So glad I sat on my hands and did not assist a hatch

[jobeis]

Second time hatching for us. The first time we tried to hatch duck eggs and none hatched. I suspect the air cells and infertile eggs were the problem but hey, I was new at it too so didn't complain.

So then I bought 16 quail eggs on ebay and set them in. 2 hatched on day 16. Day 16 was agonizing for me, as I saw 4 eggs with pips but then no activity for 30 hours. While I was watching these 4 eggs, 2 others pipped, zipped and hatched in no time at all before I even saw the activity. A watched pot never boils, perhaps?

I agonized for the 30 hours. Should I help them? Are they dying in their shells? WHAT SHOULD I DO????

I'm happy to report all 4 hatched yesterday with no intervention from me. I'm very glad I showed enough restraint to let them be.

And here are the babies so far (more eggs are rocking as I type this):

 

[bugglesmommy]

Aw! Such little sweeties! I have my first quail pip about 12 hours ago and I'm still waiting for something to happen. Chicks are so inconsiderate to make us wait so long!!

 

[jobeis]

Good luck with your hatch!

 

[PNE443]

Congratulations! I bought my eggs from ebay too. All of them were fertile and 7 have hatched so far but its day 19 now and some are still trying to work their way out. The first one hatched day 16. Some take ages to hatch out (like 24 hours or more) and others have hatched by the time it takes to boil a kettle! Patience is the key I suppose. Which I have to admit I'm not very good at!

Good luck with your chicks and the rest of the eggs!

Its so nice to see all these pics of cute chicks

 

[kbennett87]

What kind of quail babies are these? They are adorable! and this is a great post for another newbie to read, i know it will be so hard not to interfere but you have inspired me

 

[jobeis]

What kind of quail babies are these? They are adorable! and this is a great post for another newbie to read, i know it will be so hard not to interfere but you have inspired me

Well the lady sold me 24 Coturnix but included 6 extra buttons and I can't remember now which ones I incubated (I put 16 in) and which ones I gave to my sister to incubate. I think they are mostly Coturnix. One of the dark ones came from a very small egg so he might be a Button but I'm not sure. The little blond one came from a small egg too. The small ones were the first to hatch (on Saturday). I was waiting on the 4 big ones (which hatched yesterday)

It was so hard not to do anything. I was so sure they were dying, just me overthinking and panicking is all it was. Today I have several more that are rocking and rolling too. My last big egg has a pip now. He's been wiggling since Friday.

 

[kbennett87]

Well congrats they are awesome! I think i need to go with Coturnix next time, the extra 7 days on these bobwhites seem like an eternity! haha i know, ridiculous.

 

[jobeis]

Heehee, funny story: Egg #7 finally hatched. I think she is the last one. She has been wiggling in her egg since Saturday. She pipped Monday morning but the membrane looked really funny. It looked like someone had painted iodine on it, that orangy stain. It also looked really dried out but my humidity was good, about 65% and the others weren't dried out.

So I helped it. She was completely ready to come out. So she dried off for a while in the incu, then I put her in the quail tub. The others started pecking on her and she was to exhausted to move. So then I put her in a see-thru tub inside the Quail tub and filled a yoghurt lid with a bit of water. Well she fell in the lid on her back and almost drowned!! Talk about a heart attack!

So I put her back in the incubator overnight and this morning she was ready to join her hatchmates. Her name is Katniss, because the odds are (so far) forever in her favor.

 

[dc3085]

You did the right thing by not helping. I have more sad stories about birds that needed help out of the shell than happy ones. The struggle to get out of the shell is what stimulates circulation in chicks so if they can make it out the usually have other problems. A couple of times i have had babies with their heads in a position that they couldnt pip. After learning the hard way and having to do the hard thing when it went wrong for me I don't recommend ever helping quail chicks out of the shell. Every time i have helped one it that survived it was obvious that it was weaker and less developed than the others. Not to mention if you make a mistake and shrink wrap your little baby chick with the membrane. I don't mean to sound cruel but if you help chicks out of the shell you will have to euthanize a percentage of them.

Good job on being patient and congrats on the fuzzbottoms.

 

[sphanges]

My first hatch was last weekend and I ended up accidentally helping one. I had 9 hatch just fine and it was day 19. I'd heard cheeping in the morning so was expecting another baby in the afternoon. Came home to find an egg at the back with a pip but it was on the underside of the egg. I thought it must have been rolled over by the previous babies scrambling around. I picked it up thinking it was dead, and thought I saw movement. I widened the zip a little and sure enough it was a live, if quite dried out, baby. I put it straight back in the incubator pip-side up this time and it hatched itself in about 5 mins. The first 12 hrs it was a very weak chick and I regretted touching or moving the egg, but after being kept separate from the others for 24 hrs it was lively enough to join them without being picked on. Since most of them hatched in day 17 it is about half the size of the others but otherwise he's normal. There was a lot of second guessing myself though before he got a bit stronger.