Why didn't they hatch?

[Del1977]

Latest batch of coturnix quail have finished hatching with a rather poor result. Only 11 out of 36 eggs hatched, and the last two had to be assisted as they were breech in their eggs and having trouble. Both were 'sick' when hatched with all yolk and veins absorbed and even umbilical cord shrivelled up. Both also had leg and feet problems but thanks to a bit of splinting and physio they have come good.

Anyway, 18 eggs were shipped, 5 hatched, 1 aborted earlier in development and the rest were unfertile. The other 18 eggs were ours, 6 hatched, only one wasn't fertile and the remaining aborted at various stages of development. 1 very early on, a few were well formed chicks without feathers, and the remaining were very well formed and fully feathered. They still had a bit of yolk so assuming they died a day or two before hatch day. Two had obvious deformities, but the rest seemed fine.

So why didn't they hatch? Is there a reason or something we are doing wrong? Have hatched quite a few batches or quail and never had such a bad hatch rate. We did have a power outage on day 6 for about 30 mins with me trying various things to keep temp right, but it did drop as low as 34 degrees Celsius and go up to as high as 40 degrees, but only briefly. And our eggs are parent x sibling, but according to a previous thread I started that shouldn't be a big problem.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is probably several things. Shipped eggs is one problem. Temperature is another. Inbreeding is another. Breeder nutrition can be a problem. This time of year, if you are in the Northern hemisphere, light is a problem with fertility in cocks.

 

[Del1977]

Not worried about the shipped eggs as I know shipping does drop hatch rate, more concerned about why so many of ours were late quitters.

In the Southern Hemisphere, so can rule out lack of light.

They eggs are inbreed, but working on fixing that problem once we get enough females, which is why is have bought two batches of shipped eggs from totally different breeders.

Temp, was a problem briefly, but we don't usually get power outages, so shouldn't be a problem again. Our substation caught fire!!!

Will have to look into nutrition. They seem very healthy and active, and the males are mounting the poor females several times a day. I don't think actual fertility is an issue because as I mentioned only one out of 18 of our eggs showed no sign of development. Most of them were quite well developed, so eggs are definitely fertile. Should we be giving them vitamins or something?

 

[CGilbert]

What kind of incubator do you have? Still air? Is there a fan?

 

[Del1977]

I have a Janoel24 incubator. Has a fan. Has successfully hatched several batches of quail and two batches of chickens in it with good hatch rates.

 

[CGilbert]

I have a Janoel24 incubator.  Has a fan.  Has successfully hatched several batches of quail and two batches of chickens in it with good hatch rates.​

Do you have additional thermometers and hygrometers in the incubator? After a few hatches, my incubator was, all of a sudden, 5 degrees off

 

[Del1977]

No, only the thermometer the incubator comes with set in and no hydrometer. Instructions are to add water to bay 1 only up until lockdown then increase humidity by adding water to bay and 2 when they go into lockdown. Has always worked well in the past.

Won't be hatching anymore eggs until end of January now as we go away after Christmas, but am going to change their food and add some vitamins to see if that helps as our best hatch rate ever was when we were feeding them a canary bird seed mix that contained little multivitamin pellets. They loved them and would always eat them first. Mainly changed their food as their was a lot of wastage as they didn't like the seed that made up nearly half the mix. Plus is was expensive in comparison to what we are feeding them now.