Seriously, like, what the hey?! Quail just not for me?!

[Bettacreek]

Alright, I've got five adult buttons, 7 weeks of age. At least one female and two males. No eggs yet, everyone else gets them at 6 weeks. No big deal, but a minor irritation. I order in 100 coturnix eggs, get 150, not a single one hatches, though many were in late development. I purchase two dozen button eggs, receive 35. These were local eggs, so no drop in fertility like happens with shipping, and the breeder has a good fertility rate. I put them into the incubator on Saturday. Today, I candle a few eggs (maybe 10 or so?) and ONE is showing veins, and, guess what, this egg is cracked. The others I don't see anything, but I didn't check all of them. I also got 31 chicks on Monday, had 6 or so die already. I'm beginning to wonder if quail just aren't the thing for me. I love them dearly, but, well, I seem to be such a total failure with them. I'm doing everything to the best of my ability, giving them clean, fresh food, ample room, warm environments, etc, and I just seem to be the finger of death or something.

At what point do you figure that you're a total failure and give up?

 

[monarc23]

dont give up shipping quail eggies esp this time of year is so risky....please give it a few more weeks please!

your quail are begging you LOL!

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I'll definately be holding onto my quail, but, I feel like it's pointless to purchase anything else, or to even bother saving any eggs that my birds lay (if they ever do). It's like the bettas, so close, yet so very, very far away.

 

[monarc23]

awh no no no believe me.....


i know the heartache and frusteration you had with bettas, i had that with show rabbits.....and i fell into these quails and they are my nitch! They breed for me and im getting babies from them...on my 3rd generation now on the one line....i know it's easy to give up with dealing not too long ago with the bettas but pweeze atleast try to hatch some of your quails (edited to add...when they start laying promise you they WILL start laying as long as you have enough light on them*. i will say i still hate LG incubators lol......that made me fele like a failure a lot so if that's what you are tryin to hatch them in that could eaisly drop your hatch rate a lot too. some have no problems with LGs and others have nothingbut problems i ha dnothing but problems. Mine is in a landfill somewhere lol

 

[ButtonQuailHeaven]

You are doing fine! The temp spikes and power outage issues could happen to anyone!! Baby Buttons are very prone to dying when they are not kept warm so between your bulb burning out and the power outage you had some losses. Both of those things were out of your control and could happen to anyone. Also I have had some major problems hatching too different times. Maybe your incubator isn't quite right at this point? You might want to try some different thermometers.

As far as laying eggs at 6 weeks, I have never had a Button lay at 6 weeks. Mine always lay at 7 or after. I had a Coturnix lay at 5 weeks once but I think thye normally lay at 6. Do you have the two confused maybe? Don't give up, they will be worth it in the end and you may appreciate them a lot more this way. Hang in there and chin up!!

 

[Bettacreek]

Thanks guys. I don't want to toss my hands in the air and give up, but, after flushing hundreds of dollars down the toilet with the bettas, and having nothing but four very old "breeders" to show for it, I'm just half afraid that these guys will go in the same direction.

Monarc, it's an LG, but, other than the power outage, it has been working wonderfully for me, never varying more than one degree. I am buying a hovabator 1588 with autoturner hopefully this Friday (maybe in 15 minutes, depending on whether they deposit the money at midnight, lol), then I'll be using the LG as a hatcher (after the button eggs are done, I don't want to pester with them and move them around to the other bator).

I did have two thermometers in there, one was a fish tank thermometer (with the red stuff in the glass tube), and it was reading at the same thing (well, to the degree at least). Should I test it again with both digital thermometers and two tube thermometers?

 

[deerman]

See you have a force air.

 

[Bettacreek]

Nah, it's a forced air LG. I have a carton in there, and I have it propped up on one side, and just move the prop from one side to the other to turn the eggs. I turn it three times a day (I know, more is better, but I can only reliably turn three times per day, once when I wake up, once when I get home from work, and once before bed, which is about 8 hours between turns). Right now, there aren't any chicken eggies in there, just 35 button eggs. I haven't been opening the bator to add water (I have a tube to the water pan, and I inject water through that), I only open it to flip the prop to the other side, and I never remove the top completely. When the power was out, I was in and out of it a few times to try to adjust the temp and humidity. Even now, with candling the eggs, I only gave myself 3 or 4 minutes, removed one egg at a time, and didn't actually remove the lid. I could only candle about ten eggs or so, and noticed that the temp had dropped to 98.6, so I stopped candling. I have been trying to be very picky about this hatch, since my coturnix batch was a total failure.
OMG. I just remembered something with the eggs... When we went to pick them up, that was when we got locked out and had to have the landlord break us into the apartment, and the eggs were stuck outside the whole freaking time. It wasn't really cold out, but, certainly not optimal temperatures, and they were probably outside for a good half an hour before we got in. I don't remember how long I let them set for, but they set until almost midnight before I put them in (if I remember correctly). Maybe that reduced fertility too... I can't believe I forgot about that (what kind of moron forgets that they were locked out less than a week ago?!) *Sigh* I'm going braindead, I swear.

ETA: Pfft, no 1588 tonight, hopefully they'll add funds later today, otherwise I'll be waiting anywhere between Monday and Wednesday to order.

 

[Bettacreek]

Pshh, wouldn't you know it... I walked into the bathroom, and the bettas must have felt my pain. They're spawning, and, get this, they're producing eggs. The pair in question had been spawning once a week or so for 2-3 months now, but never produced any eggs. Maybe they feel guilty for being free-loaders? Lol. I'm not going to hold my breath on them though, they're probably over a year old and I doubt any resulting eggs will be fertile. Still, pretty neat, what a coinky-dink.

 

[monarc23]

awh that is way cool about the bettas!!!

i hope you get some lil squigglers!!!!

oh yeah i bet that cold could have lowered it more too

see it's not you! LOL!