Should I be seeing anything on day 16 of hatch?

[QuailQueen3]

No need for sad... You had a practice run Now you know more, and will be an even better midwife to your little hatchlings. Of all the negative outcomes, that you chicksat a bunch of eggs is just sweet and tender of you. You'll be an awesome mom (when that boy of yours gets on the job!) You've proved yourself ready for motherhood

 

[QuailQueen3]

Well I candled them last night because I was suspicious. No development in any of them. I cut all 11 of them open and they were totally undeveloped. Egg yolk and egg white looked totally the same as an undeveloped egg.

Kind of wondering if my male was even fertile yet? He has been mating for quite a few weeks now but maybe since these eggs were from his earlier weeks of mating maybe he wasn't actually making it happen yet truly?

Sad

Looks like they were not fertilized eggs. That’s ok! It was a great practice round for you to focus on temp and humidity.

If you are incubating Jumbo Brown Coturnix, even the experts have trouble candling due to the dark spots on their eggs. As a new quail mama or quail dada, you have nothing to gain, but perhaps something to lose by trying to candle.

I do not candle. I have enough room in the incubator. Why would I risk potentially killing a chick because I can’t see it developing? Worse yet, why would I risk killing any developing chicks by opening the incubator long enough because I am lowering the temperature and/or humidity by opening to remove and candle every egg? Makes no sense!
So, I don’t do it!

 

[nuthatched]

Why would I risk potentially killing a chick because I can’t see it developing? Worse yet, why would I risk killing any developing chicks by opening the incubator long enough because I am lowering the temperature and/or humidity by opening to remove and candle every egg?

Unless you drop the egg you are candling, the eggs will not be harmed/ die because of a brief candling session.
Broody mothers get up and leave the nest for a few minutes each day to take care of business, eat, drink and stretch, the cooling process is natural and some higher-end incubators even have a cooling mode to mimic this.
Candling is also to check for duds, an exploding rotten egg can ruin a batch and your day. :] It's not like you're taking the lid off and then running off to go make yourself a pizza, that's when there would be problems.

 

[Nabiki]

I agree with @nuthatched . You don't need to candle all of them at once, either. Pull out a couple at a time, candle them, and put them back. I will candle 10-20 at a time, which means that for large hatches, I may candle once a day over several days.

 

[QuailQueen3]

Unless you drop the egg you are candling, the eggs will not be harmed/ die because of a brief candling session.
Broody mothers get up and leave the nest for a few minutes each day to take care of business, eat, drink and stretch, the cooling process is natural and some higher-end incubators even have a cooling mode to mimic this.
Candling is also to check for duds, an exploding rotten egg can ruin a batch and your day. :] It's not like you're taking the lid off and then running off to go make yourself a pizza, that's when there would

 

[QuailQueen3]

Jumbo Brown Coturnix are very hard to candle, even for experts. So someone might not see egg development and throw out a viable, developing egg.

 

[Rafnel]

I took 4 eggs laid yesterday and found 3 are fertile and one is fertilized (has the bullseye). I did just move some quail around, so the male might not have gotten a chance to mate with these females yet. Helpful to see that something is getting fertilized!