**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[SilkieSensation]

Thanks SS, I am a worry wart with all this new stuff, the buttons scare me they are so tiny! I lost one in that tiny waterer! drowned! but she was smallest and weak and I think the other boogers trampled her! I want to make sure these guys get the best care, and I certainly appreciate all the help I can get with them all! When can you tell a male from female?

Not sure on sexing buttons but would assume sexing them is similar to sexing coturnix. I always put tissue in my waterers for quail. Marbles or rocks leave gaps for them to fall in or get their legs caught in. Tissue allows them to walk right across the water & only toes get wet. They just suck the water right up from the tissue & it sinks with the water level. I have never lost a quail baby to drowning since I started using this method.

Quote: I have found the toms are usually a bit bigger than the hens they hatch with by the end of the 1st week & a good bit bigger by the end of the 2nd week. The toms just grow faster.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

interesting SS, you know I thought that tiny waterer with less than what 1/4" would be ok! a marble wont even fit! but it was not so : (

 

[SilkieSensation]

interesting SS, you know I thought that tiny waterer with less than what 1/4" would be ok! a marble wont even fit! but it was not so : (

Just stuff tissue or TP in it & change it once or twice daily. No more drowned quail.

 

[ChooksChick]

what am I doing wrong? I candled right before lockdown and there were 32 developed and moving, 4 days later only 8 hatched, 2 pipped but never made it out... nothing from the rest I candled 2, no movement so i opened them, they had pipped internally then died. What could be causing this? It happened in my hatch before this one, 24 definitely developed and only 4 hatched, what is going on? I basically did a dry incubation, the air cells looked about right... I'm sick about this, they're so close, ugh! so disappointing, I have another 4 doz in the incubator due to hatch in 10 days I'd like to try figure out the issue so they have a chance to hatch. any ideas?

I would agree about ventilation, and I would also look at your aircell development to see if your humidity was too high. Sometimes they are too large to get into position to pip the shell. This is the way chickens should look over the course of the incubation:




Someone had a turkey pic, showing the progress for a 28 day egg- perhaps it was on Yinepu's turkey page? There's a link to that on page 1.

WAIT! I went and found it- it was Yinepu!

 

[Razadia]

Quote: I haven't had a single problem with water and quail chicks since I'm using paper towels in the water. They really do just walk right over it and even sleep on it.

Well, we went to get feed for the quail chicks this morning and found out they're out until Friday.

Went back a few hours ago because my mom wanted some of the mallard ducklings they had. They were out.

Again, they won't have any until Friday. If I manage to sell the 5 evil hens before then I'll be getting Guinea keets if they still have them. I really hope they still have them!

 

[mrshaggie810]

HANDS OFF THE BATOR!!! Every time you open to candle you mess up humidity & temps. Leave them alone for another day or 2 & see what happens. Humidity is actually a bit high for still air but that range is fine for forced air.
Mine have all done that for a least a couple days too. Think it's just part of poult development. They all fixed themselves within a few days. 1 even did it on both wings. Someone correct me if this isn't typical please. I don't have a lot of experience with poults.

I only opened it to add water and just did a really quick candle! But ok...hands off, promise, but I thought the humidity is supposed to be that high for ducks? One article I read said 85-90% for when the ducks hatch???? It's hanging out at 60-65% though, I can't seem to get it to stay higher...do you think that's ok?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

To the person who lost a lot of embryos... keep incubating, they may hatch. If they don't in another 2 days, I'd do an eggtopsy. Depending on the stage, it'll tell you when they died. Often if you have a large die off like that you can say it's probably a temp spike, bacterial infection in the incubator (those of you done hatching don't forget to clean AND disinfect the incubator) and less likely but still possible majorly wonky humidity.

And then keep incubating some more and get better at it!


The split wing is pretty normal from my experience... my turkeys with it were fine as adults.

Well... as fine as fine can be. She's still looking for love in all the wrong places. I do hope I hatched her a boyfriend this time.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote:
I haven't had a single problem with water and quail chicks since I'm using paper towels in the water. They really do just walk right over it and even sleep on it.

Well, we went to get feed for the quail chicks this morning and found out they're out until Friday.

Went back a few hours ago because my mom wanted some of the mallard ducklings they had. They were out.

Again, they won't have any until Friday. If I manage to sell the 5 evil hens before then I'll be getting Guinea keets if they still have them. I really hope they still have them!
Your quail can eat whatever you have been feeding the rest of the chicks. You may just have to crush it up a little. I feed mine the same fermented mix my other babies get & they all ate the same when I used to feed dry too.

Quote: I hatch ducks in still air at 50-65%. If you have forced air you will need to go a bit higher to 60-80% because the fan will dry out the membranes too quickly for the slow duckies to get out. The only time I have ever let my humidity go above 80% I lost almost everything in that hatch. From what yinepu tells me, it was because the humidity was saturating the air too much & they weren't getting enough oxygen. I never let humidity go above 60% for chicks or above 70% for ducks anymore & hatch rates have been much better.

To the person who lost a lot of embryos... keep incubating, they may hatch. If they don't in another 2 days, I'd do an eggtopsy. Depending on the stage, it'll tell you when they died. Often if you have a large die off like that you can say it's probably a temp spike, bacterial infection in the incubator (those of you done hatching don't forget to clean AND disinfect the incubator) and less likely but still possible majorly wonky humidity.

And then keep incubating some more and get better at it!


The split wing is pretty normal from my experience... my turkeys with it were fine as adults.

Well... as fine as fine can be. She's still looking for love in all the wrong places. I do hope I hatched her a boyfriend this time.

SHE'S GORGEOUS!!! You can send her to me if you can't find her a boyfriend. I'm sure Tom can handle another girl or 2. He only has 2 girls so far.

 

[Razadia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilkieSensation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sally Sunshine

Thanks SS, I am a worry wart with all this new stuff, the buttons scare me they are so tiny! I lost one in that tiny waterer! drowned! but she was smallest and weak and I think the other boogers trampled her! I want to make sure these guys get the best care, and I certainly appreciate all the help I can get with them all! When can you tell a male from female?

Not sure on sexing buttons but would assume sexing them is similar to sexing coturnix. I always put tissue in my waterers for quail. Marbles or rocks leave gaps for them to fall in or get their legs caught in. Tissue allows them to walk right across the water & only toes get wet. They just suck the water right up from the tissue & it sinks with the water level. I have never lost a quail baby to drowning since I started using this method.

I haven't had a single problem with water and quail chicks since I'm using paper towels in the water. They really do just walk right over it and even sleep on it.

Well, we went to get feed for the quail chicks this morning and found out they're out until Friday.

Went back a few hours ago because my mom wanted some of the mallard ducklings they had. They were out.

Again, they won't have any until Friday. If I manage to sell the 5 evil hens before then I'll be getting Guinea keets if they still have them. I really hope they still have them!
Your quail can eat whatever you have been feeding the rest of the chicks. You may just have to crush it up a little. I feed mine the same fermented mix my other babies get & they all ate the same when I used to feed dry too.

Quote: I hatch ducks in still air at 50-65%. If you have forced air you will need to go a bit higher to 60-80% because the fan will dry out the membranes too quickly for the slow duckies to get out. The only time I have ever let my humidity go above 80% I lost almost everything in that hatch. From what yinepu tells me, it was because the humidity was saturating the air too much & they weren't getting enough oxygen. I never let humidity go above 60% for chicks or above 70% for ducks anymore & hatch rates have been much better.

To the person who lost a lot of embryos... keep incubating, they may hatch. If they don't in another 2 days, I'd do an eggtopsy. Depending on the stage, it'll tell you when they died. Often if you have a large die off like that you can say it's probably a temp spike, bacterial infection in the incubator (those of you done hatching don't forget to clean AND disinfect the incubator) and less likely but still possible majorly wonky humidity.

And then keep incubating some more and get better at it!


The split wing is pretty normal from my experience... my turkeys with it were fine as adults.

Well... as fine as fine can be. She's still looking for love in all the wrong places. I do hope I hatched her a boyfriend this time.

SHE'S GORGEOUS!!! You can send her to me if you can't find her a boyfriend. I'm sure Tom can handle another girl or 2. He only has 2 girls so far.

All we have is medicated chick started. I read somewhere that it can make them sterile (not sure if that's true or not) and I know it doesn't have the protein that they need. They've been loving the finely chopped egg I've been feeding them.

 

[wildriverswolf90]

CDM babies from under a different broody, 3 days late