When to remove chicks from incubator?

[greatconductor]

I'm using the Brinsea Ovation 56 EX. I have 120 quail eggs in my incubator right now. This morning I noticed my first chick had emerged from their egg and was laying down resting. He/she is a little early at about day 16.5. I believe they normally hatch around day 18. I have read that chicks can survive for 36 hours without food/water after hatching. I have also read that I shouldn't open the incubator unless I have to because it will ruin the humidity and make it difficult or impossible for more chicks to hatch.

My question is at what point should I open the incubator to remove the chicks? I feel kind of like this early chick has started the clock and I need to get them out by day 17.5 or so with whatever other chicks have hatched at that time. This is my first hatch so any advice would be greatly appreciated.



Thank you,

 

[DK newbie]

You'll read a lot of different advice on this topic. Some say they open the incubator all the time to remove chicks and the rest hatch just fine. Some say if you mist the eggs with warm water before closing it, the humidity will go right back up. Some say just make sure there are no pipped eggs when you open, then it'll be fine.
Personally I have never incubated anything, but according to what I've read coturnix quail are actually supposed to hatch at day 16, if they hatch at day 18 the temp has been a little low.
The chick will probably not like being alone in the brooder, so it would be best if at least one more has hatched and dried before you move it (with 120 eggs that should be possible), but otherwise I'd just take it out 12-24 hours after it hatched, mist the other eggs and close the incubator.

 

[AuQuail]

I have done two incubation. First one 24 eggs, this time round just finished 76 eggs, 74 fertile eggs, and 66 chicks.

I remove them to the brooder ad early as 10mins at times.. And open/shut the the incubator quickly. Even if there are once piping. I feel personally they ate very resilient.... And by opening whilst piping for like 10.seconds. Ain't gonna kill any chicks hatching.. (not for me. It hasn't)

I find that new born put into the group (under the heat lamp) tend to dry off very fast as it's siblings are moving and running around them, which dried them up and in no time he is up abs about.. Good for blood circulation too I reckon being ruled and knocked about by your siblings.

So far this has worked well for me. Just make sure your brooder heat is adequate.

My latest now 4 days old.

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[AuQuail]

By the way my humidity at hatching is at 68. When ever I open it to remove a chick it will drop to like 52, depends on how long leave it open for.. Then in like 2 to 3 mins she is back at 68.

Humidity will. Always drop once u let the air out.. But due to the water is warm and everything inside is warm.... The cold air that comes in will warm up almost instantly.


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[greatconductor]

Thanks for all the great advice guys. A bunch more hatched and this morning I moved 50 chicks to the brooder. It took a few minutes to move that many chicks but I misted the remaining eggs and put the top back on. The humidity went back up pretty quickly and one has hatched since then so it must not have set them back after all. It's about day 17.75 now so I'm not sure how many more I will get but we will see.

 

[AuQuail]

Awesome!

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[dpenning]

So how much space do you have to have to raise that many quail? I've read in other threads where you can only have so many females to males to keep fighting down so I'm not sure how you keep so many? Is the ratio the same even in large groups or is it only for mating?

Great hatch!

 

[greatconductor]

Well this is my first time doing quail but I've done a lot of research and learned a ton. I don't think males start fighting until they are mature so I have some time before I have to deal with that. My plan is to build eight cages that are 2' x 3' (I have the materials and will build them this weekend). Each cage will have 1 male and 5 females and will have the floor slanted for easy egg collection. Once the chicks mature I will move the ones I'm keeping into these pens. The remaining males that aren't selected will probably graduate to the freezer. Then if there are any females left I will graduate them a few weeks later. Since I will be keeping up to 48 for my breeding stock I don't there will be many left to eat this time around but once the layers start giving me eggs I will collect enough to do another hatch and the cycle will continue.

My brooder is probably way overkill at 4' x 6' and I am debating on if I should just use this same brooder all the way until the quail mature or if I should build more pens for them to grow out to 8-10 weeks in.

 

[dpenning]

Thanks! I really want to start in quail so am in the learning phase. Can you keep larger numbers of females together just as layers?

 

[greatconductor]

Yes I believe you can keep as many females together as you like without issues. The more females you put with your male the less fertile the eggs will be for hatching though. From what I've read people say different ratios but they suggest not going more than 1 male to 5 females or fertility will decrease.