When do I take them out of the bator and into the brooder?

[dianneS]

My first quail are hatching today. I woke up to six just hatched and they are still wet but running around faster than chickens ever do! When do they have to go in the brooder? I can't find any info as to how long I can leave them in the bator? I still have 48 eggs in there and I don't want to disturb them too much. (14 of those eggs aren't due to hatch later in the week, it's a staggered hatch.

 

[feedman77]

I remove mine when they are dry. But if you wanted to leave them in 24 to 36 hours that wouldn't be a problem.

Their yolk sac will provide them all they need for up to 3 days.

 

[dianneS]

Thanks! They're popping like popcorn right now! I'm up to 12 so far in 8 hours and several more are pipped and some are zipping... FAST!

 

[rita2paul]

well done, its great when they start to hatch. i stayed up for hours watching mine when they first started to hatch.
i still get excited when that little bird pushes his/her way out of the shell.

 

[dianneS]

The total head count is 23 now! I did take 15 out of the incubator and into the brooder. I won't take any more out until the rest are done hatching. Most of the remaining eggs are pipped or zipped so I think we're going to have a really good hatch. So far so good! Everyone is healthy, no issues hatching and no deformities.

 

[QuailCo Eggs]

I remove mine when they are dry. But if you wanted to leave them in 24 to 36 hours that wouldn't be a problem.

Their yolk sac will provide them all they need for up to 3 days.

I agree...Make sure they are completly dry before you move them. Keep in mind that every time you open up the incubator to move them out, you loss of very important humidity and temp fluxes that can cause serious havoc to the eggs that have not yet hatched.



Chad

 

[BobDBirdDog]

I have a temporary heated holding cell next to my incubator (25? gallon fish tank) and remove them (wet or dry) as soon as I get about a hand full. I do not have a rack system but more a tray so the little fellers can play soccer and reap havoc with the unhatched eggs if I don't remove them. So its not a matter of when but more so how long before I do or do it again!

Besides I have yet to see a hatch where one will obey common sense and not try to jump out and fall 2 feet to the ground. Having a good shag rug in the area is a good idea just for that reason. Also, they seem to be attracted to the motion of anything when first born so as soon as the door opens the fluffy ones are looking and when the hand goes in they either run away or towards it, those that have not yet figured out the law of gravity do get to meet Mr. Carpet but are unharmed.

I open the door as many as 10-40 times and it does not do any harm as far as I can tell. Some even zipping while I have the door open but I try to watch and keep that to a minimum. My hatch rates have always been around 92-96% spite all the "Don't open the door" recommendations. That is not bad percentages when you are incubating 350 at a time and have 5 racks.

 

[dianneS]

I ended up with 26 out of 40 eggs hatching and I'm a little disappointed. It is my first hatch, but everything went so perfectly throughout incubation, I was hoping for better results. I am a bit concerned that it may have been the opening of the incubator that screwed things up. I had two zip and then die in their shells after opening the bator and removing the first batch of chicks. However, I only opened it a crack and the temp and humidity did not drop much at all, so maybe that wasn't the problem?

I've got 14 more eggs due to hatch tomorrow. It was a staggered hatch. These eggs were shipped from Stromberg's, not local, so I'm not as hopeful for a good hatch, but still keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[BobDBirdDog]

I ended up with 26 out of 40 eggs hatching and I'm a little disappointed. It is my first hatch, but everything went so perfectly throughout incubation, I was hoping for better results. I am a bit concerned that it may have been the opening of the incubator that screwed things up. I had two zip and then die in their shells after opening the bator and removing the first batch of chicks. However, I only opened it a crack and the temp and humidity did not drop much at all, so maybe that wasn't the problem?

I've got 14 more eggs due to hatch tomorrow. It was a staggered hatch. These eggs were shipped from Stromberg's, not local, so I'm not as hopeful for a good hatch, but still keeping my fingers crossed.

100 / 40 = 2.5 x 26 = 65%
Your 65% hatch rate does not sound bad from what I have heard of "rumor wise" about shipped eggs. Also, getting the eggs right now means they were artificially stimulated into breeding and egg production which is to say that the unnatural breeding season may produce less fertility or less breeding. I have read that artificial stimulated birds do not breed as vigorously and the eggs them self are not as dependable/viable. For that reason I never tried it and just wait for their natural occurrence,

Heck for that matter, you might have got some of the first runs of the season. Even with my birds eggs (no shipping) and waiting for natural breeding season to occur... the first runs were always seem to have low fertility counts. so I started waiting until about 2 weeks later before collecting and incubation.The chicks seemed to be more healthy as and I have good hatch rates.

Opening the door:
If they zipped and died in the shell I am guessing they made the half or full circle but never pushed/broke out. I have seen that a few times as well and have simply whipped out the exacto knife and helped them out...."Due to that rumor you always hear about shrink wrapping if you open the door and let the humidity out". Shrink wrapping was NEVER the case!
They all seem to be weaklings for some reason. I have kept those I help separate and most times they were the ones that die out within a few days.

If you think about the shrink wrap rumor, your original question and the chick inside the egg..."that chick is Wet when it hatches" so that membrane is going to stay wet for some time and opening the door for a minute or two is not going to dry it out and kill that chick.

The membrane is like a tissue paper (latex as I call it) when wet and more paper leather when dry. However, if the chick inside the egg is wet, there is no way the membrane is going to fully dry out so much the chick cannot break out, especially if it zipped.
Even if the membrane did dry out a little due to the door being open, as soon as you shut the door and the humidity starts to come back up, the membrane will rejuvenate to a degree as the humidity regains. So I would bet it was just weak chicks destined for doom.

So far I have hatched about 10,000 eggs altogether so it becomes a "hatch a lot loose a few" attitude for me and I understand others concerns. But in saying that I dont know it all or carry that mind set. But I do feel a lot of folks over think the natural process of incubation and think it needs to be an exact science with no deviations allowed.That does not happen in the wild, Nature is always throwing in curve-ball factors and exceptions.

Congrats on the hatch....now you will become an egg addict like the rest of us.

 

[dianneS]

Thanks for the feedback!

My standard brown eggs from Stromberg's have finished hatching. I ended up with 11 out of 14 hatching (and I only paid for 12, they send 2 extra for free)! I'm astonished, as I've had 0 hatch out of shipped eggs in the past (ducks and guineas).

I did end up losing one chick in the brooder though.

I'm finding that the jumbo white coturnix are not as typical in behavior and I'm not having the problems brooding that I read about. For instance, I didn't have to dip their beaks or teach them to eat, they figured it out on their own very quickly. I've had no problems with them trying to eat shavings or anything either (I moved them from paper towels to shavings on day three). They also don't peck each other, nor did they try to jump out of the incubator and they don't seem particularly attracted to light.

The brown chicks however live up to the stereotypical "dumb" baby quail, I'm having a hard time getting them to drink without ending up soaking wet. And that is WITH plenty of marbles in their waterer! And I have one that was really aggressive at just a few hours old! He was pecking everyone else and downright attacking them, but he seems to have settled down now. I think I'm going to have to watch these brown babies very carefully for the first few days or more, they seem like problem children!

Now that the hatching is over, I checked the remaining eggs and only three were infertile. So out of 54 eggs total I had 35 hatch, 3 infertile and 16 dead in the shells.