range" or "from small farms" likely to be fertilized? or do most egg companies keep males out of the area where the layers are?
Just some random questions for those more experienced out there! The birds are doing great and I'm delighted to add them to my little farm (I have ducks, chickens, 2 goats).

they aim to remove the males, but usually a few remain in the flocks. Quail roos end up misidentified as hens, and drakes get misidentified as ducks! Chickens are harder to end up mixing but it DOES happen occassionally. Very rare.

My two ducks, Dougie and Sprightly, hatched from supermarket eggs- and there are many similar stories out there. I'm vegan myself, my family is not, but even they felt iffy about eating fertilised eggs. It put them off....
And yes, we understand that there usually isnt gunna be a partially developed embryo, growth happens once incubated, but still. Made them uncomfortable

 

[NexGenKen]

This is my first post about something I found amazing! I live in the USVI and was interested in raising some quail, but not ready to commit to some of the large minimum orders some hatcheries require. So after seeing that some folks had been successful hatching eggs from the grocery store, I figured I had little to lose putting 22 quail eggs in my NurtureRight360 incubator. They came originally from a producer in FL, and our local store told me the eggs would have been at 36degF for at least 10-14d by the time I got them. After about a week I candled them and saw that 11 of the 22 I set were developing--and all 11 hatched! The photos are day of hatch and at 3d old, they are 10d old now and already able to fly up and out of the 15" deep brooder if I remove the screen cover.
I searched the website and confirmed they are Coturnix quail, but was surprised that the company claims that their eggs are NOT fertilized and they do NOT keep males with their female quail!! So I guess I have some miracle birds here. Wondering if they claim they are infertile eggs because they think they separated male and female before they were reproductively mature (do quail egg producers try to vent-sex their newly hatched birds, or wait until feather colors distinguish them?)
Do they need to claim that in order to be able to import the eggs (for consumption) to all states? The store was actually quite upset, as they had done their research and thought they were buying un-fertilized eggs. (they are vegans and they did NOT want to sell eggs that could potentially contain an embryo). Which got me thinking.....are the eggs sold for consumption that are labelled "free-range" or "from small farms" likely to be fertilized? or do most egg companies keep males out of the area where the layers are?
Just some random questions for those more experienced out there! The birds are doing great and I'm delighted to add them to my little farm (I have ducks, chickens, 2 goats).

Wondered if I could get a hen count on your 11 quail. I want to incubate quail but wondered if the theory of cooler Temps more likely to kill male embryo. Congrats on your successful hatch