First time quail incubation with shipped eggs

[lifeatserenityoaks]

I have 3 dozen quail eggs arriving this week, and it will be my first time hatching (quail and shipped eggs). I have read copious amounts of information regarding quail and shipped eggs, but there are so many conflicting ideas, I am not sure how best to start incubation.

Here are some of the opinions I've read:

• Rest pointy side down for 24 hours, then into incubator with turning
• Rest pointy side down 24-72+ hours until air cell is stabilized, then into incubator with turning
• Rest pointy side down only if eggs arrive cool and until they reach room temp, then into incubator with no turning for the first 3-7 days; if eggs arrive room temperature, straight into the incubator with no turning for the first 3-7 days

The main questions I have are:

1. How long, if at all, should I rest the eggs outside of the incubator?
2. How long, if at all, should I wait to turn the eggs in the incubator?

I would love to hear from folks who have hatched their own quail from shipped eggs and what worked best for them.

Note: I have a Brinsea 24 Maxi EX incubator.

 

[FowlProtector]

The first thing you should do when your eggs arrive is to give them time to rest. Place them pointed side down and let them sit for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature. You can give them 72 hours if they are chilly or have traveled a great distance. Before the eggs are placed in the incubator, this helps the air cells settle and returns them to a stable state.
Put them in the incubator once they've had a chance to relax. You may begin rotating them as soon as they're heated. However, some people wait two to three days before turning them over to allow them to gradually warm up if they arrive a little cold. However, you don't need to worry about it too much since your Brinsea will turn them for you once you have them in there.
For the first two weeks, maintain the temperature around 99.5°F (37.5°C) and try to keep the humidity between 40 and 50 percent. To aid in the hatching process, increase the humidity to 65–75% after day 14.

Have you checked to make sure everything is functioning properly with your incubator yet?

 

[FowlProtector]

Read this article:https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coturnix-incubation-tips.76184/

 

[lifeatserenityoaks]

Have you checked to make sure everything is functioning properly with your incubator yet?

Thank you for the tips!

Yes, I set it up on Sunday and have been running it since at 99.5F/35% RH with a secondary thermometer/hygrometer to check fluctuations. It's held the temp/RH very consistently (+/- .2F and +/- 2% RH). Both seem to agree with each other on measurements within fractional amounts.

I've read between 30-40% pre-lockdown, so I've kept mine at 35% so far. Have you found more success at 40-50%?

 

[lifeatserenityoaks]

Well, they're here!

USPS estimated Thursday, but they showed up on my doorstep just now. I guess that's why you get everything set up well in advance... They were in transit for just about 30 hours. Once I'm off work, I'll take a closer look at them, but the box is in great condition, and the eggs look perfect from an initial once over.

Any final tips appreciated!

 

[lifeatserenityoaks]

I'll update with what I decided to do and how it goes.

The eggs looked great upon arrival! One had a fairly significant star crack and one looked questionable, so I tossed those two. I candled them, and I couldn't see any fully detached air cells (in the eggs I could actually see into).

I let them sit at room temperature (~70F) for 18 hours. Then, I put them in my Brinsea 24 Maxi EX with the quail trays at 99.5 F and 35% RH. With the autoturner off, you can angle them in the trays such that they're pointy end down versus completely horizontal.

I gently hand rotated them 24 hours later and left them angled in the trays. I plan to rotate them manually once more in 24 hours and turn on the autoturner in 48 hours.

I'll candle again between 7-9 days.

 

[lifeatserenityoaks]

I weighed and candled the remaining 38 eggs yesterday, which would put them at Day 7. I discarded 9 clears and left 2 I thought were clear, but the shells were too opaque to be sure. Several I could see a lot of movement in! All of the air cells looked great except for one that I believe might be saddled.

I've been tracking weights to determine the correct RH, and honestly, it's a bit all over the place. I suspect that's partly due to incubating an assortment with a variety of shell porosities. I had been keeping the RH around 34-35%, but after weighing, I bumped it to 37-38%. I'll re-weigh the outliers in a couple days and see if there was any effect.

I recall reading criticism about the Brinsea 24 Maxi's ability to effectively turn quail eggs, so I wanted to report back on that. Based on the great advice here, I cut a piece of shelf liner to fit and put it under the quail egg turning trays. This hasn't had any negative effect on the turning mechanism. The eggs are turning perfectly without getting bunched up (despite a wide range of sizes, 10g - 15g), and the shelf liner is dampening the impact of the eggs turning on an otherwise hard surface.

I'll check all of the eggs once more before lockdown.

 

[lifeatserenityoaks]

Today is day 18!

I ended up discarding 2 more eggs before lockdown, putting the final total at 27. I'm a novice at candling, so I was pretty generous with what went into lockdown, which meant basically anything that wasn't an obvious clear. I locked them down on the morning of Day 15 at 99.5F and RH 65%.

On the morning of Day 16, I had a lot of external pips, and on the morning of Day 17, I was greeted by my first chick. By 10pm on Day 17, I had 15 chicks! I decided to leave them in the incubator for 24 hours so some of the remaining pips might hatch overnight.

This morning (Day 18), I moved 18 fluffy chicks to the brooder, which leaves 9 left in the incubator. I can see three external pips, one of which hasn't progressed since yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure how many more I can expect to hatch since I feel like I've already had a pretty good hatch rate (~66%) on shipped eggs and my first time incubating.

A few observations so far:

• Many of the chicks were positioned in the wrong direction. I suspect this was due to shipping and/or turning off the turner on Day 15. For my next batch, I'm going to use my Brinsea Ovation which holds the eggs upright versus the Brinsea Maxi which lays them on their side. Additionally, I plan to lock down on Day 14 so they have more time to get into the right position.
• I'm not sure if my incubator ran a little too hot to account for all of the Day 17 hatches. The ones that hatched seem healthy enough with no obvious problems or deformities.
• Instead of being glued to the incubator all day, I can watch for humidity spikes on my govee to know when someone is hatching.
• When removing the fluffy chicks, popping in a square of sponge soaked in hot water was so effective at bringing back up the humidity in the incubator. I read that tip from someone on here, and it worked perfectly - thank you!