what hatch-rate should we expect on shipped bobwhite eggs?

[TinyBirds]

We hatch a lot of chicken eggs that were mailed, and 50% hatch seems to be pretty average for us so far. What percent should I expect on the bobwhite eggs, in comparison to chicken eggs? I'm just curious since we have 45 eggs in the incubator and I definitely don't need that many baby quail. If you think more than 10 or so will possibly hatch, I think I should start asking my local friends if they might want some of what we hatch.
Thanks!
Jenny

 

[kcravey]

let me know how that goes! I have great success with chicken eggs - 95% or higher. But my success with HOME LAYED bob white eggs is ZEROOOOO!!! I have had a couple go to pip but not make it out.

 

[mikenandrea]

I would say expect less than 5 to make it all the way to the end...

 

[DLS]

Quote:
That sounds about right

 

[shelleyd2008]

50% is considered 'good' for shipped eggs, though I've always had better luck with shipped quail eggs than chicken eggs. I don't know if it's just me, or if they just take shipping better. However, this time of year, fertility usually isn't the greatest on any type of quail egg, unless they keep them under lights. I know my coturnix' eggs are probably 50% fertile at most, and I'm getting like 4 eggs a day. So figure 50% of 50% of the eggs, so probably 10-12. But they might surprise you!

 

[deerman]

Quail eggs do take shipping better than some other type. If the shipper had their bobs under 16 hours of light, then you should hatch about 20+

 

[jetto]

Either I'm really lucky or I buy from the right people. Twice now I've bought eggs off of ebay- two different sellers and we've had extremely high hatch rates. Out of 55 eggs we've had like 50 hatch in one and I think 42 out of 48 in the other? This is a hatch of coturnix and a hatch of bobwhites.

I have 45 bobwhite eggs ready to go to LilRalphieRoosMom's incubator from the guy i bought from before. I'll be interested to see what the hatch rate is this time of year. Also from that same guy we incubated 5 of the eggs ourselves just for funsies in an ancient Brower still-air incubator with no turner- we got 4 chicks.

I'm also going to give Cindy a few eggs from our coturnix to see how that goes. I'm not getting many eggs these days and have no idea if they'll be fertile or not but I figured I'd collect them this week and give it a try. I was going to throw them in our Brower but decided I didn't want to do the 3 times a day hand turning! Lazy I know! Kristi

 

[farrier!]

I too have bought off of ebay and here in small lots. My hatch rate was 50% to 80% with the shipped eggs.

 

[JJMR794]

5 Out Of 45? Wow Something Would Be Seriously Wrong There... I'm With Deerman--- 20+ Should Be About Right. In My Experience With Shipped Bob Eggs I "average" 50-60% Hatch With Maybe 10% Mortality Rate Of The Hatch. (note The Quotation Marks, As It Does Seem To Range Greatly Depending On The Quality Of Eggs, Fertility, Age, Shipping And Handling, Etc...)

As Far As Getting Rid Of Surplus Birds.... I'd Hold Off On That. If You Want Breeders You'll Need To Wait Til They Grow To See Sex. If I Did That I'd End Up Giving Away All My Hens----lol.