Round Two

Ganks

In the Brooder
Jun 9, 2020
30
36
36
Not too long ago my wife and I attempted to hatch some Quail. We figured out we not only messed up with the day of the lock down but we also had our little incubator in our Garage. The temp in there was constantly changing and it was in line of sight of a window that was not covered so it would have had direct sunlight on it at random intervals as well. As soon as I figured out that we messed up on the lock down I went ahead and ordered some more eggs to try again.

This time we cleaned out and setup a big walk in closet we have and got our incubator and brooder in there. We put 2 hygrometers in the incubator and manually turned the eggs about 8 to 10 times a day for 18 days. We put them in lock down on the 18th day and have been waiting ever since. We had 1 hatch on day 23 and today is day 25.

We took him out of the incubator last night but we made sure the temp in our closet was at 99 and sprayed some warm water mist in the air before opening the incubator and quickly taking out the 1 little guy that hatched. When we looked in the incubator it did not look like any other eggs had pipped. The 2 hygrometers both had different readings. One said 62% and the other said 78%. I figured that either way that should have been good enough. I am still hoping that a few of others may hatch for us,

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After being heartbroken over the 1st failed attempt we picked up some day old Georgia Giant bobwhite chicks we found on craigslist. Luck have it that they we're the same type of quail we had in the incubator on the first try.

They are doing great now and mostly have there feathers in. We also took a trip to one of the Amish community's that is close to where my wife grew up to shop for a few things and ran into some of them my wife knew that raise Cotornix Quail. Some of the other little shops near bye had some nice 2 and 3 hole rabbit cages.

So we picked up 1 Rooster and 4 females for him and a big 2 hole cage. I built a stand for it to sit on and got them setup. That gave me what I would like to call Quail fever. I have been building and buying all sorts of quail stuff ever since.

One of the cotornix quail always comes to me when I am near there cage and is really sweet. My wife has made friends with another Quail lover near bye and got 1 of the roosters she hatched from some myshire eggs. So we picked him up 5 females from the Amish we met and they are doing great as well. I did order a new Incubator today that has a automatic water pump and 25 eggs from Myshire Farm so we are not giving up on hatching.

Here are a few pics of our setup right now,.

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i figured since the automatic turners turn about every 2 hours or so it would be ok. We did not have a set scheduled to turn the eggs besides I would turn them when I got up for work in the morning. When I got home from work and before I went to bed. With my wife also turning them a few times as well on her scheduled. We had them sitting pointy side down big end up and would only turn them a very small amount count. I checked this morning before leaving for work and still nothing.
 
I was just rotating them clockwise. The new incubator I ordered should be fully automatic so I will not be trying that again with the old machine.
 
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Day 26 in the books and still nothing. The Hygrometers read 72 and 75 and the temp is still reading good. Wonder how much longer I should give it before I write these ones off.
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're incubating the eggs upright like that, I think rotating them entails tilting the entire carton up at either end; just spinning them in place won't do anything. When they're laying horizontally you'd rotate them by rolling them along so the air cell moves around. I'm definitely not an expert though so could be wrong, or maybe I misunderstood your method. Either way, here's hoping you get some late hatchers! 🤞
 
I have a knack for learning things the hard way. I think when I get home from work if nothing has done anything I am going to pull the plug on this batch. The new incubator and the myshire eggs I ordered should both show up today..
 
Update: No other quail hatched from this previous attempt. We got our new incubator in and it has been a dream. Holds temp at 99.5 and the automatic water pump has made it super easy. The incubator is smarter than I am with hatching and it even stops turning the eggs all on its on for lockdown and it raises the humidity with out any adjustments on my end. We are now on Day 15 with a 30 count mix set of eggs from myshire farm. The wife and I are super excited to see what we will get.
 

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