Update on Problem With 4 Coturnix Quail eggs

[AAdams86]

I'm currently down to one now that's still alive. It hasn't absorbed all of the yolk yet and there's still red veins. The hatching date was the 11th of this month. I'm trying to help this one hatch at least. I had read the article about assisting and instead of using a screw, I used a very small needle for better accuracy since it's a small egg. I had tried creating two tiny breathing holes and used a flashlight to avoid any veins. I don't know if the holes are big enough though. I didn't want to create too big of a hole and risk hitting a major vein. I'm hoping this one will make it. My boyfriend told me I should give up on trying to have any quail. I've spent around $50 on quail eggs and only got successful hatch of one healthy quail so far. So if this one doesn't make it. I might call it quits for quail and try chickens instead. But I will post another update to let y'all know if that one made it or not.

 

[hysop]

I'm currently down to one now that's still alive. It hasn't absorbed all of the yolk yet and there's still red veins. The hatching date was the 11th of this month. I'm trying to help this one hatch at least. I had read the article about assisting and instead of using a screw, I used a very small needle for better accuracy since it's a small egg. I had tried creating two tiny breathing holes and used a flashlight to avoid any veins. I don't know if the holes are big enough though. I didn't want to create too big of a hole and risk hitting a major vein. I'm hoping this one will make it. My boyfriend told me I should give up on trying to have any quail. I've spent around $50 on quail eggs and only got successful hatch of one healthy quail so far. So if this one doesn't make it. I might call it quits for quail and try chickens instead. But I will post another update to let y'all know if that one made it or not.

If quails are your dream don’t give up! But maybe try to incubate a small amount to get the hang of it. I’m not sure how many you started with, but maybe try 3 if there’s someone in your local area to pick them up. I’m not familiar with quail so I don’t know how expensive they are.

 

[AAdams86]

If quails are your dream don’t give up! But maybe try to incubate a small amount to get the hang of it. I’m not sure how many you started with, but maybe try 3 if there’s someone in your local area to pick them up. I’m not familiar with quail so I don’t know how expensive they are.

Thanks! I've been buying 9 quail eggs at a time and they get shipped to me. I just bought a new incubator that does everything for me and this is my first time using the new one. I really like it too. I bought from Wish for close to or around $60 I think. I had made sure everything worked fine before putting the eggs in. I'm thinking the others died from injury/illness or being in the wrong position.

 

[CindyinSD]

I'm not a quail person... at least not yet, but if you would like help learning to hatch quail, you could certainly find it on the quail hatch-along thread. Most of them buy their Coturnix quail hatching eggs from Myshire Farms. Myshire also has loads of videos on Youtube, some of which are about incubating the eggs they sell.

I have hatched chickens and ducks and I don't think you're going to find a low-priced incubator that does everything for you--at least not one that does it right. Mine cost around $200 and I babysit it a lot. I have it in a kind of drafty location, which doesn't help, but even if I put it in a better spot, I would still keep a very close eye on it. It's a convenient location so I keep it there and have very good hatch rates of my own eggs.

Shipped eggs are another thing. Shipping is very hard on eggs, especially if the USPS treats them badly. That's a good reason to buy from a pro outfit like Myshire or Kansas City Quail or similar.

About that last egg. You can certainly keep nursing it along, but if it is this far overdue, it's probably not very survivable even if it finally hatches. Often the cause of late hatching is low incubation temperatures. (Incubator thermometers are notoriously inaccurate.) Consistently low temp incubation doesn't just give you late babies, unfortunately. It often gives you (if they hatch) babies with serious health problems that you most likely can't fix. At this point if it were me, I would say a little prayer over that last egg and dispose of it. Six days late is just too long.