YAY FOR BABIES!!!!!!!!

[silkiechicken]

First real test set of my quad of quails.

Set 26 eggs collected over 14 days, 14 were fertile/showed development, 12 made it to day 15 (2 died around E6-8), 9 hatched on day 18, 3 were dead in shell. Of the dead ones, one appeared drowned, one appeared to die before pipping and adsorbing yolk, and one had craniofacial defects (no eyes/partial top beak).

Fertility was low, but eggs were pretty old and the birds are still young. 3/12 dead in shell though was a bit concerning, as I can get almost all chicken eggs to hatch without issue as long as they make it to lock down, which if they develop, they almost always do.

How does this sound?

Next bunch I'll only collect for a week (now that they are laying regularly). I suspect a lot of the non fertile eggs were the oldest ones, but I didn't take the forethought to label the eggs.

I maintained the incubator exactly as I do for chickens, 99.5, forced air, humidity based on air cell sizes.

Comments, suggestions? Experiences?

 

[xchairity_casex]

collected over a period of 14 days?? you begin looseing chance of hatching after day 7 so its not really suprising you had a low hatch rate

 

[Mek]

Put eggs in eski.
Put ice in a separate container once (try keep to about 10degress) Condensation helps with less moisture loss but try not to get the eggs wet.
Rotate eggs like you would do normally for incubation three times a day.
Rub a dogs belly for good luck.

 

[GARYZZ1]

YOU DID WELL ON %, WE CAN`T PLAY MOTHER NATURE 100% EVEN THOUGH WE TRY!

 

[jbobs]

Sounds pretty typical for the conditions. I ordered 36 eggs this november which were collected over a period of 7 days, they got lost in the mail for another 10 days, 2 were broken, and out of 34 eggs in the bator I ended up with 13 live chicks and about 4 dead in the shell so about the same as you.

I have also heard a story from a guy who had a bunch of bobwhite eggs in his fridge for a couple weeks with the intention of eating them, and he threw them in the incubator just to see what they would do and he got a 50% hatch. This is just a second hand story though so i can't vouch for it, but based on other stories I have heard it seems that if you want to store eggs longer than one week before hatching, keeping them at cooler than room temperature helps prolong their life..

 

[silkiechicken]

I know a lot more about chicken eggs than quail eggs, but I've been able to hatch 3-4 week old chicken eggs after they are stored in an fridge that was held at 10C and 100% relative humidity. I was going to eat the older eggs, but figured, heck I'd throw them in the bator anyway, all that'd happen is nothing. LOL

But, does anyone know the frequency of craniofacial deformities in chicks? I've hatched a lot of chickens, hundreds, to only find a handful of chicks with messed up eyes/faces. To find a messed up face from so few eggs seems to to be bad luck or perhaps something more common in quail?

 

[TwoCrows]

First real test set of my quad of quails.

Set 26 eggs collected over 14 days, 14 were fertile/showed development, 12 made it to day 15 (2 died around E6-8), 9 hatched on day 18, 3 were dead in shell. Of the dead ones, one appeared drowned, one appeared to die before pipping and adsorbing yolk, and one had craniofacial defects (no eyes/partial top beak).

Fertility was low, but eggs were pretty old and the birds are still young. 3/12 dead in shell though was a bit concerning, as I can get almost all chicken eggs to hatch without issue as long as they make it to lock down, which if they develop, they almost always do.

How does this sound?

Next bunch I'll only collect for a week (now that they are laying regularly). I suspect a lot of the non fertile eggs were the oldest ones, but I didn't take the forethought to label the eggs.

I maintained the incubator exactly as I do for chickens, 99.5, forced air, humidity based on air cell sizes.

Comments, suggestions? Experiences?

Great looking babies! I have found that this trouble shooting guide helps with many hatching issues which can be corrected within the incubator.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html#BR

As far as collecting eggs...after 10 days, hatchability rates tend to decrease rapidly. So it is best to hatch eggs within this time frame.

Good luck with your babies!!