URGENT: Turner or Not? Ready to Set Quail Eggs!

[ugachickenmama]

Nervous newbie here!
TOTALLY new to quail.
TOTALLY new to incubating.
Did tons of "research" but now that the eggs have arrived I'm nervous and questioning my every move.

We got a Nuture Right 360.
For a first attempt, we planned to just double up the eggs on the chicken egg turner it came with . . .
HOWEVER, the kind soul I bought eggs from sent "extra" . . . he has a great reputation and I have no reason to toss any of them.

SO, here I sit with 55 eggs ready to go into the incubator.
What to do???
I have seen where all the following have been done and I am sure there are more options - - -
- I can fill mine and see if a neighbor or my son's Ag teacher wants to fire up their incubator as well . . .
- We could forgo the turner altogehter and just lay them in and roll them around daily (some say 3x/day) . . .
- Another option is fill the egg turner and then also stack some eggs . . .

As a first timer, I suppose it is just step one in an addictive experiment, BUT I would like to have the most success possible.

Please send your best advice/experiential knowledge.
The eggs arrived yesterday - have had their rest - and are ready to go in . . .
I fired up the Nurture Right 360 on Monday with a Govee in it and it has been humming along nicely.

 

[ugachickenmama]

@Kiki do you have any advice?

 

[Kiki]

First...do you have at least one calibrated thermometer in your bator?
If not get one today.

I'd use the turner...fill it up and I'd probably put the extra eggs on top of the eggs in the turner for the first few days. If I was confident that my temperatures were spot on then I would know by day 5 if the eggs were developing and i would then remove the ones that weren't.

 

[Kiki]

Can you take a picture of the inside of the bator with the tuner in it?
I don't know what this one looks like but I am guessing it may be ok to stack the eggs.

 

[ugachickenmama]

Can you take a picture of the inside of the bator with the tuner in it?
I don't know what this one looks like but I am guessing it may be ok to stack the eggs.

 

[ugachickenmama]

calibrated thermometer in your bator

As you can see in the picture, I have a govee wifi in there . . . I have a bluetooth version also but both are about the same size - hate that it takes up so much space but understand the necessity as the incubator IS off!

know by day 5 if the eggs were developing

So I can candle after 5 days? Don't have to wait until 14 (aka pre lockdown)?
I've heard quail eggs can be tricky to candle and it is one more thing i have never done! HA.

I could try to load it and see what happens but I think I will end up with quite a bit of stacking to get 55 in there. Ugh.

Is the drawback to hand turning just the annoyance or the opening and closing of the incubator or the inconsistency of human over machine? Curious.

 

[QuailQueen3]

Nervous newbie here!
TOTALLY new to quail.
TOTALLY new to incubating.
Did tons of "research" but now that the eggs have arrived I'm nervous and questioning my every move.

We got a Nuture Right 360.
For a first attempt, we planned to just double up the eggs on the chicken egg turner it came with . . .
HOWEVER, the kind soul I bought eggs from sent "extra" . . . he has a great reputation and I have no reason to toss any of them.

SO, here I sit with 55 eggs ready to go into the incubator.
What to do???
I have seen where all the following have been done and I am sure there are more options - - -
- I can fill mine and see if a neighbor or my son's Ag teacher wants to fire up their incubator as well . . .
- We could forgo the turner altogehter and just lay them in and roll them around daily (some say 3x/day) . . .
- Another option is fill the egg turner and then also stack some eggs . . .

As a first timer, I suppose it is just step one in an addictive experiment, BUT I would like to have the most success possible.

Please send your best advice/experiential knowledge.
The eggs arrived yesterday - have had their rest - and are ready to go in . . .
I fired up the Nurture Right 360 on Monday with a Govee in it and it has been humming along nicely.

Are your eggs Jumbos? I have a Nurture Right 360 and use the regular Govee (looks smaller than yours). My last hatch I put 40 eggs in. I think some were not able to turn properly because I had some hatching breech (unzipping the pointy end of the egg) and some unzipping the center of the egg, instead of unzipping the larger end of the egg.

 

[ugachickenmama]

@Kiki @QuailQueen3 it has been amazing to me how many different ways people have success with quail eggs so I’m literally crossing my fingers.

Here’s where I’m at —-

First, I needed to get the eggs set and had to make a choice - I went with advice from the egg source (and others) and laid them all in the incubator without the turner and on a cut to fit piece of shelf liner.

My original plan was to reach in and run my hand over the top of the group of eggs “turning them” daily (some say 1/day and others say up to 3 and 4x a day).

BUT the first time I opened and “turned” set me up for my first temp/humidity battle reclaiming the numbers I was aiming for and that set me into a research project of what was more important - consistent temp/RH or turning.

Some say they don’t turn at all & others are religious about turning … so I went with some middle of the road advice and have been slightly propping up one side and then switching to the other … the eggs don’t roll but I’m hoping the contents shift enough to give it some positive impact.

This NR360 is really surprising me with how challenging it’s turning out to maintain a VERY consistent temp and RH - I had no issues (of course) in the first 70hrs I ran it before setting the eggs.

At this point with 55 chances (eggs) in there and my struggle with consistency, I’m thinking I continue with my rotating tilt and see how it works out and hope I didn’t waste the cost of the eggs.

My NEXT BATTLE will be whether to candle at 7 days or not until 14 or not to bother at all - - -

Even with my swings my averages are pretty good - 97.9 and 100.4 are my all I’m temp ranges but the high and low were SUPER short lived and my average temp is 99.4.
My RH has had a bigger swing of 19.7-64.1% the high did NOT last long - the RH has been below 45% more than it’s been above and my average is currently 39.3%.

Do either of you have a clue if these swings are killers … they’ve been set since Th ~4pm.
The only time I reached in and rolled them was ~9am Friday. Otherwise I’ve just rotated the slight tilt.

Ugh - for being an “easy to hatch” egg, this is more stressful than I thought it would be.

 

[007Sean]

Good grief, I don't even know where to begin with this....so, I'll start here, stacking the eggs will not be a good idea. They will roll all over and possibly fall out of the incubator when you take the top off, even being very careful not to have it happen.

Turning by hand really isn't an option with that incubator. Tilting it from side to side might work but you'd have to have it at such a high angle, like 20° for it to really have any effect on the embryos, if the eggs where upright, instead of horizontal if would be fine to use that method but horizontal, I wouldn't have much faith in that working. Another point, tilting it that far will also empty the water reservoir!

I have a NR360 that I made partitions to go between the egg turner's partition, so that I could hatch quail eggs in it. Putting multiple eggs in each partitions did not work, the eggs would ride up out of the partitions or be sitting on the big side of egg. Putting partitions between, solved that issue. I found it was also unsuitable for pheasant eggs, as well.

It does however, hold temperature and Rh fairly well. I don't relie of the instruments sensors, I use calibrated thermometers and hygrometer, instead, once the temperature is set by the independent thermometer it's usually pretty stable throughout the incubation period. Rh is much more of a problem, in that you can't have the sensor I use in the bator without having to set fewer eggs, just no room for both.

Short swings in temperature and humidity are usually not an issue, it's only an issue if it's constantly too high or too low.
If you can maintain your average %Rh at
39.3% it will be fine. You're temperature is ok, as long as you don't get too wide of swings.
Definitely, candle at 7 days, you will be able to tell if they are fertile and developing or not at the time. I suggest you get a super bright flash light for that purpose, 900 or 1000 lumens or more if you can find one that's small.
HTH

 

[ButtonNomies]

Personally I would get rid of the turning plate and just manually turn them 3x a day. I've had successful quail hatches with a child's incubator (the one tht looks like a little house tht holds 4 chicken eggs, I just put a mesh platform over the egg spots) U have to be careful taking the lid off to turn them so they don't roll out. U may have to do it in batches so the incubator isn't open for an extended period, like turn half at a time then an hour later the other half, 3x a day, when u get up, before u go to bed and about mid afternoon.
I think stacking the eggs on the turner's would be a disaster waiting to happen. Eggs falling and smashing etc, ud lose more this way than opening the bator a few times a day to turn them.
Quail eggs are also NOTORIOUSLY difficult to candle. The egg membrane can become pretty thick even if it's a dud egg and ull be lucky to spot anything other than an air cell, and thts not a guarantee. I wait and candle eggs just before lockdown on day 15 and just throw out the ones that light up fully.
Plans are great and everything but sometimes simple is ur best bet. Turning them urself would be the easiest and simplest option if u cannot get hold of another incubator xx